Pagers were a big deal for a while there, even if they never quite made it into the pantheon of excellent sitcom plot devices like answering machines did. Anyway, [Finnley Dolfin] had some pagers a…
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.