had a funny one today!
One of the guys brought his pager to me because the sound was seriously muffled.
any way i was checking to see if the speaker cone was damaged and found it full of iron filings!
(the guy was a welder and when he ran his grinder the powerful magnet in the speaker grabbed any filings close enough that it filled the space between the speaker and pager shell)
Itold him to put his pager in his shirt pocket or in his locker when he was metal working.
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I know fire departments use pagers here still, but out side of that do they even allow them on network? I thought they died in the early 2000’s.
pagers are still widely used because they are smaller than the portable radios. and can be carried anywhere the radios on the other hand may cause some interference with medical and security systems when broadcasting.
most people don’t mind them but there is always a few who get really pissy about someones pager going off.
we tend to keep the volume low because of it but our response is usually “If your kid was in an accident or if your house was on fire would you like it if we didn’t hear the call because you don’t like the pager noise”
Im a volunteer firefighter and you might say Im on call 24/7/365.
while some smartphones can be set up with a pager app there are many work places that will not allow a cell phone on the property (security reasons they claim) but in reality its to prevent anyone from photo documenting unsafe equipment and procedures
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I actually think and worry aboutbthis with my phone too, like this exact scenario. I was even thinking of it on the way to work just as a mental experiment.
I wonder if I get filings in my speaker would a bigger magnet pull them out…
it would get some but not all of them usually small tweezers can get a lot of them
taping a small piece of silk over the speaker will not muffle sound much but will filter a lot of debris from entering the speaker port
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The pagers used by most fire departments are radio pagers. They do not interface with a traditional network. The passively or actively listen for a tone transmitted on the fire departments radio frequency. They then alert, and pass on radio trafic to the fire fighter. Most of these are only receiving devices, with no transmitting capability. Just an FYI.
correct and some are limited to the area they are programmed for
(my pager has a large receiving area and will pick up the broadcast from our tower over nearly a fifth of the state of Pa)
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