Frequently Asked Questions
- What is a pager?
- What types of messages?
- How are messages sent to the pager?
- How do I send out the message?
- I have pager with both an individual ID and a "group" number. When we page the group ID, everyone's unit goes off. How does this work?
- How do these sports or news services available by pager work?
- I was given a pager and I was wondering how I could use it?
- Can I monitor pager transmissions?
- I miss a lot of pages since I'm in the subway a lot. What can I do about this?
- What factors affect price?
- How does nationwide paging work.
- Why can't I use my 2-way pager (or cell phone) in a hospital but I can use my (1-way) pager?
- Why can't I use my 2-way device on a plane?
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- What is a pager?
A pager is a small radio receiver (and sometimes transmitter) that can receive and if also a transmitter, send messages.
- What types of messages?
The earliest units, usually called beepers, simply gave a tone alert to indicate that the wearer should call a pre-determined number for a message. These have been replaced by newer technologies and are usually seen only in in-house applications like restaurant reservations paging systems.
Next came units displaying numbers, usually up to 12 digits per The most common use is to indicate the number of the caller, but it has become common to encode messages in the numbers. Because some of these systems use sideband signals from broadcast FM stations these have the widest coverage and are still favored by users who must have the greatest accessibility.
Newer units display alpha-numeric characters and support text messages with lengths in excess of 80 characters allowing meaningful messages to be sent to the wearer. Some of the newer pagers and services allow 2-way and 1.5 way messaging.
For a brief period voice pagers were available, but these have been withdrawn from the market.
- How are messages sent to the pager?
A pager contains small, low-power radio receiver which constantly monitors one of several radio frequencies dedicated to pager use. It ignores signals that do not contain the specific ID string matching that individual pager's ID (or capcode). The capcode is not the same as the phone number and it is the paging company's equipment that converts messages directed to your phone number to the radio signals directed to your pager.
Usually there are multiple radio transmitters sending the same signal for the same pagers. In some cases this is to improve penetration into buildings and in other cases to expand the area of coverage.
- How do I send a message?
nowMessenger! of course.
This varies by pager (or message) type and by paging vendor:
- Tone Only: when you call the pager's phone number you will hear a tone after the line is answered. At this point you hang up and the paging vendor's equipment will send a signal to the pager indicating that the wearer should call.
- Numeric: when you call the pager's phone number you should enter the DTMF digits you wish sent to the pager. Once you hang up, the paging vendor's equipment will sent this message to the pager. Some paging vendors support computer protocols, like SNPP, to send numeric messages, but it is possible to send the DTMF using a modem. In some cases, you may have to enter a PIN to distinguish amongst several pagers.
- Alpha-Numeric:
- Operator assisted - manual and expensive.
- Computer using TAP - requires that your computer have a compatible modem, a dedicated phone line and appropriate software. There are some standalone systems designed specifically for this.
- Computer using SNPP - requires that the paging vendor support SNPP and your computer must have internet access for the SNPP protocol and appropriate SNPP client software.
- Email - many paging vendors, and most cellular messaging systems, provide an email address where short messages can be sent to text devices. Sometimes numeric only devices are supported but there are usually limitations.
- Web - many paging vendors, and most cellular messaging systems, provide a web page for sending short text messages. Again, numeric only may sometimes be supported.
- I have pager with both an individual ID and a
"group" number. When we page the group ID, everyone's unit goes
off. How does this work?
Pagers can be configured to respond to more than one capcode. It is also possible for the paging vendor's equipment to send out the same page to multiple capcodes simultaneously. The advantage to the former is that it does not waste (sometimes crowded) airtime. The advantage to the latter is that it works with all pagers and allow re-configuration of groups, sometimes by the users themselves.
- How do these sports or news services available by pager work?
In the case of dedicated services, many pagers may be distributed with the same capcode, or pager may be distributed that respond to multiple capcodes so individual messages can be received as well as information broadcasts sent to all pagers.
More typically, a news, sports or weather service will allow a user to register on the web, specifying an email address where the text messages are sent and if the user chooses, this will be the address of a wireless device.
- I was given a pager and I was wondering how I could use
it?
The pager is of little use without the paging vendor who provides the service. You might be able to trade it in (there is a market for refurbished pagers) for a discount on a new pager with your paging vendor.
- Can I monitor pager transmissions?
Yes. The frequencies are readily known and the data is a digital stream going over the air. There are various vendors of equipment to decode the material and display it or feed it into your computer. However:
- The government prohibits monitoring these signals (see the ECPA).
- The volume of traffic can be high, beyond what you can watch on scrolling screen.
- Since numeric pagers do not use DTMF for over the air signalling you cannot use a DTMF decoder.
- I miss a lot of pages since I'm in the subway a lot. What
can I do about this?
Some paging providers provide message insurance where they send pages multiple time a few minutes apart. Most pagers use only one message slot in this case so the pager's capacity is not consumed.
Other vendors provide online services where you can review your most recent paging messages, but this is certainly not timely, assured message delivery.
- What factors affect price?
It varies by vendor, but these things are usually a factor:
- type of service with numeric usually cheaper than alphanumeric, which is cheaper than 2-way.
- additional services like voice mail (with pager notification) or assured delivery.
- while most offerings include a base number of pages, over-calls are usually charged on a per-message basis. If you use your pager for automated alerts be careful your monitoring software doesn't get into a loop.
- area of coverage, with the wider cover generally higher cost.
- How does nationwide paging work.
With regional and nationwide paging, the vendors telephone equipment sends the paging information to a satellite uplink where it is broadcast to land-based transmitters through out the region or nation. These land-based transmitters then broadcast the signal that is received by your pager.
- Why can't I use my 2-way pager (or cell phone) in a
hospital but I can use my (1-way) pager?
Much of the monitoring equipment in a hospital is sensitive to radio frequency signals and might be adversely affected by the transmit signals from a 2-way pager or a cell-phone.
Some hospitals have installed wireless telemetry systems for remote monitoring of patient vital signs and these systems are definitely affected by the transmit signals from 2-way pagers and cell-phones.
- Why can't I use my 2-way device on a plane?
Contrary to popular opinion, the use of 2 way devices on aircraft is not an FAA restriction due to impact on avionics, but it is an FCC restriction due to the impact on wireless cells. Aircraft move so quickly that 2-way wireless users would be constantly swapping cells and would quickly swamp the current infrastructure.