SA Firefighter

General Discussion => Country Fire Service => Topic started by: Alex on April 22, 2010, 06:19:33 PM

Title: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on April 22, 2010, 06:19:33 PM
Howdy All,

Myself and another member in my brigade have had replacement pagers issued recently, and ended up with the new BRIGHT YELLOW Apollo Gold pagers.

On face value, it seems to me the CFS has cheaped out [no suprise] as they are bigger, heavier and gayer looking than the old ones. My pager also seems to have less functions [ie; no choice of message tone] than the manual provided shows.

One problem already encountered is the volume of the alarm tone activated by CFSRES or URGMSG [which for those who havent heard it sounds a bit like a 'wail' siren]. It's extemely quiet, and this has resulted already in the other brigade member not attending the station for a call as even though it was on his belt, he didnt hear it activate.

A couple of things i will applaud though, you can choose from 'beep', 'vibrate' or 'BEEP & VIBRATE', which is good at least, the blue backlit screen is much better at night than the old motorolas effort, and the text is slightly bigger and easier to read.

Anyone else had any issues or have opinions on the new gear?

Cheers,
Alex
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Pipster on April 22, 2010, 07:40:00 PM
My brigade has a few...same issue with the alert tone being rather quiet.

Also found they only hold 16 messages....for your average fire-fighter, that's probably OK, but if you have a group pager, in one busy afternoon, your pager is full, and messages could start dropping off!!!

However, I think there is some advantage to a bright yellow case....... more likely to see it, once it has been dropped (and hopefully, less likely to run over it with the lawn mower!!!)

I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

Pip
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Robert-Robert34 on April 22, 2010, 09:39:37 PM
Does anyone remember the old Link pagers we all hard prior to samsung ones being issued those were a solid unit that had about 3 or 4 selectable alerts and the volume got louder and louder if it was in beep mode  :-)
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on April 22, 2010, 10:07:51 PM
However, I think there is some advantage to a bright yellow case....... more likely to see it, once it has been dropped (and hopefully, less likely to run over it with the lawn mower!!!)

True, but it certainly gets a few odd looks.

Re; your brigade having issues with volume, has it caused people to miss calls? Perhaps we should all quickly put it in issues forms and prevent another batch being bought?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mattb on April 23, 2010, 08:16:55 AM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.

CFS also chose the Yellow case to try to reduce the number of pagers lost. I know some of our guys that are business type people that work in offices have said that they do not want a bright yellow pager clipped onto their belt, something about it looking somewhat unprofessional - I tend to agree. Bring back Black.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Mike on April 23, 2010, 08:35:02 AM
We have recieved a few and the issues above have also been discussed. Apparently the vibrate function is fairly strong (enough to wake you when its on the bedside table).

Our current comms guy thinks that this is going to be the standard, and that replacement of scratched screens in particular will be charged back to brigades.
How reliable this info is cannot be certain......

Unfortunatly those that have them here are unlikely to put in a complaint, as the current leadership seems willing to accept that 'this is what we are all going to end up with'.

Physical size, message storage and pager holder = Not so good
Backlight = Good
Volume = Terrible

I thought a few of these got trialed somewhere?? were they working in a sound proof booth?
The range of colours for these pagers tend to fit nicely with the colours of the different services, although im not into accessorising my pager with my uniform!
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Pipster on April 23, 2010, 07:11:15 PM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.


Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Bagyassfirey on April 23, 2010, 08:12:06 PM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.



Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip

So do some of your members have 2 pagers that are working?? is that what you mean?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Firey9119 on April 23, 2010, 08:26:42 PM
does any one have photos of the pagers??
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Darren on April 23, 2010, 08:29:33 PM
CFS must have got one of the cheap versions, we have an apollo pager on the desk at work for fire alarm back up and its loud enough to wake the dead !
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Bagyassfirey on April 23, 2010, 08:56:13 PM
in the november december infralog if i could work out how to get the picture on ere i would !
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Pipster on April 23, 2010, 09:26:15 PM
Quote
I understood these pagers to be a temporary measure, until a new batch of pagers is decided upon, and purchased ....... can any of the comms guys clarify that...?

I think these are here to stay, from what I heard these pagers were chosen because they were the most sensitive (and therefore recieved the most messages) out of all the ones tested.



Of the messages my brigade has got on these pagers - they have about the same failure rate as the old ones.......

We haven't had any members miss calls, as I think there are only one or 2 with a yellow pager, and they are trialling it alongside an existing old pager to see what difference there is.....

Pip

So do some of your members have 2 pagers that are working?? is that what you mean?


Yes.....as a trial.....we had two members leave (moved interstate) and hence had two spare pagers to use....we wanted to see the difference in the way new pagers received messages, vs the old......... particularly since the brigade response area has poor pager (and mobile phone!) coverage.

Pip
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Bagyassfirey on April 23, 2010, 09:33:05 PM
oh yea i see... ill grab the old ones if there of no use  :-D
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on April 24, 2010, 08:08:53 AM
CFS must have got one of the cheap versions, we have an apollo pager on the desk at work for fire alarm back up and its loud enough to wake the dead !

Normal msg tone is ok Darren. Send the desk pager a CFSRES and you'll see what were talking about re; volume.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on April 24, 2010, 12:18:28 PM
does any one have photos of the pagers??

Photo can be found in this edition of Infralog http://sacfs.org/publications/Infralog_4_Dec2009.pdf
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: jaff on April 25, 2010, 11:50:14 PM
What a joke, these pagers are such a piece of craap and then theres a note in the box to tell you if you damage the screen it will be billed back to the brigade!
Cant wait till they bring back hand pumps! :wink:
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on April 26, 2010, 08:54:28 AM
What a joke, these pagers are such a piece of craap and then theres a note in the box to tell you if you damage the screen it will be billed back to the brigade!
Cant wait till they bring back hand pumps! :wink:

Next will be two cans and a piece of string for Alerts :-P
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: COBB on May 04, 2010, 11:21:03 AM
Have to agree the response tone on the yellow Apollo pagers is extremely poor. It is easily missed if the pager is in a pocket or similar.
I was fortunate to use one of the first Apollo (black) pagers when they came out. The response tone on these was far more noticeable and at least as good (if not better)as the Samsungs.
Running an Apollo side by side with a Samsung there does appear to be an improvement in less scrambled messages being received.
Am a little suspicious on the power drain of the Apollo's but will reserve my opinion on this for a while longer.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 04, 2010, 04:41:44 PM
Are you physically running the pagers side by side? If so this will not help the sensitivity of either pager but cause more corruption.

I received a pile of Apollo's today.  Asthetically, not pleasing.  Haven't had a chance to do anything else with them yet......
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: COBB on May 04, 2010, 04:53:42 PM
I have heard from a couple of people that corruption can occur due to pagers being too close but no-one can explain why. If these pagers transmitted as well I could understand. Are you able to explain more?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 04, 2010, 05:04:28 PM
No idea, ha ha ha.  Just remember that from the Samsung pager rollout/training days.  I suppose it's like when you have your pager near a computer or other electrical device you get interferance and corruption. I guess the second pager would act like an electrical device too. :?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Darren on May 04, 2010, 06:12:26 PM
Ok I have seen the new APOLLO pager, whoever decided on the tone for firecalls needs their head read !!

Its rather soft and can be barely heard, if its in your pocket or your fast asleep you really aren't going to hear it.

The normal message tone should be the firecall tone, thats quite loud.

Those of you who have them need to put issues forms in...otherwise we will be stuck with them !!
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: senti@nt on May 05, 2010, 10:59:10 AM
Interference from two pagers side by side corrupting data is a bit 1980's for my liking.  :roll:

The two pagers recieve page data at the same time, process it at the same time and then alert at the same time. Induced interference from the digital processing of one pager interfering with the digital processing of the second pager is non-existant.  That's like saying one digital wristwatch will interfere with another digital wristwatch. They're all passive digital devices. Maybe the 100VDC @ a few thousand Hz running the backlight could induce something but the pagers would have already recieved the potentially corruptable incoming RF data. (That's why you get corrupt data sometimes now if you are in a basement or taking a dump) Once the RF data is received there is no going back.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: vandog on May 06, 2010, 09:46:21 AM
From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 06, 2010, 01:58:47 PM
Quote
From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.

It's more the fact they can buy them in smaller lots.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Pipster on May 06, 2010, 09:55:55 PM
From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.

It isn't a matter of don't be surprised, it's pretty much a given that your old broken pager will be replaced by a shiny new Apollo!

The probelm with the current pagers is the bulk of them have come to the end of their programmed lifespan (well, past their expected life span) and the spare parts very difficult to get.....  in recent times the more damaged / unrepairable ones were being cannibalised to repair those that could be repaired...

That was before the Apollo's arrived....now you just get a replacement!!!

Pip

Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: jaff on May 06, 2010, 10:36:23 PM
From what i have heard the Apollo pagers are here to stay, the current pagers have been deemed too expensive to get repaired and parts are becoming harder to find. so unfortunately if you send a pager back to be repaired, dont be surprised if you get an Apollo pager in its place.

It isn't a matter of don't be surprised, it's pretty much a given that your old broken pager will be replaced by a shiny new Apollo!

The probelm with the current pagers is the bulk of them have come to the end of their programmed lifespan (well, past their expected life span) and the spare parts very difficult to get.....  in recent times the more damaged / unrepairable ones were being cannibalised to repair those that could be repaired...

That was before the Apollo's arrived....now you just get a replacement!!!

Pip


,

A REPLACEMENT, yeh right, like replacing a dumptruck with a wheelbarrow!!
Sugar coat shiiit and wrap it up in pretty wrapping and unfortunately, its still just shiiit!! :wink:
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: bajdas on May 07, 2010, 10:02:56 AM
RE: two pagers close together causing corrupt pager message

In regards to pagers being totally passive devices, I suspect they do transmit small amounts of data.

Like any computer on a network (which the GRN radios are) they need to transmit who they are and where they are. The pager would be no different because it would need to securely connect to the GRN network and notify the GRN network which tower it was nearest.

This can be seen by the connection symbol on the pager and the fact that date/time will be synchronised automatically from the network.

So in theory, two pagers close together maybe interfer with radio frequency reception.

Just my thoughts and no proof available.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: DaveP on May 07, 2010, 12:24:59 PM
Pagers do NOT transmit any data. They are radio devices and do have some background radio frequency radiation that could possibly interfere with another device that is close enough but we are talking about distances of up to half a metre, not sending info back to a tower.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alan J on May 08, 2010, 03:15:49 PM
deleted - DaveP already said it.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on May 08, 2010, 10:44:54 PM
Yet another negative i have since noticed...

Alarm tone does not activate for URGMSG, purely programming, but yet another issue.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: bajdas on May 09, 2010, 08:53:56 PM
Pagers do NOT transmit any data. They are radio devices and do have some background radio frequency radiation that could possibly interfere with another device that is close enough but we are talking about distances of up to half a metre, not sending info back to a tower.

Different people have different opinions on how network connected devices work....that makes the world go around I suppose....
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: DaveP on May 09, 2010, 11:43:53 PM
Having personally designed and built radio paging systems I do know exactly how radio paging systems work. There can be a number of opinions but that doesn't stop some being wrong. 2 way paging systems do exist and one variant developed to become Blackberries that later added voice communications and now are sold as smartphones but the GRN paging and radio paging that existed before that is only one way - transmitter tower to receiving pager.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: bajdas on May 10, 2010, 12:06:33 PM
Having personally designed and built radio paging systems I do know exactly how radio paging systems work. There can be a number of opinions but that doesn't stop some being wrong. 2 way paging systems do exist and one variant developed to become Blackberries that later added voice communications and now are sold as smartphones but the GRN paging and radio paging that existed before that is only one way - transmitter tower to receiving pager.

Thanks...I have learnt something new
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on May 13, 2010, 08:37:23 AM
Now you know why Regions did a pager audit, so they know exactly how many spares there really are in the pool. :wink:

Maybe now that the new Apollo Gold are here there wont be a 2 month turnaround on repairs.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Mike on May 13, 2010, 01:01:18 PM
I hear rumor that the pager specification has been looked at again.

New pagers will be black, and a request has been made to up the volume.
It was also suggested that some other specs had been changed, that mean the apollo pagers will no longer be acceptable.

These changes are due to complaints from volunteers :)


Once again, **this info is not confirmed**
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Pipster on May 13, 2010, 01:19:52 PM
CFS has been in discussion with the manufacturer, to change some of the specs of the Apollo - no retro fitting, but new batches will hopefully be improved. They will be black, not yellow, requests to change the default alert tone to a different tone, allow more memory to store messages than currently, and I think  a few more changes....

Pip
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Robert-Robert34 on May 13, 2010, 10:16:35 PM
I have looked at the Apollo gold black pagers on wipath website and they are pretty good to all standards and having black makes it look more professional compared to the proposed yellow ones we are meant to be issued with
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on May 13, 2010, 10:38:16 PM
compared to the proposed yellow ones we are meant to be issued with

not proposed mate, they are out there. Ive got one of the filtered things on my belt at the moment.

i too have heard from the BCO that they [CFS State] have heeded the grumblings and are investigating; colour of pager, alarm tone and volume, memory & the URGMSG programming issues... unfortunately as stated i hear they wont take back the yellows and reprogram though.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Darren on May 14, 2010, 10:55:56 AM
Thank goodness, see feed back does work, but you really do wonder, how out of touch are the people that ordered them in the first place....yes I know that they will read this and be upset, but come on, surely some of them are still active CFS vols, they must know the simple things we need to have in a pager....loud, simple tone for a firecall and something that we can wear that isn't to intrusive, and for some who might be on call but work in a suit and tie workplace something more in keeping with the attire. Not every CFS vol is a farmer!! Could it be that hard to order 2 styles, like mobile phones ?

What I did like is the vibrate which was fairly violent, so you can have it go off and still know about it without the sound...in fact I think on vibrate it was louder than on the tone !

Thanks CFS for listening to the people on the ground, lets hope the upgraded version is better. Meanwhile I will keep my current pager limping along, just have to keep turning it on as it has a habit of turning itself off.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Robert-Robert34 on May 14, 2010, 12:30:48 PM
Quote
Meanwhile I will keep my current pager limping along, just have to keep turning it on as it has a habit of turning itself off.

Mine does that as well Darren and its way past the life expectancy that a samsung pager lives for
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on May 15, 2010, 04:08:58 PM

What I did like is the vibrate which was fairly violent, so you can have it go off and still know about it without the sound...in fact I think on vibrate it was louder than on the tone !

Thanks CFS for listening to the people on the ground, lets hope the upgraded version is better. Meanwhile I will keep my current pager limping along, just have to keep turning it on as it has a habit of turning itself off.

Would you like me to give you a replacement :wink:
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: rescue5271 on May 17, 2010, 07:06:45 AM
Pip, you are correct the next batch will be better but what do we do with the ones that are failing will CFS swap these for the new batch?? We only have 2 in my group and they both have failed within 2 months of coming into sevice I did talk to our RC about it and he said send then back.Problem is is we send them back we dont have any group spares.....
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Mike on May 17, 2010, 08:07:57 AM
If they have failed Bill, then they are not much good as spares anyway.

As for the yellow pagers, send them back as faulty (in our eyes). Perhaps they would be more suited to being carried by the paid staff.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 19, 2010, 09:13:26 AM
Check out the April/May Infralog on some info re Apollo pagers.  CFS is listening to concerns......
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: COBB on May 19, 2010, 11:05:40 AM
Check out the April/May Infralog on some info re Apollo pagers.  CFS is listening to concerns......
mengcfs,
Where can see the Infralog? Is there somewhere to obtain past issues?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: bajdas on May 19, 2010, 12:01:20 PM
Check out the April/May Infralog on some info re Apollo pagers.  CFS is listening to concerns......
mengcfs,
Where can see the Infralog? Is there somewhere to obtain past issues?


Found them at http://sacfs.org/sacfs.org/Vehicles_Equipment.html
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Darren on May 19, 2010, 07:45:07 PM
Thats good information, can you subscribe to that report ?

Be interested to see if the tone makes a difference, as we have one of the first version of the Apollo pagers at work and its VERY loud, but its also a different tone, rather than a siren its constant beeping.
Also good to see the length of time the tone goes for has been increased, as some people take longer than other to wake up. The size doesn't bother me.


Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on May 19, 2010, 08:31:24 PM
Reading the infralog it seems there should be more than the one tone available as message tone?

My pager doesnt give you the option to chaneg the tone... onyl lets you choose between beep or vibrate options?

Is anyone elses differant?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Zippy on May 20, 2010, 01:59:18 AM
what are the advantages of Flex over Pocsag??? lol
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 20, 2010, 11:23:00 AM
Reading the infralog it seems there should be more than the one tone available as message tone?

My pager doesnt give you the option to chaneg the tone... onyl lets you choose between beep or vibrate options?

Is anyone elses differant?

The ones I have seen are the same Alex.  They only have beep or vibrate.  Althought the beep tones can be set different, like four quick beeps, one long beep repeated.  Albeit, they are only beeps not really different tones.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on May 20, 2010, 03:32:48 PM
Hmmm i cant change the beep tones on mine... could be just me though.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on May 21, 2010, 12:14:46 PM
Maybe yours was one of the very first originals.  I think there have been two more buyins since then and maybe each lot has been slightly altered with programming etc. :?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alex on May 21, 2010, 03:22:44 PM
ahhh figures
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: frosty on August 07, 2010, 09:03:19 PM
well from what i have seen, we where lucky sent 2 pagers away got one oldy back and one OMG there ugly one vibrate is the only good thing on them.  well worked out well used it a threat to the other guys dont brake your old ones cas u will get theas ones
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: rescue5271 on August 08, 2010, 09:13:11 AM
So has anyone found any other real problems with them?? We have found the tone fade's,Does not work in fire stations/shed that are make of iron .....
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on August 09, 2010, 10:01:35 AM
The original Toshiba battery supplied with mine is still going since April, but the response tone seems to be the bone of contention with a lot of members.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Darius on August 09, 2010, 10:22:15 AM
you talking about the siren wail tone Jeff? that has been changed on later ones.
And Bill they work fine in my brigade station (tin shed) where mobile phones die about 6 feet inside the doors.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on October 20, 2010, 01:37:27 PM
It appears if any Brigades have new spare Samsung pagers in store that could be reprogrammed to take the pressure off the supply of Apollo's (and the fact no one wants a brick hanging from their hip) forget it.  They won't reprogram Samsung pagers, only issue new Apollo's.

Aaarrrggggghhhhhhhhh.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mattb on October 20, 2010, 01:45:47 PM
That is interesting, I just sent a Samsung off last week for re-programming (after it came back from repair with an address missing). I will let you know if they re-program the Samsung or replace it with an Apollo.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: rescue5271 on October 20, 2010, 02:10:52 PM
Got my group pager back (Apollo) and it now has a tone that is worse than the tone(siren) I had before sad part is we can not change the tone at all...
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on October 20, 2010, 02:31:34 PM
That is interesting, I just sent a Samsung off last week for re-programming (after it came back from repair with an address missing). I will let you know if they re-program the Samsung or replace it with an Apollo.

Would much rather use the Samsungs we have sitting in the cupboard doing nothing.  But the word from Region is they will only supply Apollo's.

Thanks Matt.  Would be very interested to know.
Waiting with anticipation :-D
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mattb on October 21, 2010, 11:13:43 AM
Sent a Samsung off for repair a few months ago, it had a few extra addresses programmed in it, so on the repair sheet I made a big bold note for them to make sure that whatever pager came back was programmed with the extra addresses.

I got a replacement Apollo back yesterday without the extra addresses in it.

I really wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to understand the fairly clear instructions included on the sheet.

More of my time now wasted sending it back again, given recent examples I don't think we will have it back before Xmas now.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Shiner on October 21, 2010, 02:47:42 PM
I had a similar experience as mattb - sent of a perfectly good Samsung with a request for reprogramming only, got a banana Apollo back (actually I don't mind the yellow) with only the original codes on it.

Took two more goes before all programming was completed correctly!!!!!

My understanding is that the repair/programming for the Apollo's is under a different contract to the Samsungs and therefore to save money, the support contract for Samsungs has been terminated to save having two contacts running simultaneously.

Therefore, unless you can find someone on staff who has the skills and equipment to reprogram the Samsungs, you will not get them back no matter what.......
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on October 21, 2010, 07:05:45 PM
Sent a Samsung off for repair a few months ago, it had a few extra addresses programmed in it, so on the repair sheet I made a big bold note for them to make sure that whatever pager came back was programmed with the extra addresses.

I got a replacement Apollo back yesterday without the extra addresses in it.

I really wouldn't have thought it would be that hard to understand the fairly clear instructions included on the sheet.

More of my time now wasted sending it back again, given recent examples I don't think we will have it back before Xmas now.


I hear your frustration Matt, I sent a Samsung pager off in March 2008, it ended up in Region 3 then 4, and then back to Region 1 where it was lost and replaced with my new Yellow one in April this year :evil:

Not to mention the one I sent off for repair and came back with Stirling's response address in it....the member was wondering why noone else turned up for the call :-o
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on October 22, 2010, 11:04:45 AM
Big shout out for anyone who can program Samsung SFA-170 pagers, your help would be muchly appreciated. :-P
Damn you Apollo when there are plenty of perfectly good Samsungs still out there.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: OldOne on October 22, 2010, 12:07:35 PM
Big shout out for anyone who can program Samsung SFA-170 pagers, your help would be muchly appreciated. :-P

The problem is getting the programming software, I have been hunting for 5 years with no luck as its not a commonly used pager, the hardware interface is easy to do. 

The new CFS and SES pagers are no real problem, the software is out there and the hardware can be got from the USA.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: 561 on November 04, 2010, 01:09:11 PM
The 3 of us that came across from Burra MFS to CFS got issued nice new Apollos last week - thought the beep tones where quite loud enough and when combined with the vibrate mode gained plenty of attention.

Then we started getting pages for Victor Habour Ops as well.....woops! Back they go!
They had a dig around the cupboard and we now have old Samsungs till they get our Apollo's sorted.

Yet to get a firm idea of the Apollos sensitivity compare to the Samsung or my old SAMFS XStream pager - i dont think its quite as good as the XStream.

Keen to get a few calls while I'm at work to see how the Apollo does as SAMFS had to issue me with an Alpha II terminal so I could get reliable paging.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: 485298 on November 18, 2010, 11:27:42 AM
lol. damn they must of ran out of yellow ones ive got a black one.
Main critism about them is that they are huge! compared to the old grn pagers.

Backlight 4/5
Memory 2/5
Volume 3/5
ability to actually decode pager messages 3/5 (messes up sometimes and diplays hashed out charachters instead of actual ones)

All and all its better then no pager at all....
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alan (Big Al) on November 18, 2010, 01:59:46 PM
the black ones are the newer ones and are "meant" to be better than the yellow ones
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: mengcfs on November 18, 2010, 02:57:05 PM
the black ones are the newer ones and are "meant" to be better than the yellow ones

Not sure about "better", but they are programmed with additional features.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Alan (Big Al) on November 18, 2010, 03:21:32 PM
haha thats why i said "meant"  :-P  i am hanging on to my samsung for as long as i can
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: 485298 on November 18, 2010, 05:10:37 PM
wasnt given the option as they didnt have any samsung ones left oh well.
its not all that bad atleast you know youv got it on your belt or clipped in your pocket.... just dont keep them close to your bluetooth enabled phone or it will mess up some of the messages.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: ufo8mycow on November 25, 2010, 10:12:06 PM
Big shout out for anyone who can program Samsung SFA-170 pagers, your help would be muchly appreciated. :-P

The problem is getting the programming software, I have been hunting for 5 years with no luck as its not a commonly used pager, the hardware interface is easy to do. 

The new CFS and SES pagers are no real problem, the software is out there and the hardware can be got from the USA.


The hardware and software is actually available in Australia, yet the software does have some pin codes and it is specially designed for CFS. Just not anyone can just use any old software from the states. 

I am however able to program Samsung Pagers and the Apollo Pagers.  There is actually a few features in the programming side to play around with the tone settings.

I have seen a couple of pagers now incorrectly setup in regarding to how long the tone goes off as this is adjustable in the pager.  They should be set to continuous.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: pumprescue on November 25, 2010, 11:41:41 PM
Any idea how to get the reminder tone to actually stay off, I have set mine to off and it still goes off on reminder tone.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Fire000 on November 26, 2010, 12:17:15 AM
Any idea how to get the reminder tone to actually stay off, I have set mine to off and it still goes off on reminder tone.

Same problem here, i set the 'reminder alert' to off and it still goes off continually to remind you there is an unread message. Very annoying when you get a non-response message early in the morning before you get up. Even on vibrate, the thing is loud enough to wake you up.

They have a great screen and the vibrate is almost good enough to shake off your pants, but that's about all. The menu setup, pager size, features (i.e. tones) are pretty poor in my opinion. Most CFS members i have spoken to are dreading the day their old Samsung pager needs to be replaced.

On a positive, fantastic service by the new paging contractor, pagers are available off the shelf and programmed quickly. But the question remains, are the Appolos the best pagers for CFS vollies, or has cost made the decision rather than practicality/ease of use.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: rescue5271 on November 26, 2010, 05:25:31 AM
So much for getting a selection of tones on the new batch of Apollo pagers a number of members down this way have the second bacth which where ment to have a selection of tones and they dont.....
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: pumprescue on November 26, 2010, 05:28:12 AM
I have to say , I like them, easy to read, robust, loud enough, the tone is much better than the yellow one's, have had no issues with it being to quite.

Probably not the best on the market, but apart from the reminder tone not going off, I don't mind them.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: SA Firey on November 26, 2010, 08:05:26 AM
I have a yellow one, and one thing good about them is the batteries last longer than the Samsungs :wink:
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: ufo8mycow on November 26, 2010, 11:35:18 AM
Any idea how to get the reminder tone to actually stay off, I have set mine to off and it still goes off on reminder tone.

It has possibly been set in the pager software to stay on.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: ufo8mycow on November 26, 2010, 11:56:20 AM
edit
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: ufo8mycow on November 26, 2010, 11:57:54 AM
Photos Attached :-)
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: ufo8mycow on November 26, 2010, 12:03:23 PM
more photos
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: misterteddy on November 26, 2010, 05:28:38 PM
... But the question remains, are the Appolos the best pagers for CFS vollies, or has cost made the decision rather than practicality/ease of use.

you havent had much to do with Government tendering have you?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: 485298 on November 28, 2010, 08:52:33 PM
... But the question remains, are the Appolos the best pagers for CFS vollies, or has cost made the decision rather than practicality/ease of use.

you havent had much to do with Government tendering have you?
doesnt look like it .... its al about the $$$$$
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Wholey on April 18, 2013, 11:04:52 PM
Are you able to program which capcodes you want to receive by yourself?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: CFS_Firey on April 19, 2013, 10:42:52 AM
Are you able to program which capcodes you want to receive by yourself?

Only if you have a pager programming device (available on the Internet).  If you have one of them, then yes, you can do anything.

This one on ebay (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apollo-USB-Pager-Programmer-AL202-AL301-AL777-T2K-812-924-Gold-Pilot-/150996839512?pt=US_Pagers&hash=item23281cec58#ht_500wt_1414) is pretty expensive, but I've seen them around much cheaper.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Wholey on April 19, 2013, 02:28:13 PM
Ok. Is this the only way to do it?

What about this (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QecrGmUWQMAJ:www.apollowireless.com/servlet/DownLoad%3FDOWNFILENAME%3DGold%2520programing%2520instraction.pdf%26DOWNFILENAMEURL%3D/upload/Downloads/1/1138923530555_0.pdf+&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESheh0-CoX8WHvHtbtoKpcEcnJdFz4w5slzz_TM_QxER5nkgq7V6hkzJtLfQiycXsE_NzKUEhUWcEcYLmgF9EPz07sGh8dohnnNvMoqdMldhgVl0ziPHzL6_wV3BQdCj2IkOzKHO&sig=AHIEtbQkrmuHKotVPAyPDFErjcScfqeChQ)
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: CFS_Firey on April 19, 2013, 03:05:44 PM
Ok. Is this the only way to do it?

What about this (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QecrGmUWQMAJ:www.apollowireless.com/servlet/DownLoad%3FDOWNFILENAME%3DGold%2520programing%2520instraction.pdf%26DOWNFILENAMEURL%3D/upload/Downloads/1/1138923530555_0.pdf+&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESheh0-CoX8WHvHtbtoKpcEcnJdFz4w5slzz_TM_QxER5nkgq7V6hkzJtLfQiycXsE_NzKUEhUWcEcYLmgF9EPz07sGh8dohnnNvMoqdMldhgVl0ziPHzL6_wV3BQdCj2IkOzKHO&sig=AHIEtbQkrmuHKotVPAyPDFErjcScfqeChQ)


I *believe* manual programming like that is disabled on the CFS pagers.  Have you tried it?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: OldOne on April 19, 2013, 04:51:16 PM
Ok. Is this the only way to do it?

What about this (https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QecrGmUWQMAJ:www.apollowireless.com/servlet/DownLoad%3FDOWNFILENAME%3DGold%2520programing%2520instraction.pdf%26DOWNFILENAMEURL%3D/upload/Downloads/1/1138923530555_0.pdf+&hl=en&gl=au&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESheh0-CoX8WHvHtbtoKpcEcnJdFz4w5slzz_TM_QxER5nkgq7V6hkzJtLfQiycXsE_NzKUEhUWcEcYLmgF9EPz07sGh8dohnnNvMoqdMldhgVl0ziPHzL6_wV3BQdCj2IkOzKHO&sig=AHIEtbQkrmuHKotVPAyPDFErjcScfqeChQ)


I *believe* manual programming like that is disabled on the CFS pagers.  Have you tried it?

It is normally locked out, the same as "over the air" reprogramming is locked out.    it is Easy to glue up a plastic jig to hold the pager to sit upon the programming pins and use a USB to TTL RS232 interface as the electronics.   I have one set up for the SES pagers, all home made.   The programming data lines are standards RS232 signals but using TTL 5 volts max. levels. 
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Bagyassfirey on April 19, 2013, 08:18:32 PM
Wholey why do u want to program your own pager?? Is this a CFS issued pager?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Wholey on April 20, 2013, 01:07:19 AM
No, I bought a pager($15) of a mate that bought it ages ago. I actually have a pager issued by my SES unit but I keep leaving it at home when I go to work and miss callouts. I bought this one because I could then have one at home and one at work.


OldOne, I would love to know more, how can I contact you?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: OldOne on April 20, 2013, 09:30:59 AM
OldOne, I would love to know more, how can I contact you?

try me using  oldone5083 at gmail.com

I use old damaged pagers for all sorts of applications including as a data receiver for PDW and control command decoder to reset remote equipment. 

I still need help to trying to find a programming interface for the old Samsung pagers as they used the parallel port of OLD computers for programming and I have a bag full of them in the junk box to experiment with.   

OldOne.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: CFS_fire32 on October 17, 2013, 07:44:15 PM
Any more progress on being able to programme the old 'tone 7' callout tone into the Apollo Gold pagers?

Thought I seen a message on the paging site the other day from a Brigade offering to change their members pagers to tone 7... can't remember who is was though.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: HeavyRescue on October 20, 2013, 01:41:01 PM
Any more progress on being able to programme the old 'tone 7' callout tone into the Apollo Gold pagers?

Thought I seen a message on the paging site the other day from a Brigade offering to change their members pagers to tone 7... can't remember who is was though.

This msg was just sent out.
"CRML INFO: Reminder to members with a black apollo pager and wish to have your response tone changed come to training monday night one time only bco 0427****** - CFS Coromandel Valley Info"

How can this be done!??!
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Benji on October 20, 2013, 05:57:57 PM
As a part of the programming done to them it is possible to force a tone or leave it as user sets. It can even be programmed to have a different tone for each capcode in the pager.

Perhaps who ever manages pager programming in CFS is making a visit to the unit to untick the box for people. When looking at the software every so briefly for the SES ones, it didnt appear to be able to upload new tones (eg 'Tone 7'). But who knows..
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: OldOne on October 20, 2013, 07:11:38 PM
With the SES pagers you can program a custom 16 tone sequence as one option which could be a sequence as per "tone 7" in the CFS pagers when you know the frequency of each tone step.  Using this option you can customise a pager's tones to suit hearing impaired members.

I assume the CFS pagers would have the same options in the software.

Oldone.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: HeavyRescue on October 21, 2013, 08:35:46 AM
So how can I do this to my Apollo pager?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Wholey on October 21, 2013, 09:41:12 AM
Are CFS and SES pagers very different?
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: CFS_Firey on October 21, 2013, 10:36:23 AM
So how can I do this to my Apollo pager?

You need a pager programmer (Something like this (http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Apollo-USB-Pager-Programmer-AL202-AL301-AL777-T2K-812-924-Gold-Pilot-/150996839512?pt=US_Pagers&hash=item23281cec58)) and a whole lot of time to work out the right note sequence to replicate tone 7...
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: CFS_Firey on October 21, 2013, 10:37:17 AM
Are CFS and SES pagers very different?

I'm pretty sure it's the same make and model...
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: OldOne on October 21, 2013, 04:31:23 PM
Are CFS and SES pagers very different?

The pagers are slightly different in use but do the same job on the same network; noting the programming software and interface jig are are completely different.   
I have programmed the SES Alpha Elite pagers many times but have not had a chance to play with the CFS Apollo Gold pagers. (need a couple of damaged CFS ones to open up and use as jigs to find out their operation.)

Oldone.
Title: Re: Apollo Gold Pagers.
Post by: Wholey on May 05, 2014, 01:25:41 PM
I was issued with a Alpha elite pager and these don't allow you to have different alert tones for responses or info messages, it is quite annoying.