Batboard

I just wanna say that my Apollo Pilot 990 is the best pager ever made, period. It has the best backlight, a nice large display, long battery life on 1 AA, it's hand programmable, never misses a page, and you get EIGHT capcodes on POCSAG.

Does somebody wanna tell me I'm wrong ?

You're wrong.

The thing I like about them is that there are no frame restrictions, so all you need to know is the capcode - there's no fussing with frame places or anything like that. Downside to that of course is poorer battery life but it's a small tradeoff.

You know, I've never understood what that whole stupid frame thing is about. What is a "frame" and how come some pagers only let you program certain pairs of capcodes ?

Is it easy to program (or should I say easy to screw things up in the programming)? We have a lot of "button pushers" so to speak and they seem to push the wrong buttons ALL the time which means radios/pagers usually don't work due to these people trying to push every button.

You can prevent people from screwing up the programming by setting a programming password.

I've been thinking about picking one up for myself for 'advanced warning' of MERT pages at work.

Has anyone played with the XP version that's supposed to be water resistant and have a charging cradle?

Yeah the hand programming password is also enterred by hand. I don't like how the XP's only use AAA's. My 990 has 8 capcodes, even though the website only advertises 6.

I'm surprised more public safety agencies don't use Apollos.

So can someone explain me what "frames" are ?

And what is "MERT" ?

Brad Dye did a pretty good job of breaking down the frames and POCSAG coding rules on his website. Take a look here: http://www.braddye.com/eng_adv.html

In my case, MERT stands for Medical Emergency Response Team. We're the in-house team that first-responds to medical emergencies ahead of the ambulance. We typically have people on scene within 90 seconds of the emergency call, whereas the ambulance is about 5-7 minutes out (or more if they can't get a crew).

Well, the super simple way to explain frames.. A capcode can belong to a "frame" which is based on the capcode. Think of it like a checksum (okay not really, but it's a similar idea). When a page is transmitted, it's lengh is predetermined in the frame header. The pagers that are sitting on the frequency listen to the header of all the pages coming in. If a capcode/header isn't in the same frame as what the pager is programmed for, it turns off it's receiver for the length of the page and turns back on. This signifigantly saves battery life (If the receiver is on only 50% of the time, you get 50% more life). However, if your pager ignores frames and listens to everything, battery life goes downhill. That said, an Apollo pager still gets decent battery life, but instead of lasting 3 months, it might last 1, but hey..batteries are reasonably cheap anyway.

I've probably missed a few things above, but you get the general idea.

where can i get one of these in 900mhz FLEX?

anyone? lol

did a google and could not find anywhere that sells them online

http://www.apollowireless.com/shtml/index.html

Try calling them as I don't believe their online purchasing works right.

I just became a dealer for Apollo and can help you out if you send me an email.
[email protected]

email sent

now mabye i can get rid of all this pager programming junk and clean up my desk

Apollo pagers do have software and a programming kit if you want it.

Some features like the backlight timeout can't be programmed by hand, you need the software.

I am also a dealer for Apollo Pagers. The Voice pager (very similar to Keynote) has taken off like crazy here, as its much nicer that the MV. I just ordered the XP with rechargeable battery pack so I'll see how the Aplha works out.

[email protected]

Fire Departments in our area have been moving from traditional tone and voice paging system (Minitor 5's are $460 without amplified base another $50.00) to an alpha paging system that was built by a public safety dispatch center. This is not a commercial system. This system has redundancy, and emergency power. It operates on 152 Mhz, POCSAG, 512K and perform outstanding. The only problem has been people who say their alpha pager does not wake them up at night. Apollo XP Pilot answers that problem. I had the opportunity to test one with the amplified base and charging cradle. The pager works great and I never missed a call. I would select the Apollo XP Pilot over an Advisor II every time. Bigger screen, more cap codes, rechargeable, on and on.

Mark

I just ordered an Apollo Gold 929 in FLEX 900 MHz for $99.00. The Pilot XP does not come in FLEX mode, so I had to drop down a notch. Man these things are cheap compared to Motorola and not having to use software is a MAJOR bonus. I wish I would have ordered the 990. I guess I will anyway since they are so cheap.

Shes a beauty! Id love to get one though theres no dealers in OZ

Apollo now has a Minitor 5 knock-off in pre-production called the VP-200. Looks nearly identical to the 5, but with different RF and logic. The VP-100 Keynote knock-off is doing a great job of replacing ancient Keynotes for hospital paging.

For those of you who are Apollo dealers, or can order them. Can you get me a price on the Apollo 929 POCSAG? I need it in the 412MHz range. I know they make these, as I've seen a large number of them at a client's site, they're using 413MHz. Thanks!

Edit: According to their website, it is the 929M 410-418MHz. I'd also be interested in a 929R, I would assume it's the same price?

What I was told is the POCSAG models are cheaper in price compared to the FLEX models. I may be reading too far into your post, but if you're affiliated with the federal government, then Ken at Apollo Wireless can give you GSA pricing.