Station "alert" systems

[SBFD-E-9]

Hi everyone,


My ambulance service is having a new living quarters built right now. The Chief wants to put in some type of an alert system for when we get a call. Something like a bell, and then the lights come on in the room for night calls. Does anyone know of a system that would do this? I've tried searching around but all I can find is computer animated dispatch items.


Thanks,


Dan

 

[ryan81986]

We use Zetron systems that are activated by the dispatcher. They play an alert tone and are hooked up to separate lights in the building that switch on when the tone goes out for that particular station.

 

[Doug]

Currently, my county's station alerting systems are activated by Motorola Quick Call II tones, which activate a GM300 VHF mobile adapted as a base station (as well as VHF tone pagers for staff and/or volunteers).

 

[bunnyfurr]

The Zetron system works great. We actually have the lights in the bedroom and hallways light up. It seems the lights come on a couple seconds before our tone goes off. It's great when you get a new guy and turn to him and say gonna get a call.

 

[Medicman695]

Some of the ones we are looking at for our new station:


"First in" made by Westnet inc


"Phoenix G2" made by US Digital designs


and the Zetron one previously mentioned


I know both the first in and G2 systems have demo vids on youtube.

 

[ems60]

We use this as our alert system, it has an option to activate external devices with a relay


http://www.veetronix.com/Web%20alert%20man.pdf

 

[TritonBoulder47]

Amplified Minitor Chargers have an output trigger on the back of them... That could be untilized...

 

[NERT11]

Here is a neat system that I found while browsing on youtube. I'd like to bring forth thee idea for an alert system for my station, but I'm not exactly savvy when it comes to electrical creations

 

[Zoe]

Amplified Minitor Chargers have an output trigger on the back of them... That could be untilized...

This, the amplified charges (or even a mobile radio/base station setup) will have outputs that can be used as triggers for relays. From that point it's whatever your imagination can come up with.


Integrating timers and relays and what-have-you, you can set up a system that powers on room lights, triggers a bell, and unlocks doors.

 

[fleetcomm]

I know some systems will also open the bay doors when alerted.

 

[Ben E.]

I'll second the Phoenix G2 by US Digital. We just installed one for them at a local fire station (2 stations), and it is awesome. The functionality is absolutely top notch, and it's VERY VERY easy to use. And, it's basically infinitely upgradable to add devices (message signs, turnout timers, speakers, lights, lighted speakers, etc...)

 

[shues]

I'm not exactly savvy when it comes to electrical creations

You can learn a lot by reading the information provided at the12volt.com.

 

[RyanZ71]

I'm guessing they have had these types of systems for many years now. The old TV series Emergency! seemed to imply that LA County Fire used em. Anyone know if that is true and if so what they used back then?

 

[JPolston]

Anyone know of any volunteer dept.s using these systems? I know guys on my dept that will randomly sleep at the station, myself included, and have repeatedly been woken up by guys coming into the station after tones drop but they slept though them. We have the radio system, but no alert. Also, it would be nice to have such a system for when, like most of the time, we get a run at night and the system would have already kicked on lights and things we need for when we get there.


Just curious as to if anyone does, what system, and how much it would cost us. Ol chiefy doesn't like to loose money too much and it would would have to be something reasonable. Getting one of these would be great since we're about to get a good bunk room.

 

[ryan81986]

Do you guys use pagers?

 

[unityrv26]

You mean like this?

 

[TX_Mark]

Anyone know of any volunteer dept.s using these systems? I know guys on my dept that will randomly sleep at the station, myself included, and have repeatedly been woken up by guys coming into the station after tones drop but they slept though them. We have the radio system, but no alert. Also, it would be nice to have such a system for when, like most of the time, we get a run at night and the system would have already kicked on lights and things we need for when we get there.

Just curious as to if anyone does, what system, and how much it would cost us. Ol chiefy doesn't like to loose money too much and it would would have to be something reasonable. Getting one of these would be great since we're about to get a good bunk room.

(SAFD) San Antonio FD, has a system like this, when there tones drop for the specific station, a red light pops on, then the white light starts to turn on, and there is an LED message board that displays the call type and which apparatus need to go enroute. In the officers room, there is a screen mounted in the wall, and they can get a full description of the call, and answer that they have received it.

 

[Steve0625]

(SAFD) San Antonio FD, has a system like this, when there tones drop for the specific station, a red light pops on, then the white light starts to turn on, and there is an LED message board that displays the call type and which apparatus need to go enroute. In the officers room, there is a screen mounted in the wall, and they can get a full description of the call, and answer that they have received it.

That's a great system, but it requires integration with the dispatch center's computer aided dispatch system to provide the data for the LED and computer readouts at the station.


If I understood the OP's first post, he could only find CAD controlled systems online which suggests to me that the CAD input isn't available in his area.


Since many tone alerted departments are already using the Minitor V, adding one in a charger amplifier to take advantage of the relay trigger output is an inexpensive and very flexible way to do this. Once you have a relay trigger available, you can control most anything electrical that you might want. And, you can use the charger amp to pipe audio throughout the building if desired.


Some departments are doing essentially the same thing with radios like Motorola's CDM's that have both QC-II decode and external alarm trigger capability. We have our base station setup to do store and forward annunciation for the county's backup dispatch system. It works well, but doesn't get used that much. But the principal is the same and could easily be modified to do most anything we needed it to do.

 

[TX_Mark]

That's a great system, but it requires integration with the dispatch center's computer aided dispatch system to provide the data for the LED and computer readouts at the station.

If I understood the OP's first post, he could only find CAD controlled systems online which suggests to me that the CAD input isn't available in his area.


Since many tone alerted departments are already using the Minitor V, adding one in a charger amplifier to take advantage of the relay trigger output is an inexpensive and very flexible way to do this. Once you have a relay trigger available, you can control most anything electrical that you might want. And, you can use the charger amp to pipe audio throughout the building if desired.


Some departments are doing essentially the same thing with radios like Motorola's CDM's that have both QC-II decode and external alarm trigger capability. We have our base station setup to do store and forward annunciation for the county's backup dispatch system. It works well, but doesn't get used that much. But the principal is the same and could easily be modified to do most anything we needed it to do.

Yeah, my county uses CAD, but SAFD is city, they get nice stuff lol. It's only in a few stations (I could be wrong) but I know it's in one of the new ones built not to far from where I live. When I was in my VFD, we had a Motorolla radio set-up to broadcast over the intercom system. Then at night they would turn the alert function on, so it would only go off for our station, and the radio would only broadcast once the tones went off. (Like what you mentioned above) and of course we used pagers as well as the pager amplifier stations in the older station w/out intercom function.

 

[Travelin Man]

I've had a chance to research, recommend, and specify alerting systems for both my new volunteer firehouse that opened in 2011, as well as a new system for the 20 firehouses at work.


As someone mentioned previously, many of the "Cadillac" systems that have scrolling LED message boards, low voltage lighting, TV-screen integration, etc (WestNet, Phoenix G2, etc) require a interface between the station and the PSAP's CAD system. This can get very, very costly, especially if it's being done for a single firehouse - I'm talking tens of thousands of dollars.


At the volunteer firehouse, we eventually elected to use a modest system using two Federal Signal Informer receivers, which we wired into the lighting and speakers throughout the station. Because our station uses two different sets of tones to alert us to fire or EMS calls, one informer each was used for each type of call. The "fire" informer also has the county's group call in it, and the "EMS" informer also has the county fire administration tone in it. Each of the eight bunkrooms has two sets of switches in it - one to turn the alert for the the "Fire" informer on and off, one to turn the alert for the "EMS" Informer on and off. The bunkrooms are always in alert mode, never in monitor mode.


At work, we're still in negotiations with the provider of the new alerting system, suffice it to say it will be one of the "Cadillac" systems that's available.

 

[RyanZ71]

The good old days.


Police Interceptor.Com

 

[jasonefd19]

I've had a chance to research, recommend, and specify alerting systems for both my new volunteer firehouse that opened in 2011, as well as a new system for the 20 firehouses at work.

As someone mentioned previously, many of the "Cadillac" systems that have scrolling LED message boards, low voltage lighting, TV-screen integration, etc (WestNet, Phoenix G2, etc) require a interface between the station and the PSAP's CAD system. This can get very, very costly, especially if it's being done for a single firehouse - I'm talking tens of thousands of dollars.


At the volunteer firehouse, we eventually elected to use a modest system using two Federal Signal Informer receivers, which we wired into the lighting and speakers throughout the station. Because our station uses two different sets of tones to alert us to fire or EMS calls, one informer each was used for each type of call. The "fire" informer also has the county's group call in it, and the "EMS" informer also has the county fire administration tone in it. Each of the eight bunkrooms has two sets of switches in it - one to turn the alert for the the "Fire" informer on and off, one to turn the alert for the "EMS" Informer on and off. The bunkrooms are always in alert mode, never in monitor mode.


At work, we're still in negotiations with the provider of the new alerting system, suffice it to say it will be one of the "Cadillac" systems that's available.

Would you be willing to share that spec or quote for the Informer system? Maybe the parts list or install particulars? We are a single station running with 1 informer which has 3 separate alerts (Fire (Still), Fire (Structure) & EMS). I have tried to make the informer activate a strobe light with no luck. We have a renovation to the station coming up and would like to use the features of the informer to its fullest, such as station light activation, strobe/Led activation and the capabilities of switching from alert to monitoring (we call it day/night switch). Any info you could provide would help me greatly. Thanks in advance!


Jason