One thing to keep in mind, for those who get the alerts on their phones via e-dispatches or another company, you are at the mercy of the dispatcher's paging system working. A system like e-dispatches starts recording after the tones drop and record the transmission. If for some reason, the paging system fails, so too will the e-dispatch. Also, there is a limited amount of recording time (I believe 35 seconds). I've heard my department's tones drop and the dispatcher does not begin to talk until 15-20 seconds later (for whatever reason). At times, you do not know what the call is, or where it is, if you rely on your telephone receiving it. Also of note, There is a delay of transmission in reaching the cell phones. The system does not start to call phones the second the dispatcher finishes. You have to wait until the 35 second record time is complete. Then it will call out to everyone's phones. Many times, I have not received the e-dispatch until a full 2 minutes after initial dispatch. If you are in a dead area for cell coverage, you may not even get the message. It will go to your voicemail. In a profession where seconds count and fire doubles its size every minute, too much time is lost relying on getting your calls from your phone. Most of the time, I'm already out of my house, in my car, and a few blocks from my home by the time I get a notification on my phone.
Another thought to consider is terrain. If you live in a hilly or mountainous region, the radio signals may not make your pager and activate it. In addition, you may have numerous FD & EMS dispatched on the same frequency, and do not have a common dispatch center. In other words, each town may dispatch their own FD & EMS. Happened a lot in South Bergen County where Lyndhurst, Rutherford, East Rutherford, Wallington, Carlstadt, Wood-Ridge, Moonachie, Hasbrouck Heights and South Hackensack dispatched and operated on one frequency. There have been numerous times where my pager would not activate because another town was transmitting an emergency call, or a test, or a message....especially the towns who are higher up in altitude. It happens. So having a secondary means of alerting FD & EMS,separate from radio transmissions and peripherals relying on the radio transmission to occur, is vital to ensure that you are reaching as many members as possible. Before my town discontinued use of our horns, I made a ton of calls because I didn't have my pager with me, but heard the horns sounding.
Now regarding quiet time, Bogota NJ had an issue about 6-8 years ago where residents complained about the use of the horns during the overnight hours. The town stopped the use of the horns during the overnight hours for a few months. The fire chief then tracked the manpower responding to alarms during the overnight hours. He appeared in front of the mayor and council and showed the manpower responses during the overnight hours both before the horns were not used during the overnight and while the horns were quieted. The results were a dramatic drop in manpower responding during the muted use of the horns. Thus, the town decided to use the horns 24/7. Could they reduce the number of cycles? Maybe, maybe not. 8 cycles may normally mean EMS Call and 6 may mean Fire call. If you do 4 cycles, could it mean something else?
It is possible that the sirens for your town are activated by pager tones. Personally, I am against that. I believe it should be transmitted manually and separate from a paging system. If that paging system fails, nothing is going to work. Just some observations for consideration.
