I'm actually thinking of going back to pagers. I'll have my mobile phone off, and will use it to call in only. I only get 1 or 2 calls every other day, so pager would suit me fine. No tracking all the time.
There's actually a website, pagersdirect.net, that deals in pagers here in the States, partnered with not one but _two_ paging service providers! They are Spok (formerly known as USA Mobility) and American Messaging. You can get refurbished Motorola pagers (the cheaper option) or new pagers manufactured by Apollo or Unication.
For fun after alpha numeric paging came out we used to have a special interface we hooked up to the demodulator curcuit of a scanner tuned to the local paging frequency and interfaced it into a Windows PC program that would decode all incoming pager traffic. Not encrypted and you could read every ones alpha and numeric pages that were sent over the paging channel.
I work for a municipality. Our admin just retired. He had a pager that he used thru the city. In 1990 the municipality bought one for every city employee and had to honor paying it till said people retire or quit. Still worked
Pagers are used in my country's National weather service to get reports every 6hrs from each weather station and for emergencies. I guess in other fields are also used
it's probably due to the fact that someone probably blasted that number with endless messages that he had to unregister it lol not a wise thing to say, "here is my number, send me a message" lol 😆
9:34 those three contact pads next to the speaker hole were used for programming the CAP code in to the pager. This was the unique identifier for the pager account. It really server no other purpose and was not used for testing.
In the U.S., American Messaging still supports many Flex pagers. There's not much of a market for them for the Average Joe, but many hospitals and doctors still use them. As far as a pager having an actual phone number, they do not. They work on a specific frequency and Channel Access Protocol (CAP code). Your pager provider assigns you a phone number, and the pages get forwarded to the pager. It's possible for more than one pager to have the exact same frequency and CAP code, if you or someone can program them, then all those pagers will get the same page. If you're able to have 10 pagers set-up that way, clip then all to your belt (I hope your pants don't fall down from the weight), turn them all on, head to a restaurant then page yourself, you'll sound like a bunch of smoke detectors going off, let alone be very annoying. :)
Thanks for this video! How interesting! Was a kiddo when these were popular and always wondered how they worked when my dad got a message from his security guard job ! Very cool!! :) made my day
10:32 yes Ball Grid Array CPU chips were used by Motorola quite a bit. We used to fix cold / broken solder joints by taking a single filament of wire and shoving it thought the though holes with a quick resolver make for a quick solid repair. We also used rudimentary Ungar 6966C heat guns to take the surface mount chips off and replacement them with success!
10.59 the two black square components are filters and know to break when dropped hard. If you shook the board next to your ear and heard a lot of rattling it was sure sign of damage. Clock and IF crystals yes the one in the blue boot was the key crystal that got changed out to change the frequency of the receiver board then a tuning process was performed with a service monitor and oscilloscope
I was a kid in the 90's, my dad had a pager, I've watched videos and read articles on these, I still don't get how you get text messages on a pager from a landline or I just don't get how these actually work
10:34 correct this is a BGA cpu chip. We used rudimentary heat guns to remove and replace then when defective or cracked from physical damage snd repaired these boards on a daily basis.
Yeah, I know what you mean. The messages aren't encrypted. You can use a scanner and software called PDW to watch all pager messages. Probably not legal (but undetectable, as receive only), but possible.
16:39 "TEST" 🤣 yes this is one of the most used messages from a terminal as customers used to always call in asking for a test page when they thought they might be missing calls.. Remember as you stated its a send once and forget technology, also very small device that was subject to physical drops and water damage.
Thanks for explaining all of this, Kris. Would it be possible to enter words by using your ABC keys on the phone - or would you have to call the hotline to be able to send a text message?
I can't send, it keeps going to this message that says"if this is an emergency dial 911, if you need help placing a call..." or something like that. Is it because i am in the us?
I remember pagers back in the 90s, did they take a SIM card, did it cost money to send text and did you pay monthly as you do now with a pay monthly SIM deal.
These ones were purchased outright for round £50/$75. No sim card and no cost - the cost of the call covered the cost of the message and this was obviously paid for by the sender of the message. Crazy how far we've come in so little time isn't it?
Kris Cochrane I mean if you think about modern cell phones, the cell phone companies really just took several different items that people were already using before and combined said items into one. I find the original technology much more impressive than the new technology, which isn’t as innovative as you’d think.
You had the option to ask the operator to send you this message: follow my youtube channel and subscribe Ah but you chose to ask her oh send me what ever you like
lol, it's okay. At least you answer lightning fast. What really surprised me is that there are actually still people working to send out pager messages. That can't be profitable, they must not get more than 10 calls a day or am I wrong. I remember that I always wanted a pager in the early nineties but the problem was that in this country you had to pay a monthly service fee if I remember it right. That's why I never got one, I was a kid and had no money. Very nice video man, appreciate it.
2020 anyone
⬇️
Noz Q can I still activate a pager to beep ? I have one but don’t even know how to start to activate one ? Where do I go?
George Creed idk lol never had a pager before :((
@@georgecreed3426 look up pager providers in your area and see if you can get a plan
I'm actually thinking of going back to pagers. I'll have my mobile phone off, and will use it to call in only. I only get 1 or 2 calls every other day, so pager would suit me fine. No tracking all the time.
I just got mine from Pageplusus.com
Good luck mate
Did you get the pager? And where and what service?
Pagera are still used in hospitals for medical staff and for emergency services and i am sure they have many outer uses
Robert Clohesy correct! We use them in our facility. I’ll be getting a personal pager ... it’s less distracting than a phone hahaha
Tolani Youngblood pagers making a comeback ! I just got mine on today
Robert House g
There's actually a website, pagersdirect.net, that deals in pagers here in the States, partnered with not one but _two_ paging service providers! They are Spok (formerly known as USA Mobility) and American Messaging. You can get refurbished Motorola pagers (the cheaper option) or new pagers manufactured by Apollo or Unication.
Correct many if not all volunteer fire departments like mine use pagers for emergencies.
High school in 94 was all about these. I am actually jelly that you have two.
For fun after alpha numeric paging came out we used to have a special interface we hooked up to the demodulator curcuit of a scanner tuned to the local paging frequency and interfaced it into a Windows PC program that would decode all incoming pager traffic. Not encrypted and you could read every ones alpha and numeric pages that were sent over the paging channel.
didn't you mean «no encryption» that's the thing. anyone with a SDR can grab those raw ASCII text messages.
@@Diamond_Tiara correct
I work for a municipality. Our admin just retired. He had a pager that he used thru the city. In 1990 the municipality bought one for every city employee and had to honor paying it till said people retire or quit. Still worked
What company did they use to get service
Pagers are used in my country's National weather service to get reports every 6hrs from each weather station and for emergencies. I guess in other fields are also used
What country ?
I called the pager number 3 years after the video and got“This subscriber number is inactive”
it's probably due to the fact that someone probably blasted that number with endless messages that he had to unregister it lol not a wise thing to say, "here is my number, send me a message" lol 😆
9:34 those three contact pads next to the speaker hole were used for programming the CAP code in to the pager. This was the unique identifier for the pager account. It really server no other purpose and was not used for testing.
In the U.S., American Messaging still supports many Flex pagers. There's not much of a market for them for the Average Joe, but many hospitals and doctors still use them. As far as a pager having an actual phone number, they do not. They work on a specific frequency and Channel Access Protocol (CAP code). Your pager provider assigns you a phone number, and the pages get forwarded to the pager. It's possible for more than one pager to have the exact same frequency and CAP code, if you or someone can program them, then all those pagers will get the same page. If you're able to have 10 pagers set-up that way, clip then all to your belt (I hope your pants don't fall down from the weight), turn them all on, head to a restaurant then page yourself, you'll sound like a bunch of smoke detectors going off, let alone be very annoying. :)
Thanks for this video! How interesting! Was a kiddo when these were popular and always wondered how they worked when my dad got a message from his security guard job ! Very cool!! :) made my day
143 in love you pager !!!lol
Thanks for the walk down memory lane... Now back to my iPhone handheld supercomputer. Cheers, #SeattleRingHunter
You should do some ASMR videos
10:32 yes Ball Grid Array CPU chips were used by Motorola quite a bit. We used to fix cold / broken solder joints by taking a single filament of wire and shoving it thought the though holes with a quick resolver make for a quick solid repair. We also used rudimentary Ungar 6966C heat guns to take the surface mount chips off and replacement them with success!
10.59 the two black square components are filters and know to break when dropped hard. If you shook the board next to your ear and heard a lot of rattling it was sure sign of damage. Clock and IF crystals yes the one in the blue boot was the key crystal that got changed out to change the frequency of the receiver board then a tuning process was performed with a service monitor and oscilloscope
I was a kid in the 90's, my dad had a pager, I've watched videos and read articles on these, I still don't get how you get text messages on a pager from a landline or I just don't get how these actually work
10:34 correct this is a BGA cpu chip. We used rudimentary heat guns to remove and replace
then when defective or cracked from physical damage snd repaired these boards on a daily basis.
11:00 not running caps, however tunable Rf Inductor coils. We used ceramic turning tools by hand to bring the receiver in to perfect tuning
just here to watch something I dont have
9:37 Yes that is the VHF low band antenna for 25 MHz - 54 MHz operations USA.
6:41 Later in the game Motorola started using electroluminescence light panels behind the whole LCD screen of the alpha numeric Advisor pagers.
Muy lindos saludos desde 🇦🇷🇦🇷
If this pager is still active and you are willing to part with it I'd be interested in negotiating with you.
Yeah, I know what you mean. The messages aren't encrypted. You can use a scanner and software called PDW to watch all pager messages. Probably not legal (but undetectable, as receive only), but possible.
two-tone, 512 1200 2400 baud, POCSAG, Flex 1600 3200 6400 baud, Re-Flex, low band, 400Mhz, 900Mhz, VHF, UHF, Uniden, Panasonic, Motorola, Uniden, RIM Blackberry, Samsung, Bravo, Advisor, Demond, Xtal oscillator, cap code, Rx, Tx, ferrite cage, pager neck, hot air, multi layer pcb, LCD repair, surface mount repair, been there done that need I say more?
I remember being a little kid and i wanted one of these so badly. not sure how it works but sent a message to the number
Had 3 just like them gave them to my daughter's back in the day can you still use them ?
10:25 We referenced this board with the LCD attached as the logic board and the other you removed as the receiver board.
16:39 "TEST" 🤣 yes this is one of the most used messages from a terminal as customers used to always call in asking for a test page when they thought they might be missing calls.. Remember as you stated its a send once and forget technology, also very small device that was subject to physical drops and water damage.
Thanks for explaining all of this, Kris. Would it be possible to enter words by using your ABC keys on the phone - or would you have to call the hotline to be able to send a text message?
Can someone give me a tutorial on how to send a pager message?
I need a sms pager. Could you make yourself useful mate.
Only sending numbers? How about alphabets?
"No market for them" proceeds to go and buy one and use it as daily driver
Yes..... I am a dork.... XD
Could you hack one to turn the central heating back on after you've been on holidays
pagers don't have transmitters sadly.
was the first device to text before cell phones
a-a-ron
anyone know how i use the spok pager
I can't send, it keeps going to this message that says"if this is an emergency dial 911, if you need help placing a call..." or something like that. Is it because i am in the us?
You're gonna have to enter the absolutely-full number including the country code at the beginning. For the UK, it's +44
It’s going to your carrier’s information service, make a contact with the number type being ‘pager’
but do you have to put something in? like a simcard or something? or is it just contact between the devices themselves?
I think it ties to the pager itself rather than a removable card.
how much does your pager service cost??
Please I want to get one and use it does anyone know if it would work?
I remember pagers back in the 90s, did they take a SIM card, did it cost money to send text and did you pay monthly as you do now with a pay monthly SIM deal.
These ones were purchased outright for round £50/$75. No sim card and no cost - the cost of the call covered the cost of the message and this was obviously paid for by the sender of the message. Crazy how far we've come in so little time isn't it?
Kris Cochrane I mean if you think about modern cell phones, the cell phone companies really just took several different items that people were already using before and combined said items into one. I find the original technology much more impressive than the new technology, which isn’t as innovative as you’d think.
@@jacobfelix9452 iPhone did same thing. Today's phones are just prototype of pager, landline etc. 👍
2020 protesters should bring back this tech
How to know my pager code?
how I got my pager details? I was lost,kindly help
The number is not in use anymore...? (dialed it as a UK number)
HOW MUCH IS YOUR BILL PER MONTH ?
John Mc it was Free
@@CandanceOnline cool
I just bought a pager with service for 1 year for 90.00
@@texasprepper869 awesome!
@@texasprepper869 where did you get it?
I found my dd's old Motorola Page me in the drawer. It's about 20 years old. But it's still working. I don't know how. How to find it's number
It may be on the back label.
POTUS in a bicycle accident.
P.S. Hope you've watched West Wing
+Liam Bruce haha
80085
I cant seem to be able to dial the number from Ireland :( Tried the UK dial code with no success.
Did we have pagers in Ireland?
Unfortunately ,Singapore had turn off paging networks completely
RIP
Your call cannot be completed as diald
Says number unavailable :( Did the pager company shut down
9:47 you presume correct that is the antenna.
But you can only send messages through an operator?
do the pagers still work in 2019?
I guess not.
They do!
Yes they do I have info if your interested
@@KrisCochrane how they work.is there any signal towers or any thing
Are you selling them
i tried in the usa it keeps saying number or code you tried is invalid try agin . guess i cant try it in usa i was going to send you hello from usa
Need international dialing, and must put the country code.
+44
You had the option to ask the operator to send you this message: follow my youtube channel and subscribe
Ah but you chose to ask her oh send me what ever you like
Hello! Can you receive this from America?
I hear you from Louisiana USA
Just goes to sprint help center
Are you in the US?
Taco Cat!
U sound like scott manely
If only I had his subscriber count! Ha!
222777
Received!
Pager networks still exist! I thought they'd been dismantled in the 90's
yes,our factory still product pager and transmitters.
why do you keep saying "aim"?
+AlmightyJesus I say errrm lol it's my hesitation noise and I hate it.
lol, it's okay. At least you answer lightning fast. What really surprised me is that there are actually still people working to send out pager messages. That can't be profitable, they must not get more than 10 calls a day or am I wrong. I remember that I always wanted a pager in the early nineties but the problem was that in this country you had to pay a monthly service fee if I remember it right. That's why I never got one, I was a kid and had no money. Very nice video man, appreciate it.
you should have paged him.
Can I send a message to you from China? Lol
Chan Yan you can send me a message 07981845588 😂
@@sabrina-pq2oe Sailor mooooon it is i... sailor saturn!
? number
+wobblyman2000 Haha...It's there now!