orange "man-down" emergency buttons

[CapitalPunishment]

I don't know about the costs involved but my local system has these buttons active and the are hit by accident all of the time...

I cannot recall ever hearing the button being used/hit intentionally.

Ive actually heard quite a few from the AA Co officers. I would say for every intentional emergency status, theres 2 - 3 false alarm button presses.

 

[Jay911]

The Fire/EMS dispatchers in my area deal with one or two emergency hits a week. Police deal with that many in 4 hours. It is exceptionally rare that any of them have been "legit" .. I think in the past five years I've heard two or three that were real.

 

[dcg729]

These have been around a while, as I remember an old

episode of C.H.I.P.s where they were given the device and later one of the officers was playing with a puppy and got down on his hands and knees, of course this brought a large noisy response within minutes. This was filmed in late 70,s give or take 5 years.

 

[richardc63]

It DOES NOT cost $1000 to activate the buttons. Whoever told them that is out to scam someone.

It takes about 1 mimute per/radio with computer software to set it up.

The $1000 is not the cost of reprogramming the radio- as you say, that is simple enough. Though multiply the cost of implementing it in a large fleet (we have nearly 5000 radios) and a modest $25/radio becomes a very costly exercise.

Many agencies use a console system to receive & dispatch... we use Centracoms & the cost of a MDC1200 signalling card is a couple of thousand, then multiply that by the number of channels/systems you use.

I know how much this project costs- I did it about 12 months ago!

Cheers,


Richard

 

[Rayjk110]

Ah, ok.

Havinig reprogrammed many many radios with the 'orange button', I had just figured they were giving a quota on programming them in the proper CPS to activate.

Heck, a CDM1550 could decode the alert, and, for what, the price of the CDM alone?


But, I can see easily investing $1k+ into a professional system.

But for a security guard company, a CDM or a cell phone with 9-1-1 would do. The latter being more effective.

Options options options.....heh. j

 

[flecom]

we have had a few incidents where the officers have used their emergency button during actual emergencies... we have an EDACS system so from the control point it shows the call in red and the dispatchers can see that unit # (LID from the CP) has declared an emergency... i dont know about the moto stuff but I know that declare emergency is a feature (aka, costs money) on the macom radios, although most of the time when you get an edacs capable radio declare emergency is also included

 

[N_Jay]

It DOES NOT cost $1000 to activate the buttons. Whoever told them that is out to scam someone.

It takes about 1 mimute per/radio with computer software to set it up.

And what does the equipment cost to decode the message?
Is he talking about trunked or conventional?
Is he talking about MDC-1200 or P-25?

In other words you are answering a question without enough information!:roll: :evil:

 

[CVPI4Ever]

Maybe this might help:

Rx: 462.25000
Tx: 467.25000
DPL: 143

I will try and obtain the radio model numbers tomorrow.

 

[xusmarine1979]

We have them on our ht750's. I know, little radio but they do the job.

 

[Raccon]

Most TETRA radios have an emergency button, too. It can be programmed to make a call to the selected group or a predefined number (individual, group or external), or send an ident and the system will route the call based on the emergency target number defined for each radio subscriber (again individual, group or external). If the target is not reachable the call is routed to an alternative number.
Accidental activation can be prevented by setting a timer, e.g. the button must be pressed for, say, 2 seconds, else nothing happens. Programming the radio is a matter of minutes, but requires special software and perhaps a hardlock/dongle from the vendor (for obvious reasons).

The most important aspect is however that the call is treated as an emergency call in TETRA networks, i.e. it knocks out another, normal priority call if there are no free resources in the system. It's also possible that the microphone is activated automatically ("hot-mic") so that the user in distress does not need to press PTT to talk and radios with GPS may send the position information automatically.

Note: Some of the functions described above are system and/or vendor dependent.

 

[CVPI4Ever]

My friend told me the portables used are Motorola HT750 and the base units are Motorola Radius M1225

 

[mkewman]

i'd say it's probably a worthwhile feature. a few big bills versus a dead comrade, it's pretty obvious that you'd pay a few thousand bucks.

so what if there's a bunch of false alarms, sooner or later it'll save someone's life, especially in a public safety setting.

 

[PolarBear25]

Ok on A T.R.S. Does the E.B. Also allow the user to talk If he Needs to?? Interrupter??

 

[Raccon]

Ok on A T.R.S. Does the E.B. Also allow the user to talk If he Needs to?? Interrupter??

With user you mean the person holding the radio? Can only answer for TETRA systems, but yes, the user can speak anytime if he wants. If the "hot-mic" function is used he doesn't need to do anything but speak, else he needs to press PTT to talk.

Of course it's also possible for the dispatcher to speak to the radio user. If the hot-mic is active the dispatcher can pre-empt the call by means of a special button on the GUI; once the dispatcher releases the PTT button the hot-mic becomes active again.

 

[PolarBear25]

With user you mean the person holding the radio? Can only answer for TETRA systems, but yes, the user can speak anytime if he wants. If the "hot-mic" function is used he doesn't need to do anything but speak, else he needs to press PTT to talk.

Of course it's also possible for the dispatcher to speak to the radio user. If the hot-mic is active the dispatcher can pre-empt the call by means of a special button on the GUI; once the dispatcher releases the PTT button the hot-mic becomes active again.

With user you mean the person holding the radio? Yes

Ok..