SA Firefighter
General Discussion => Country Fire Service => Topic started by: mengcfs on August 29, 2011, 05:03:32 PM
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Hi all,
What is the go with these messages. I have seen several from different CFS Brigades and SES Units. Who does that page go to? Is it a part of TIMS?
SA FIRE & RESCUE: PAGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. INCIDENT NUMBER 43. CFS - HAPPY VALLEY. (PERSON'S NAME), LT2 - Call Out Acknowledgement
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It is a trial by a few stations for the SACAD system Adam.
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Nothing to do with SACAD, its a trial in response to those brigades who have complained they can't get through on the phone...it certainly has its bugs....wouldn't rely on it at all.
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Nothing to do with SACAD, its a trial in response to those brigades who have complained they can't get through on the phone...it certainly has its bugs....wouldn't rely on it at all.
Can't get thru to who on the phone...AF?
How does this system work. What does the member need to do to ack?
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Never mind, I found this.
Probably in relation to the trial of the new pager acknowledgment procedure, a few CFS, SES and retained MFS stations are trialing it starting on Monday (15th). Basically acknowledging the page with link paging, who will then page Adelaide Fire with the name of the brigade and the person that called. A message then pops up on their screen with the details.
Will mean that many more operators are able to take the calls than currently exists in Adelaide Fire, one of the problems on a big day (and sometimes not even a big day) is that you can't through to acknowledge.
Thanks mattb :wink:
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never had the problem of not getting through to adelaide fire, had plenty of problems getting put on hold at link paging. couple of times i;ve had to use the web site to drop crew pages
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never had the problem of not getting through to adelaide fire, had plenty of problems getting put on hold at link paging. couple of times i;ve had to use the web site to drop crew pages
It was in response to the storm events last year, when things were so hectic in the comms centres the non emergency lines weren't being answered.
The acknowledgement line is different to the general link paging line, so they shouldn't get put on hold as long.
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Issues I have noticed is Link or whoever it is have trouble with agency names and spelling and the message getting to AF takes sometimes more than 10 mins which is well over the default time limit. I prefer to use the radio to ack the page.
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Issues I have noticed is Link or whoever it is have trouble with agency names and spelling and the message getting to AF takes sometimes more than 10 mins which is well over the default time limit. I prefer to use the radio to ack the page.
do you know for certain these delays you mention are within Link? not that the brigade takes 10mins to phone them?
once you are speaking to an operator they fill in the fields directly on their screen and send it, it should appear on the paging system within seconds. If not then report it.
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SAAS gave away using Link as their notification method for responding to pages for Country staff. Quicker to drive the 3kms to the station, open it, get the keys, get the truck and call up. They tried another provider as well....worse
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Yes Darius I am very sure it wasn't the brigade phoning in.
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We gave up waiting for someone to answer last night, this was at 3am, obviously all the operators disappear after hours.
Also yesterday we became the Northvale brigade, not bad considering I was under the impression they had a drop down list of brigades to choose from.
Then this morning it took them 15 mins to send the page to Adelaide Fire. We had put a stop back on the job by the time my brigade and another brigades acknowledgment page had been sent.
I could go on but I probably don't need to, my feedback has all been passed up the chain of command to be reviewed as part of the trial.
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Link is now called Quantum Multimedia :wink:
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We gave up waiting for someone to answer last night, this was at 3am, obviously all the operators disappear after hours.
Also yesterday we became the Northvale brigade, not bad considering I was under the impression they had a drop down list of brigades to choose from.
Then this morning it took them 15 mins to send the page to Adelaide Fire. We had put a stop back on the job by the time my brigade and another brigades acknowledgment page had been sent.
I could go on but I probably don't need to, my feedback has all been passed up the chain of command to be reviewed as part of the trial.
Matt. Please make sure you are recording any issue as well to forward on at the end of the trial as a larger register!
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I think most people trialling it have had issues....please put feed back in.
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Don't worry, my feedback has been passed up the chain.
Today's effort was pretty good, 20 minutes from the time the call was made until the time the page was sent. Not to mention the time wasted waiting for them to answer the phone, and then having to spell names three times for them to get it right.
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03-09-11 11:19:25 SA FIRE & RESCUE: PAGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. INCIDENT NUMBER 35. KANGAROO BRIGADE. KYM VAWSER FIRE FIGHTER - Adelaide Fire Pager Ack
A big welcome to the newest brigade to the CFS Family...... :roll:
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03-09-11 11:19:25 SA FIRE & RESCUE: PAGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. INCIDENT NUMBER 35. KANGAROO BRIGADE. KYM VAWSER FIRE FIGHTER - Adelaide Fire Pager Ack
A big welcome to the newest brigade to the CFS Family...... :roll:
someone left the top gate open again didnt they?
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Just stop using it, tell the CFS and MFS powers to be that its useless, and lets move on.
I prefer the radio option myself.
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The system is painful but the trial goes on, only the mental patients running the asylum in South Australia for CRD and communications would know why?
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The trial finishes on Friday, I think we can let it run it's course and then the gurus can evaluate the feedback and make a decision (god help us if they decide to implement this for everyone though).
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It appears that many brigades haven't realised the trial finished two weeks ago, lots of people still calling in on this system.
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Matt. The end result was that the trial had finished. Feedback was being considered. But it was still to be available as a method of acknowledging for brigades/units.
I would encourage people not too tho, as since they are not paying for it to be a priority paging service, it is not reliable.
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Ok, we gave up on it as soon as we could. We had too many problems with it, mainly due to operators unable to understand what we were saying.
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Our brigade is still using the new pager acknowledgement system and we find it very good. The operators are polite and understanding as it takes me no longer than 20 secs to place the message.
But I guess with most new systems in CFS, some "Chardonnay" brigades continually want to be negative unless it's their idea.
Matt, "get with the times" be open to new systems of work, after all it was your Region that insisted they need a fourth option to acknowledge pager messages with Adelaide Fire!!!
What's your next suggestion.....carrier pigeons???
JB
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Our brigade is still using the new pager acknowledgement system and we find it very good. The operators are polite and understanding as it takes me no longer than 20 secs to place the message.
But I guess with most new systems in CFS, some "Chardonnay" brigades continually want to be negative unless it's their idea.
Matt, "get with the times" be open to new systems of work, after all it was your Region that insisted they need a fourth option to acknowledge pager messages with Adelaide Fire!!!
What's your next suggestion.....carrier pigeons???
JB
JB....clearly you know nothing of Matt nor his Brigade. Both have been at the forefront of introducing technology to the CFS. I would suggest they are about as "open to new technolgy" a group of people as u can get. I hardly think his Brigade thinks of itself as a Chardonnay brigade...lmao. Knowing him, I'm very happy to take his word that it didnt work for those people he talked to. His experience matched the SAAS volunteer experience which resulted in them (SAAS) ditching the system too. The criticism was not of the idea....just the poor executuion by the contractor
Always good to see new people join the Forum....be nice if some would do some reading before openly criticising individuals
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John, spend five minutes looking back through the thread and you will see what some of our concerns were.
We had multiple instances where the person on the other end of the phone took a couple of minutes to try and interpret what we were trying to do, even though they had a script in front of them with drop down fields, they still stuffed it up. When you aim to be on the road in four minutes, a delay of two minutes at the station waiting for someone who is on the phone is definitely an issue for my 'Chardonnay' brigade.
We also witnessed delays of up to twenty minutes from the time we spoke to the operator until the time the message was actually sent on the network, possibly not ideal...
My biggest problem was the fact that we were not speaking with Adelaide Fire, and therefore were unable to get any further information about the job. Quite often between the time the initial page is sent, and the couple of minutes later when we ring in to acknowledge more information is available, and our guys routinely ask. It might be just as simple as the operator saying we are getting multiple calls, or we've had a call from the premises and they are telling us it is burnt toast, this can make a difference to the thought process of our 'Chardonnay' officers.
If the system works for your brigade that is excellent, because it means that for brigades like mine that prefer to speak to a real life fire service comcen operator they will have a better chance, because your brigade will be speaking to a Link Paging operator in Jakarta.
What's your next suggestion.....carrier pigeons???
Well if the services insist on removing the ability to be able to speak with Adelaide Fire, I would suggest using one of the buttons on the Alpha OAD and programming it to send an acknowledgment message. But lets hope it doesn't get to that because that too could have its own issues.
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John, you must have rung the 1 time that you got someone that knew what they were doing....it was a trial, a poor trial at best, most of the feedback was of poor service and delayed times.
I asked the guys at Adelaide Fire and they said in an ideal world they would prefer radio first, then phone and this system as a last resort.
Once CAD starts these acknowledgements are going to be even more vital as CAD works off trucks not stations as it does now, so you really do need to speak to Adelaide Fire.
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I'm sorry my positive comments offended the "regulars". I must learn that this site is not about "free speech" but agreeing with the 10 or so regular posters.
Look Mattb I must be wrong and a fool to disagree with you, as you are the font of all knowledge and information.
As a CFS member for 30 years and shock horror I enjoy the many vlounteers and staff I have met I must learn to become more like the "6 %ers" and only look at the negatives.
You are right with the pager acknowledgement and the 10 instances I used it on behalf of my brigade, the operator took 10 secs to answer me, understood me and spelt the names correct. Yes I think we should never use the service again!!!
There is no free speech on this forum....I'd better stop now or you will lock me out of these discussions too!!
JB
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I'm sorry my positive comments offended the "regulars". I must learn that this site is not about "free speech" but agreeing with the 10 or so regular posters.
Look Mattb I must be wrong and a fool to disagree with you, as you are the font of all knowledge and information.
As a CFS member for 30 years and shock horror I enjoy the many vlounteers and staff I have met I must learn to become more like the "6 %ers" and only look at the negatives.
You are right with the pager acknowledgement and the 10 instances I used it on behalf of my brigade, the operator took 10 secs to answer me, understood me and spelt the names correct. Yes I think we should never use the service again!!!
There is no free speech on this forum....I'd better stop now or you will lock me out of these discussions too!!
JB
so for the entire duration of the trial you used the system 10 times?....maybe you might care to allow the guys that used it (in some cases ) daily to have their say and express their opinion....just as you seek to express your own
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Must be a full moon!
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I would just like to say a warm hello to all the staff monitoring this site ;)
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I would just like to say a warm hello to all the staff monitoring this site ;)
You were doing so well on your own! ;)
I'm sorry my positive comments offended the "regulars". I must learn that this site is not about "free speech" but agreeing with the 10 or so regular posters.
Your views are welcome, however your personal attacks on forum members are not. Had you read the rest of this thread you would have seen quite clearly why some brigades provided negative feedback, and it should have been obvious that these opinions were justified, despite being different from your own.
I'm sure we'd all be happy to hear about your positive experience, but dismissing everyone else's in favour of yours in not helpful.
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Have read and understood all the threads, comments etc and it's plainly clear this group does not want to have meaningful discussions on many subjects.
It would be good to lift the level of discussions and not attack everyone who has a different point of view and actually discuss the topic.
Thanks JB.
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Have read and understood all the threads, comments etc and it's plainly clear this group does not want to have meaningful discussions on many subjects.
clearly you look but don't see. There have been more discussion and arguments on new scheiße on this forum than you would see in a month of Sundays at a Region/State or Infrastructure gab-feast. Just because the discussions do not agree with you, does not mean they don't happen.
It would be good to lift the level of discussions and not attack everyone who has a different point of view and actually discuss the topic.
I do believe you started it.....so if you're in the glass bunker gear, best avoid the rocks
... But I guess with most new systems in CFS, some "Chardonnay" brigades continually want to be negative unless it's their idea.
Matt, "get with the times" be open to new systems of work, after all it was your Region that insisted they need a fourth option to acknowledge pager messages with Adelaide Fire!!!
What's your next suggestion.....carrier pigeons???
JB
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People that used it shared their experiences, most were bad. I hate to say it but if it wasn't for these "Chardonnay" brigades we would still be loading the tank onto Jims truck when their was a fire....
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PARA GROUP INFO;PLEASE STOP USING THE 1300 NUMBER FOR PAGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IMMEDIATELY AS PER PHONECALL FROM REGION REVERT BACK TO PREVIOUS NOTIFICATION SYSTEM - CFS Para Group Info
MAWSON INFO: PLEASE STOP USING THE 1300 NUMBER FOR PAGER ACKNOWLEDGEMENT IMMEDIATELY AS PER PHONECALL FROM REGION 1 - MDGO2 - CFS Mawson Group Info