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Pager Lives Again Thanks To Python And Mastodon (hackaday.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[-] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago

they never quite made it into the pantheon of excellent sitcom plot devices like answering machines

Huh. I never thought about it before, but the times I can remember pagers being a significant plot points in sitcoms is when they were already on the way out. Dennis Duffy's pager business on 30 Rock for example.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

They use pagers all the time in Scrubs, since hospitals were one of the last places were pagers were still useful.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Still do, I have my pager on me right now. Though I feel they've gone down in quality over the years. I usually go through at least one a year, and the buzzer function tends to die after just a few months.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

There was Big Bob's Beepers on Hey Arnold.

[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

Pagers never died in the hospital

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

I used one in 2019 when my wife was pregnant.

I work in secure facilities where I can’t have any phones, smart watches, anything with wifi, microphones, etc. However, pagers are allowed since they receive only.

I was also pretty mobile, moving between buildings so calling my desk phone was very unreliable.

The pager service I got had an email gateway so my wife could either text or email messages to it.

I set up 2 iOS shortcuts to send emails. One said “call me when you can” and the other said “call me NOW”.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

No idea if this can be secure in any reasonable way, but one way communication based on cheap devices and available frequencies could be quite attractive for activist mass mobilisations, or disaster releasee 🤔

[-] [email protected] 34 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Pagers are still fairly popular for hospital workers because (among other things) they are cheap, minimally distracting, and not that useful if stolen. And they are still very popular among people who have to work in secure areas or on airgapped machines because it is (effectively) one way communication.

But for the vast majority of people? SMS provides all the same benefits (I mean, pagers are basically just one way SMS boxes) and emergency alert systems already exist.

[-] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

Pagers also work even in parts of the hospital that cell phones don't for whatever reason. At least last time I had a hospital pager a few years ago. Now a lot of places use commercial solutions like vocera that also work everywhere and allow two way voice comms.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Pager transmitters can be fairly high powered since it's one way. One transmitter can cover a very large area if the antenna is up high.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

How does a one way transmitter (transceivers are 2 way) ensure the message is received? Does the sender just have to hope the recipient is in range at the time of sending?

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

With one way pagers, there is no way to ensure the message is received. The transmitters can be hundreds of watts and the signal is narrow band and uses forward error correction. As long as the pager is on and in the coverage area, there is a pretty good chance the message will get through. The signals will penetrate much deeper into buildings than cell signals. Of course if you are underground or in a shielded room the signal will not get through and you will not know that you missed a message.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Might want to look into LoraWan and similar. It's even two way and very low power.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

nice

this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2024
227 points (95.6% liked)

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