Are Pagers More Reliable Compared to Phones?

[Alan Arqueza]

If true, can you explain how a pager is more reliable than a cellphone when a signal is deterministic of the complexity of the environment? (when a signal is received in a complex environment - how materials block radio signals).

 

[jedishrfu]

A pager receives a very simple data message of a very short duration requiring very little bandwidth whereas to sustain a cellphone conversation requires much more bandwidth and time.

As an example, some people have noted that in poor communication areas a text message can get through but a cell phone call can't.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-tha...-receive-texts-even-though-you-cant-get-calls

 

[berkeman]

Also, pagers generally have separate frequency bands, which have little traffic on them. You are competing with many other users for cellphone text bandwidth, but pagers do not have such large traffic demands. Still, to optimize the costs of pager infrastructure, they may choose to have very few pager channels in a given area, which would tend to decrease their reliability compared to cellphone infrastructure.

 

[davenn]

If true, can you explain how a pager is more reliable than a cellphone when a signal is deterministic of the complexity of the environment? (when a signal is received in a complex environment - how materials block radio signals).

Also, pagers generally have separate frequency bands, which have little traffic on them. You are competing with many other users for cellphone text bandwidth, but pagers do not have such large traffic demands. Still, to optimize the costs of pager infrastructure, they may choose to have very few pager channels in a given area, which would tend to decrease their reliability compared to cellphone infrastructure.

Yes, agreed, and also, pager base transmitters in general a substantially higher power output ... kiloWatts. They are TX only and can run the
high power transmitters as there is no receiver on site to have to have protective filtering.

In Australia and New Zealand, us amateur radio operators use the pager systems in each country to determine band opening conditions across the Tasman sea gap, between the countries. When we hear the 150 - 155MHz pagers starting to come in, we are alerted to the fact that ducting is starting to occur and we should start listening out for our 144.2 MHz SSB frequencies for contactsDave

 

[sophiecentaur]

In Australia and New Zealand, us amateur radio operators use the pager systems in each country to determine band opening conditions across the Tasman sea gap, between the countries. When we hear the 150 - 155MHz pagers starting to come in, we are alerted to the fact that ducting is starting to occur and we should start listening out for our 144.2 MHz SSB frequencies for contacts

Dave: you are a mine of sexy information. That is such a random thing - and so useful as a channel quality monitor.