Author Topic: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure  (Read 4006 times)

Offline Robert-Robert34

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Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« on: July 11, 2008, 03:37:38 PM »
Heya everyone this has been playing on my mind for a while now as its happened quite a few times with my brigade's station siren.... everytime theres a short power failure of anywhere between 5 seconds-1 minute the station siren goes off as soon as the power comes back on

We had a small backup battery hooked up so in the event of a power failure the battery would serve as a temp emergency supply but it goes flat until someone either gets it repacked or replaced

Is there a way to get the pagers activated whenever there is a power failure so someone can respond to the station and isolate the siren so it doesnt go off once power is restored as well as to go off when the power comes back on and the siren is going as result of the power failure

I know for a fact most brigades in the Adelaide area have their pagers activated when the power goes off at their station then comes back on setting off the siren automatically.... how does my brigade go about getting this arranged  :?     
Kalangadoo Brigade

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2008, 03:46:12 PM »
Yeah we get one on the officers pager if the power goes down, so someone can dis-arm the electric doors , it also alerts us if the siren 3-phase power goes down, tech services as in Dave Keddie not Arfur, should be able to sort that for you.

Offline Zippy

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2008, 03:50:27 PM »
Seeing as Adelaide fire, very rarely page URGMSG messages...you could turn the key to the Off Position on the Siren Panel, and only turn it on, for Manual Activations?   Or is your station in the bunch that set it off for every CFSRES message.

Offline Alan (Big Al)

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2008, 04:14:13 PM »
When we had our doors and siren setup for the CFSRES thing and the power went off they never tripped when the power came back on. Bit weird really.

Mind you i'm surprised that our station hasn't burnt down yet with some of the quality wiring in it. :|
Lt. Goolwa CFS

Offline Robert-Robert34

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2008, 05:40:02 PM »
Quote
Or is your station in the bunch that set it off for every CFSRES message

Back when the GRN was still in the introductory stage and the old 163 MHz VHF Radios were being used our station siren was activated by SOC or local comms base via paging but now we have to set it off manually but the siren is in the manual activation mode at all times cause we often find it hard to get a crew on the first page 
Kalangadoo Brigade

Offline Pipster

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2008, 12:27:51 AM »
I don't think there are too many stations close to Adelaide that have their siren set up to go off, once the power comes back on....  :?

The Fire Station Interface (FSI) - the box on the wall (not to be confused with the decoder box!) can be programmed to send a pager message to whatever pager(s) you want, to advise of power failures.....

It seems a bit strange to me that the siren goes off when power returns...

However, if the FSI has been programed to do that for some reason, I would presume that the contractors who look after the installs / repairs to FSI / Decoder boxes can reprogram the box for you (it used to be AEC - I haven't had to use them for a while, so I don;t know if they are still the guys who do it)

Speak to either your Regional office, or the comms people at State HQ

Pip
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Offline Zippy

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2008, 12:45:07 AM »
There are also some volunteers around the place familar with the reconfiguration of FSI's and Alpha decoder/canned message boxes ;)

Offline SA Firey

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2008, 03:01:26 AM »
There is a switch on the left hand side of the FSI box, make sure it is in the off position.If this is in the ON position it overrides the FSI electrics/timers.

The siren should not be activating on a power fail and may be faulty otherwise.

AEC was bought out, but still has the same techs etc.

If your decoder box is faulty it will take 2 months to fix as there are no spare changeover units...... we just got ours back :evil:
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Offline Cameron Yelland

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2008, 10:29:57 AM »
As far as i know their are no brigades in region 5, apart from those that are group bases, with those fire station interface panels.
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Offline Mike

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2008, 07:56:44 AM »
The old card system Fixed Alarm panels did some strange things during blackouts. Particularly when the internal battery was flat.

Seems you may have already identified part of the problem, just need to push to get it fixed.

Offline mengcfs

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Re: Pager messages to alert of station siren power failure
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2008, 02:25:34 PM »
As Pip mentioned, the FSI should have been programmed to alert (whatever pagers you want)in the event of a power failure. This is also connected to SMS a mobile phone in the event the paging system is down (again, whatever phone your Brigade chooses). Our Brigade has experienced several power outages and this has worked fine for us. Obviously AEC techs connected the system correctly. As for the siren thing with the power failure obviously a different problem. In the short,  AEC should have programmed the FSI to alert of power failures via pager(s), as per their contract.