I recently received one of the new pagers from S.E.S. which is the same as members of the Maude R.F.B. will receive.

The pagers are called Xstream and have lots of features that the old pagers have not Priced at between $600 and $800 the pagers will remain the property of VIPER.

 

Now I am not going to go into E.A.S. and other abbreviated descriptions of organizations involved in the workings of this system, so I will keep it simple.

 

These pagers are kept up to date by satellite with downloads from one, or more Emergency Services if need be.

 

1. It has 3 folders on the screen

                                            1. Emergency

                                            2. Non – Emergency

                                            3. Administration

2. Each of the above can have a separate alert/vibrate/silence setting.

 

3. The pagers will in the near future be updated ( software ) so that  one can get a personal messages.

 

4. Every pager has a number that becomes YOUR number and are capped accordingly to rank so that members and officers will be getting information on a need to know basis.

I understand that the last three numbers will be your personal ID in your Group.

 

5. For us oldies with affected eyesight there is a contrast setting and fonts settings which are clear and if need be lit up.

 

6. Date and time is Automatically set by the satellite ( up to 2 seconds accuracy ).

Alarm clock etc standard.

 

7. When you respond to an incident by a free 1800 number and or radio, a  number in brackets will appear on the pager letting you know how many have responded to the call.

IE: (2)

Next to this bracketed number you will get another bracket with an ( * ) which if as shown, lets you know that the Duty Officer( S.E.S.) or Probably Captain/Strike Team Leader ( C.F.A.) have themselves responded to the call.

In short, at a glance you will know how many have responded to the call.

 

8. Capcodes are a little more complex to explain, but not hard to work out once you have played with the pager for a while.

Lets say there is a fire in Maude and one in Anakie plus one in Lara. Each have a capcode allocated to them and you can choose to get messages from one or if need be all incidences.

 

9. The pagers have very very little black spots in reception as the satellite sends signals to about 15 transmitting stations around us. I understand that you could be up in Mildura and still receive messages.

 

10. When placed back in its holster the pager automatically goes into standby, and activates when removed from it.

 

 I think this above gives you a rough idea into what this new pager can do. I was going to take photos of it and give all a rundown on how it works, BUT I think it best to get them in hand first.

 

Damien

 

Gareth McIntyre sent me this email below giving a more accurate description of the New EAS pagers

Thanks Gareth, any helpful imput into this website  is appreciated .

 

 

 

Hey mate, Gareth from Kyneton UFB Rg 15, just letting u know the the information you have about the EAS pagers is not all accurate; some of the information is correct but not all.

The Pagers are owned by Infostream via contract with LSE. they are $200-$300 worth with intrinsically safe version being about $600

Viper (Victoria’s Interactive Personal Emergency Response) is actually the interface which sends out the messages either through Vicfire or SES dispatch, Rav Dispatch etc or The ommis Operator.

Unfortunately the pager number (as used by ommis) can not be the same as the end of your volunteer number.

The pagers have a guaranteed Coverage of 93% of Victoria, The coverage maps can be found on CFA online in the bookshelf.

The satellite only relays the message from the Ops centre (eg Vic fire Ballarat) to the transmitter station (of which there are around 200) The message is sent to the pager via a VHF transmitter on 148.9125Mhz. If you type this freq. into your scanner you will receive the data being sent over.

If the satellites fail the message is sent to the transmitter Via the CDMA network.

Sorry if this sounds pushy or anything i just don't want to give people the wrong idea.

Great website though