000 calls

chrissss · Post by **chrissss** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:44 pm

they give u 8 mobile spots on gcs and as many as u like on homephones

chris

Markmywords · Post by **Markmywords** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:37 pm

Just wondering when they call mobile they always mention the SO whats the reasoning behind that just curious thats all, i know SO means station officer but just wondering why they say he is there or isnt there.

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:14 pm

chrissss wrote:they give u 8 mobile spots on gcs and as many as u like on homephones

chris

I was told 24 maximum on home phones. Will confirm at the next Volunteer Communication Advisory Group meeting at the end of the month.

firefly.000 · Post by **firefly.000** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:51 am

slipknot · Post by **slipknot** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:34 pm

WPXZBP wrote:
5001020 wrote:FRS the calls are sent to a unit in the appliances and BFS and VFRS? the message is sent to mobile phones and pagers. Usually when turning out the crew will state which incident their turning out to.

Yes... in the country for VFRS details are given over the phone (group call) and then basic info (location, type of incident) over pagers and SMS.

so they are sent by phone and pager at the same time?

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:53 pm

Country activation occurs this way:

1. ComCen contacts those on Group Call.
2. Those on GC can activate pagers and/or siren.
3. They may also request an SMS to be sent by ComCen.

I only know of two incidents in my 10 years (two VFRS Brigades) that did not have pagers, siren or SMS activated. They were "white powder" HAZMAT incidents. The only attendees were via the Group Call.

Post by **Tyranus** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 6:28 pm

ooo the good old fashioned country way.

The town siren. Haha miss the testing in Leinster on Monday nights...not!

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:20 pm

Sirens are up for review. They're not cheap and with SMS some people wonder if they are worth the effort. Same as the "break glass" alarms on the front of some fire stations.

Fastlane · Post by **Fastlane** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:17 pm

WPXZBP wrote:Sirens are up for review. They're not cheap and with SMS some people wonder if they are worth the effort. Same as the "break glass" alarms on the front of some fire stations.

SMS isn't guaranteed delivery though and is at the mercy of mobile phone operators.

A short-range paging system transmitted from the stations would be a great idea..

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:41 pm

Fastlane wrote:
WPXZBP wrote:Sirens are up for review. They're not cheap and with SMS some people wonder if they are worth the effort. Same as the "break glass" alarms on the front of some fire stations.
SMS isn't guaranteed delivery though and is at the mercy of mobile phone operators.

A short-range paging system transmitted from the stations would be a great idea..

Agreed. SMS is sort of our 4th line of call-out. First is Group Call. Second is pagers from the CCS (via ch99 at the station), then the siren and lastly, SMS. Problem is that pagers are not cheap, do suffer from limited range at the moment and we are only allowed 8? 10? per station.

Post by **Tyranus** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 10:48 pm

Yeah darlington only has 12.
SES we have a few more, we used to have a lot more, as every member had one, but we've moved that they're cycled, or frequent members have them, hence why I always have at least 1 pager on me. Over winter I've had 2.

bomber · Post by **bomber** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:30 am

We are lucky in that we get supplied 1 per active member so 25.

We have alot of trouble with teh paging system in sth metro and sms we find ios way more reliable. Most people including myself dont carry the pager they are that useless. We also have 6 with group call linked to our mobiles. Much better.

Post by **celestial_insight** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 9:54 am

WPXZBP wrote:
Second is pagers from the CCS (via ch99 at the station).

Hi, could you pls elaborate?

Fastlane · Post by **Fastlane** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:06 pm

bomber wrote:We are lucky in that we get supplied 1 per active member so 25.

We have alot of trouble with teh paging system in sth metro and sms we find ios way more reliable. Most people including myself dont carry the pager they are that useless. We also have 6 with group call linked to our mobiles. Much better.

Complete opposite for us. SMS is very hit and miss.. some calls you won't get the SMS at all, however, pagers are spot on all the time. Pager's aren't as expensive as some would have you believe.... !

bomber · Post by **bomber** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:23 pm

There was talk some time ago of going away from the pager system. Telstra the current frs provider doesnt want to outlay the money to keep maintaining the network as it becomes more obselete.

There was talk that we were to change over to orange ( i beleive either ses or bfs already use them ) and would require a complete replacement of every current pager as there network wouldnt support them.

This hasnt come about and not sure if its still in the pipeline. For me group call is the best option but too hard to manage for every member to be on the sytsem as well as costing $5 per member, $8 if they have a dedicated ring. I know some down sth metro have been trying this though.