Author Topic: Apollo Gold Pagers. (Read 129972 times)

Alex · « **on:** April 22, 2010, 06:19:33 PM »

Howdy All,

Myself and another member in my brigade have had replacement pagers issued recently, and ended up with the new BRIGHT YELLOW Apollo Gold pagers.

On face value, it seems to me the CFS has cheaped out [no suprise] as they are bigger, heavier and gayer looking than the old ones. My pager also seems to have less functions [ie; no choice of message tone] than the manual provided shows.

One problem already encountered is the volume of the alarm tone activated by CFSRES or URGMSG [which for those who havent heard it sounds a bit like a 'wail' siren]. It's extemely quiet, and this has resulted already in the other brigade member not attending the station for a call as even though it was on his belt, he didnt hear it activate.

A couple of things i will applaud though, you can choose from 'beep', 'vibrate' or 'BEEP & VIBRATE', which is good at least, the blue backlit screen is much better at night than the old motorolas effort, and the text is slightly bigger and easier to read.

Anyone else had any issues or have opinions on the new gear?

Cheers,
Alex

Pipster · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2010, 07:40:00 PM »

My brigade has a few...same issue with the alert tone being rather quiet.

Also found they only hold 16 messages....for your average fire-fighter, that's probably OK, but if you have a group pager, in one busy afternoon, your pager is full, and messages could start dropping off!!!

However, I think there is some advantage to a bright yellow case....... more likely to see it, once it has been dropped (and hopefully, less likely to run over it with the lawn mower!!!)

I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

Pip

Robert-Robert34 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2010, 09:39:37 PM »

Does anyone remember the old Link pagers we all hard prior to samsung ones being issued those were a solid unit that had about 3 or 4 selectable alerts and the volume got louder and louder if it was in beep mode

Alex · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2010, 10:07:51 PM »

Quote from: Pipster on April 22, 2010, 07:40:00 PM

However, I think there is some advantage to a bright yellow case....... more likely to see it, once it has been dropped (and hopefully, less likely to run over it with the lawn mower!!!)

True, but it certainly gets a few odd looks.

Re; your brigade having issues with volume, has it caused people to miss calls? Perhaps we should all quickly put it in issues forms and prevent another batch being bought?

mattb · « **Reply #4 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:16:55 AM »

Quote

I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.

CFS also chose the Yellow case to try to reduce the number of pagers lost. I know some of our guys that are business type people that work in offices have said that they do not want a bright yellow pager clipped onto their belt, something about it looking somewhat unprofessional - I tend to agree. Bring back Black.

Mike · « **Reply #5 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:35:02 AM »

We have recieved a few and the issues above have also been discussed. Apparently the vibrate function is fairly strong (enough to wake you when its on the bedside table).

Our current comms guy thinks that this is going to be the standard, and that replacement of scratched screens in particular will be charged back to brigades.
How reliable this info is cannot be certain......

Unfortunatly those that have them here are unlikely to put in a complaint, as the current leadership seems willing to accept that 'this is what we are all going to end up with'.

Physical size, message storage and pager holder = Not so good
Backlight = Good
Volume = Terrible

I thought a few of these got trialed somewhere?? were they working in a sound proof booth?
The range of colours for these pagers tend to fit nicely with the colours of the different services, although im not into accessorising my pager with my uniform!

Pipster · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2010, 07:11:15 PM »

Quote from: mattb on April 23, 2010, 08:16:55 AM

Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.

Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip

Bagyassfirey · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:12:06 PM »

Quote from: Pipster on April 23, 2010, 07:11:15 PM

Quote from: mattb on April 23, 2010, 08:16:55 AM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.

Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip

So do some of your members have 2 pagers that are working?? is that what you mean?

Firey9119 · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:26:42 PM »

does any one have photos of the pagers??

Darren · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:29:33 PM »

CFS must have got one of the cheap versions, we have an apollo pager on the desk at work for fire alarm back up and its loud enough to wake the dead !

Bagyassfirey · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2010, 08:56:13 PM »

in the november december infralog if i could work out how to get the picture on ere i would !

Pipster · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2010, 09:26:15 PM »

Quote from: Bagyassfirey on April 23, 2010, 08:12:06 PM

Quote from: Pipster on April 23, 2010, 07:11:15 PM
Quote from: mattb on April 23, 2010, 08:16:55 AM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.

Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip

So do some of your members have 2 pagers that are working?? is that what you mean?

Yes.....as a trial.....we had two members leave (moved interstate) and hence had two spare pagers to use....we wanted to see the difference in the way new pagers received messages, vs the old......... particularly since the brigade response area has poor pager (and mobile phone!) coverage.

Pip

Bagyassfirey · « **Reply #12 on:** April 23, 2010, 09:33:05 PM »

oh yea i see... ill grab the old ones if there of no use

Alex · « **Reply #13 on:** April 24, 2010, 08:08:53 AM »

Quote from: Darren on April 23, 2010, 08:29:33 PM

CFS must have got one of the cheap versions, we have an apollo pager on the desk at work for fire alarm back up and its loud enough to wake the dead !

Normal msg tone is ok Darren. Send the desk pager a CFSRES and you'll see what were talking about re; volume.

SA Firey · « **Reply #14 on:** April 24, 2010, 12:18:28 PM »

Quote from: Firey9119 on April 23, 2010, 08:26:42 PM

does any one have photos of the pagers??

Photo can be found in this edition of Infralog http://sacfs.org/publications/Infralog_4_Dec2009.pdf

jaff · « **Reply #15 on:** April 25, 2010, 11:50:14 PM »

What a joke, these pagers are such a piece of craap and then theres a note in the box to tell you if you damage the screen it will be billed back to the brigade!
Cant wait till they bring back hand pumps!

SA Firey · « **Reply #16 on:** April 26, 2010, 08:54:28 AM »

Quote from: jaff on April 25, 2010, 11:50:14 PM

What a joke, these pagers are such a piece of craap and then theres a note in the box to tell you if you damage the screen it will be billed back to the brigade!
Cant wait till they bring back hand pumps!

Next will be two cans and a piece of string for Alerts

COBB · « **Reply #17 on:** May 04, 2010, 11:21:03 AM »

Have to agree the response tone on the yellow Apollo pagers is extremely poor. It is easily missed if the pager is in a pocket or similar.
I was fortunate to use one of the first Apollo (black) pagers when they came out. The response tone on these was far more noticeable and at least as good (if not better)as the Samsungs.
Running an Apollo side by side with a Samsung there does appear to be an improvement in less scrambled messages being received.
Am a little suspicious on the power drain of the Apollo's but will reserve my opinion on this for a while longer.

mengcfs · « **Reply #18 on:** May 04, 2010, 04:41:44 PM »

Are you physically running the pagers side by side? If so this will not help the sensitivity of either pager but cause more corruption.

I received a pile of Apollo's today. Asthetically, not pleasing. Haven't had a chance to do anything else with them yet......

COBB · « **Reply #19 on:** May 04, 2010, 04:53:42 PM »

I have heard from a couple of people that corruption can occur due to pagers being too close but no-one can explain why. If these pagers transmitted as well I could understand. Are you able to explain more?

mengcfs · « **Reply #20 on:** May 04, 2010, 05:04:28 PM »

No idea, ha ha ha. Just remember that from the Samsung pager rollout/training days. I suppose it's like when you have your pager near a computer or other electrical device you get interferance and corruption. I guess the second pager would act like an electrical device too.

Darren · « **Reply #21 on:** May 04, 2010, 06:12:26 PM »

Ok I have seen the new APOLLO pager, whoever decided on the tone for firecalls needs their head read !!

Its rather soft and can be barely heard, if its in your pocket or your fast asleep you really aren't going to hear it.

The normal message tone should be the firecall tone, thats quite loud.

Those of you who have them need to put issues forms in...otherwise we will be stuck with them !!

senti@nt · « **Reply #22 on:** May 05, 2010, 10:59:10 AM »

Interference from two pagers side by side corrupting data is a bit 1980's for my liking.

The two pagers recieve page data at the same time, process it at the same time and then alert at the same time. Induced interference from the digital processing of one pager interfering with the digital processing of the second pager is non-existant. That's like saying one digital wristwatch will interfere with another digital wristwatch. They're all passive digital devices. Maybe the 100VDC @ a few thousand Hz running the backlight could induce something but the pagers would have already recieved the potentially corruptable incoming RF data. (That's why you get corrupt data sometimes now if you are in a basement or taking a dump) Once the RF data is received there is no going back.

vandog · « **Reply #23 on:** May 06, 2010, 09:46:21 AM »

From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.

mengcfs · « **Reply #24 on:** May 06, 2010, 01:58:47 PM »

Quote

From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.

It's more the fact they can buy them in smaller lots.