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In the HAM Radio world we use them. But we also use our own infrastructure. I have mine set to let me know when something happens that needs my attention asap. Only works around my stuff or other HAMs that have stuff tied into our system. So not useful outside narrow circumstances.
People that work on-call do this, especially in tech or security.
I’m considering making the switch because my paging calls are from a random set of phone numbers, so I cannot attach a specific ringtone to them. After a few horrible pages, you start to associate your phone going off as a world-ending experience, when it’s just your wife calling to ask if you want her to pick something up for you from the shop. A separate device that disassociates my phone from pain would be nice.
A separate device that disassociates my phone from pain would be nice.
Like a work phone?
Opsgenie and PagerDuty let you add them as contacts from within the app and it manages the rotating numbers for you so you can keep using a specific ringtone for them. This is also how they can override DND so you can go back to muting your phone at night and know that pages will still come in.
Alternative thought, what about dual sims? Could you not assign a ringtone to a specific sim, and use that sims phone number only for work?
Barring that, something like a Google Voice number would work, too.
People that work in classified environments. You can’t have smart devices (phones, watches, anything that communicates with the outside) while in these controlled spaces. pagers are acceptable because they’re 1 way communication, so there’s no risk of data leaks from the classified space
Pagers are not guaranteed to be 1 way comms and bringing them into secure locations is a security violation. Additionally, depending on the classification, no unauthorized and undisclosed devices of any kind would be permitted, including any electronics or electronic media such as tapes, CDs, discs, etc. Even when I was issued a verified 1-way pager, I was specifically briefed I was not permitted to bring it into a classified location. Most of the highly classified SCIFS are shielded anyways, you can’t use it inside so it’s safer to leave it out, along with all other devices.
If your organization allows it, then (if federal) they are breaking the law and should be reported/up-channeled. If it’s corpo, you should bring up additional concerns with your security team.
Edit: Also, it goes without saying, current events are probably a good reason why pagers (and other devices) aren’t allowed in classified areas. While most focus on disclosure (getting out), we must not forget the risk of data/operations getting destroyed.
Idk man, I have a federally compliant 1 way pager. So it’s not illegal. We score the highest marks on our DoD security audits every year. Theyre distrubuted from the security office, so I’m sure they do some sort of vetting on each individual one.
We’re a govt contractor, but our civilian govt counterparts use them too
I saw something where they gave their kid a pager instead of a phone so they could still be told when to come home but couldn’t waste time fucking about online.
I thought that might actually be pretty effective except for the fact that the kid could easily just ignore your pages.
Although there are dumb phones out there
3000 less people than last week
You can also setup local comms network for them and the bands they can operate in have better structural penetration vs most WiFi/cellular?
It also gives them a singular, simple device that won’t be confused for personal notifications like a smart phone.
Not everything needs to be bleeding edge. We still use forks and spoons cuz they just work.
Not everything needs to be bleeding edge. We still use forks and spoons cuz they just work.
I use my hands, even better than forks and spoons.
Hands are essentially just giant sporks
You use your hands because they were better than just your mouth 🤷♂️ (thanks evolution)
I’ve been told I’m pretty good with my mouth.
Doctors
Israel could have taken out entire hospital staffs with this “technique”. Hope they remain human and don’t.
A lot of the pager victims were civilian, and calling zionists “human” when a decades-long war has long since surpassed the genocide threshold is insulting.
Not defending arab extremists either in case your us/them mentality couldn’t tell and no, not all Palestinians are terrorists.
They (Israeli government) have murdered thousands of innocent men, women and children already without any remorse. Destroyed the entirety of Gaza.
What makes you think the Israeli government has any heart, sympathy or feelings at all?
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Boo hoo poor terrorists got blown up
Your name and comment just screams ‘’troll’’ but for the sake of it, I will respond and then block you since you got nothing good to comment anyway.
Your particular comment claims that all Palestinian, Iranian (and in general Arabian) lives are terrorists which is immensely wrong and a Zionistic view. Secondly, what do you consider a terrorist? Because if we look how Israel as a state was made and what atrocities they’ve done since 1948 up until 2024 (ongoing). We could very well consider Israel a terroristic state.
Now about the pagers that have been purposefully exploded by the Israeli state (government). It’s widely known that also innocent people (non-Hezbollah) have been wounded and murdered because of Israel’s terroristic action;
- How Israel Built a Modern-Day Trojan Horse: Exploding Pagers From the article:
Mohammed Awada, 52, and his son were driving by one man whose pager exploded, he said. “My son went crazy and started to scream when he saw the man’s hand flying away from him,” he said.
By the end of the day, at least a dozen people were dead and more than 2,700 were wounded, many of them maimed. And the following day, 20 more people were killed and hundreds wounded when walkie-talkies in Lebanon also began mysteriously exploding. Some of the dead and wounded were Hezbollah members, but others were not; four of the dead were children.
- Israel Blamed as Pager Explosions in Lebanon Kill 12 & Injure 2,800; Hezbollah Vows to Respond From the article:
Individual explosions occurred in supermarkets, cafes, houses and in other public places. Many of the injuries were sustained by civilians who were not carrying the pagers themselves, including at least two children who died from their wounds.
- Second Wave of Blasts Hits Lebanon as Hand-Held Radios Explode From the article:
One of the explosions happened at an outdoor funeral in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where thousands had gathered to mourn two Hezbollah fighters, a paramedic and a 12-year-old boy killed in the pager blasts.
“I saw stuff today that you can only see in movies,” said Hussein Awada, 54, recounting how he watched as a man attempting to clear the road for ambulances in Beirut was gravely injured when his hand-held radio exploded.
“It took seconds — the thing just blew up in his hands,” Mr. Awada said. “Maybe tomorrow lighters will explode, too. If you want to light a cigarette, it will just explode in your hand.”
Fires engulfed at least 60 homes and shops, and dozens of cars and motorcycles, including in the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut, said the Lebanese Civil Defense, an emergency rescue organization. Both areas are known as Hezbollah strongholds. Ambulances clogged the roads, and some hospitals in southern Lebanon were swamped with dozens of wounded patients, according to Lebanon’s state-run news agency.
If you want to kill one another, go ahead. But what Israel (government) has done is (once again) a terroristic action. They murdered innocent people along the way without remorse. The pagers went off in cars, shops and such.
I will block you now, MY_ANUS_IS_BLEEDING@lemm.ee, since you are definitely not the kind of human I would want to interact with on the internet.
Its crazy how all those zero years old terrorists were operating. All in their cribs and their parent’s arms and shit. Absolutely despicable. Glad theres a list 14 pages long of just zero years old dead terrorists.
^ This is how you sound, like a cunt.
What kinds of “heroes” and “freedom fighters” hide in schools and hospitals and use innocent people as human shields?
IDF
Parroting the Zionist line doesn’t make for a decent discussion.
You’re absolutely correct. I have a shit take here
Israel actually use palestinians as human shield
Please elaborate.
The kind that are left after the smart leader-y ones get shot or blown up.
Makes a lot of sense now.
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Makes sense. How come NATO doesn’t train Ukrainian soldiers to hide inside schools in hospitals when fighting against Russians back in the early days of the invasion? How come US military doesn’t train to hide inside schools and hospitals when fighting other insurgents?
Bruh, you’re literally defending a country who just made a bunch of people unwitting suicide bombers in a foreign country and injured thousands for political purposes. This is terrorism
You some champion of missing the point?
Those devices were bought by Hesbollah, for their soldiers to use, and were connected to a network they operate.
From what I understand about the attack, even if one of these devices made it’s way into the hands of a doctor, it would have to be connected to the Hesbollah network to detonate.
Multiple electronics stores caught on fire. I doubt Mossad found a specific box that said “To: terrorists” on it and only rigged those pagers. They just don’t care about killing civilians.
My understanding of this is those pagers and the network they were connected to were only for use by Hesbollah.
Yet they killed children and were in mobile phone stores.
Not just their soldiers, civilian members of the organisation were also using them.
Bold of you to call them soldiers. For the Israel state or, I hope, government, they are all active/inactive terrorists. Yeah, 10 year olds, too.
I called them soldiers because that is the terminology the person I was replying to used.
Don’t worry, that wasn’t the point. I hope you didn’t feel instigated by my comment. It wasn’t my intention.
Seems unlikely considering only pagers belonging to Hezbollah had the explosives added.
Source?
Multiple news articles are saying this was a production level attack, on devices that were specifically ordered by Hesbollah.
It’s been widely reported, here’s a reuters source.
There isn’t one, because this is objectively not true.
There are many sources because it’s been widely reported. Here’s one: reuters.
Hezbollah, the de facto government of large parts of Lebanon, ordered the pagers and widely distributed them. Many of them went to civilians for legitimate purposes. It’s unreasonable to suggest that these are fair targets because they were briefly in Hezbollah’s control at some point along the chain.
widely distributed them. Many of them went to civilians for legitimate purposes.
Source?
Source?
Ive provided one in another comment.
Who still uses pagers?
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon (injured in pager explosion), apparently!
He was probably meeting with someone who had one, being an ambassador and all.
People that don’t want their location triangulated from cell phone towers.
Beeper king ftw
If anyone sees a salamander, it’s Liz’s.
I think I’d like a 2-way pager these days. They were a little ahead of their time because me and most people preferred phone calls to sending text messages but that’s obviously flipped hard over the last decade. I straight up groan when someone has the audacity to call me now lol
They’re called phones.
They offer text messaging as well yeah, but simpler devices are nice. I use my smartphone most when I’m at work, bored in the break from (like right now) but outside of that I just usually have better things to do. I often leave my phone at home in favor of my smart watch which does a lot less but still has my music on it and a way for the wife to contact me which are the 2 main things I value. I’m just saying that even it’s not for the majority, 2 way pagers would likely have a place in the market. There’s a whole group of people these days that love shopping for dumb phones to cut distractions out of their days.
The Wire… great show to watch.
It’s a discipline.
Work has me using my current phone for alerts on my on-call rotation. I asked them to send me a pager instead if I can’t properly filter the alerts (Jira on Android has at least 2 sets of notification settings and then there are settings apparently within Jira. I was getting basically every Jira, Confluence, etc. message).
Hezbolah, apparently.
Not anymore.
So…essentially just because they’re cheap?
I can see maybe businesses that don’t want/need to buy full-blown smartphones for their employees. These things probably cost $50? vs. $700 for a smartphone.
Cellular signals have a hard time penetrating dense concrete buildings and underground structures. That’s why doctors still use them, even in the States.
Doctors that work in hospital bunkers? Do pagers not use cellular signals?
Hospitals are practically faraday cages, it can be hard to get a signal in large hospitals.
But a text message that amounts to just a few bits can usually sneak through without much delay.
I was thinking it had more to do with the use of the 900MHz band which has advantages in the penetration of certain materials compared to higher frequencies but I’m not an expert.
There are definitely cheaper smartphones than that too.
Useful ones?
Of course? They have the same functionality. A cheap one can be under $100 and works just fine.
