station alerting systems

[rwik123]

Our agency is undergoing the process of designing a new station. Our current station is attached directly to our dispatching center so tones come over via a PA which is hard-lined and plays our tones plus the voice dispatch.

The new station will be a separate building so I was tasked with researching station alerting systems and options. We currently operate on a standard UHF 400mhz system on a repeater. Our tones currently come over our channel (we have just radios not pagers) as the sound followed by voice. What sort of systems are out there that do not require large additions of equipment on the dispatch end and would allow and tone+voice dispatch to be played over the station's speakers? A police department currently dispatches for us and they don't want to add large amounts of equipment or changes on their end. I'm not too familiar with radios but I was looking into the possibility of a system that would pick up quick-call tones and therefor set off our regular tones.

Any info on systems or companies that provide these solutions for remote bases would be super helpful. Thanks!

 

[NomadicMedic]

Almost any Motorola (or other major vendor) radio can be muted and set to activate on QC tones. Overhead speakers? Sure. Depends on how involved you want to get. Lots of third party vendors sell relay kits that'll turn on the lights, open the bay doors...whatever you want.

Or just something simple, like this: http://www.alertnotification.com/product/radio-informer

We don't know what you have, or your level of proficiency with the radio equipment. Are you planning on having your radio service do the work?

 

[Clare]

For jobs that require an immediate lights and sirens response where the vehicle is on station then Control will tone call the station which sets off the station alarm (a very high pitched hi/low sound) and follow with a voice call, for example "Control calls City station, City 1, under lights towards Remuera Rd, Newmarket, code 11, City 1"

In some stations activating the station tone call will trigger the electrical isolation circuit in the kitchen, turn on the internal lights and open the garage doors.

It works very well, it's very loud and impossible to sleep through.

 

[rugbyguy]

Please for the love of anything holy, get heart saver tones, if only for night time. I work 48's, so we spend large chunks of time at the station. Right now our tones are sudden, loud, and terrifying. When I get off of a super busy 48, I almost feel like I have ptsd, the littlest creek or sound will make me jump, my heart rate will shoot up, and I instantly feel like I need to be leaving. Heart saver tones + having dispatch come through the overhead is perfect, I hope we can switch to that soon.

 

[NomadicMedic]

I agree, a softer alerting tone certainly can make life more pleasant.

 

[cprted]

We use phones. Each station has a "hotline" which dispatch uses to contact crews in quarters. If we're on the air, they just call us by call sign. We have 500 ambulances working out of 187 stations dispatched by three dispatch centres. Works pretty well for us.

 

[RebelAngel]

Based on my limited knowledge of our communications system, we have a radio in our communication room. When we get a call the siren goes off, once for EMS and multiple times for Fire, as well as the information coming over the radio. If the number has been on the dispatch list we get texts to our cell phones with dispatch information. We also have pagers available but I don't know how many people use the pagers vs. the ones that use the texts. In our home we have two pager radios, on up and one downstairs and two MT1000s since my boyfriend is the Chief of our FD.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Rwik, if you want some specific solutions, drop me a PM. I have a bit of experience with station alerting solutions.

 

[rwik123]

Rwik, if you want some specific solutions, drop me a PM. I have a bit of experience with station alerting solutions.

Thanks DEmedic! I will tomorrow morning when I get off shift. We will ultimately have a professional do the install, but as of now I'm just looking at options from a budget point of view and if there are any considerations we need to make the architect aware of.

 

[Bullets]

A pager in an amplifier base hooked into the stations speakers, pretty cheap and easy to set up

 

[NomadicMedic]

Right, but if they're building a whole new station, why not do it right. Relays to turn off the station appliances, red lights at night as to not destroy your night vision, gradually louder alert tones at night... There are a zillion options to build a nice custom station alerting package.

 

[MMiz]

Right, but if they're building a whole new station, why not do it right. Relays to turn off the station appliances, red lights at night as to not destroy your night vision, gradually louder alert tones at night... There are a zillion options to build a nice custom station alerting package.

That's the way to do it.