Pagers - where to purchase

I am looking to purchase a pager - preferably an Apollo 924, Apollo A25 or
an ATI Corporate. Has to be in the low VHF range and compatible with POCSAG
(not FLEX).

There are a couple on eBay in the US, but does anybody know any retailers in
Australia that sell them:
a) without having to sign up to a contract, and
b) unlocked.

The screen on my current pager has seen better days, but the provider I'm
with wants over $200 for a new unit - considering I can get one for half
that on eBay and program it myself it doesn't seem worth it.

Any help appreciated,
Matt

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› See More: Pagers - where to purchase

Matt wrote:
> I am looking to purchase a pager - preferably an Apollo 924, Apollo A25 or
> an ATI Corporate. Has to be in the low VHF range and compatible with POCSAG
> (not FLEX).

Have a look at <http://www.unicompl.com/>, I have purchased from Eric at
Unicom in the past and he is great to deal with.


--
The views I present are that of my own and NOT of any organisation I may
belong to.

73 de Simon, VK3XEM.
<http://web.acma.gov.au/pls/radcom/client_search.client_lookup?pCLIENT_NO=157452>

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:32:27 +1000 Matt may have written:
> I am looking to purchase a pager - preferably an Apollo 924, Apollo A25 or
> an ATI Corporate. Has to be in the low VHF range and compatible with POCSAG
> (not FLEX).

OT, but why would anyone use a pager instead of SMS these days?

PD

--
Paul Day

Paul Day wrote:
> OT, but why would anyone use a pager instead of SMS these days?
>
> PD

The primary reason is time sensitive messages. The phone carriers are
too tight arsed to set up SMS properly to ensure messages are sent
quickly and effectively.

Bloody foolish in my opinion with several Emergency Services in Victoria
recently having set up a state wide paging network for themselves. If
European Emergency Services can make use of Priority SMS, we should be
able to here as well.


--
The views I present are that of my own and NOT of any organisation I may
belong to.

73 de Simon, VK3XEM.
<http://web.acma.gov.au/pls/radcom/client_search.client_lookup?pCLIENT_NO=157452>

"Simon Templar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Matt wrote:
>> I am looking to purchase a pager - preferably an Apollo 924, Apollo A25
>> or an ATI Corporate. Has to be in the low VHF range and compatible with
>> POCSAG (not FLEX).
>
> Have a look at <http://www.unicompl.com/>, I have purchased from Eric at
> Unicom in the past and he is great to deal with.

Thanks, I might give him a call.

I only see his company branded pagers - before I contact him, do you know if
he stocks other brands?

Cheers,
Matt

"Paul Day" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:32:27 +1000 Matt may have written:
>> I am looking to purchase a pager - preferably an Apollo 924, Apollo A25
>> or
>> an ATI Corporate. Has to be in the low VHF range and compatible with
>> POCSAG
>> (not FLEX).
>
> OT, but why would anyone use a pager instead of SMS these days?

I get that all the time

The nature of my work requires me to be 'on-call' 24/7. While SMS works
great, it means I have to keep my phone switched on and audible at all times
(or have two phones).

Utilising a pager means I switch my phone off at night or when I'm
unavailable and all calls get diverted a message service. Non-urgent callers
leave a voice message which I retrieve later, urgent callers get diverted to
the pager which alerts me. The diversion and yearly paging costs are
equivalent to peanuts - and it means I get a good nights sleep.

The only downside, as I have just found, it when I need a new pager!

Cheers,
Matt

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:41:34 +1000 Simon Templar may have written:
> The primary reason is time sensitive messages. The phone carriers are
> too tight arsed to set up SMS properly to ensure messages are sent
> quickly and effectively.

Indeed. Are there any commercial paging networks still active or are
there only private, job-specific networks around?

> Bloody foolish in my opinion with several Emergency Services in
> Victoria recently having set up a state wide paging network for
> themselves. If European Emergency Services can make use of Priority
> SMS, we should be able to here as well.

Can a GSM network provide an SLA on a priority SMS during _serious_
network congestion? eg, London Bombings grinding networks to a halt. I
was in Bristol that day and couldn't use my phone all day on any
network.

PD

--
Paul Day

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:10:11 +1000 Matt may have written:
> "Paul Day" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > OT, but why would anyone use a pager instead of SMS these days?
>
> I get that all the time

No doubt. But I assumed there was some distinct advantages!

> Utilising a pager means I switch my phone off at night or when I'm
> unavailable and all calls get diverted a message service. Non-urgent
> callers leave a voice message which I retrieve later, urgent callers
> get diverted to the pager which alerts me. The diversion and yearly
> paging costs are equivalent to peanuts - and it means I get a good
> nights sleep.

Fair enough. So there are obviously still commercial paging networks
active in .au.

PD

--
Paul Day

Paul Day wrote:

> Can a GSM network provide an SLA on a priority SMS during
> _serious_ network congestion? eg, London Bombings grinding
> networks to a halt. I was in Bristol that day and couldn't use
> my phone all day on any network.

They might have been using the "access control class" facility
to keep the network relatively clear for emergency traffic.

There are 15 access control classes, with each SIM being
allocated to one of these. 10 apply to ordinary users, and
every ordinary SIM is randomly assigned to one of these. One
or more classes can be denied access to the network at any
time.

In a severe network overload situation, a few classes at a time
on a rotational basis can be denied access so that others can
carry on reasonably normally for a time.

In an emergency, all 10 "normal" classes might be denied access
so that the 5 "high priority" classes of user can have the
network to themselves.

Refer GSM 02.11, GSM 11.11, 3GPP 22.011 and 3GPP 31.102.

John

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:38:59 -0000, Paul Day <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:41:34 +1000 Simon Templar may have written:
>> The primary reason is time sensitive messages. The phone carriers are
>> too tight arsed to set up SMS properly to ensure messages are sent
>> quickly and effectively.
>
..
..
..

>Can a GSM network provide an SLA on a priority SMS during _serious_
>network congestion? eg, London Bombings grinding networks to a halt. I
>was in Bristol that day and couldn't use my phone all day on any
>network.
>

The authorities turned off network access, that's why. The bad guys
use phones for doing bad things.

Seem pretty standard procedure from what is in the press.

"Simon Templar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Paul Day wrote:
>> OT, but why would anyone use a pager instead of SMS these days?
>>
>> PD
>
> The primary reason is time sensitive messages. The phone carriers are too
> tight arsed to set up SMS properly to ensure messages are sent quickly and
> effectively.

Mine work fine. Have for years and years

> The nature of my work requires me to be 'on-call' 24/7. While SMS works
> great, it means I have to keep my phone switched on and audible at all
> times (or have two phones).

When I was oncall 24/7, SMS was good enough for me

Michael J wrote:
> Mine work fine. Have for years and years

That may well be the case, but there are many instances of delays that
Emergency Services cannot risk. That's unfortunately why they refuse to
make use of SMS for primary call outs.


--
The views I present are that of my own and NOT of any organisation I may
belong to.

73 de Simon, VK3XEM.
<http://web.acma.gov.au/pls/radcom/client_search.client_lookup?pCLIENT_NO=157452>

Michael J wrote:

>> The nature of my work requires me to be 'on-call' 24/7. While
>> SMS works great, it means I have to keep my phone switched on
>> and audible at all times (or have two phones).
>
> When I was oncall 24/7, SMS was good enough for me

It wasn't for me. Did you need to potentially answer to the
Coroner if you couldn't be contacted?

John

"Simon Templar" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Michael J wrote:
>> Mine work fine. Have for years and years
>
> That may well be the case, but there are many instances of delays that
> Emergency Services cannot risk. That's unfortunately why they refuse to
> make use of SMS for primary call outs.

More fool them