An informal Marketing Plan for starting a new radio paging company.

Motorola ADVISOR ™
This pager is no longer in production.

My latest presentation: This is it! This is where I see the paging business going, and I think that most of my colleagues agree. It's not just Paging anymore! In spite of recent unfortunate developments in the wireless industry, wireless data services of all types have a good chance of success.

For over ten years we have been trying to tell the public that it's Wireless Messaging, or Wireless Data not Paging . It looks like it is really catching on now with two-way technology. Want to know what's really going to be hot? Wireless e-mail using the new Motorola T900 two-way pager! You heard it first here. The original PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded by clicking on this link.

Motorola Talkabout®
T900 2-way pager

A very well written paper—126 pages long. It takes a while to download, but it's worth the wait.

Ericsson's ReFLEX vs. Mobitex paper takes the opposing view that Mobitex is better than ReFLEX:

(To be fair, I report both sides of issues whenever possible.)

ReFLEX vs. Mobitex

ReFLEX vs. Mobitex Please note that these papers, debating the merits of Mobitex and ReFLEX, are out of date now. They are approximately eight years old. Remember that this is 2008 and we are paying over $3 dollars for a gallon of gas and $10 for a good hamburger and fries — so factor that into any pricing that you see. Comments and/or corrections are welcome.

Paging Products

Code Plan Guide

National Service Technician's Guide

This valuable reference about many analog paging codes, is also called the "National Service Technician's Guide." It is a very large (18.8 MB) Adobe Acrobat PDF file—so it may take quite a while to download—depending on the speed of your Internet connection.

Glossary of Wireless Terms

This Glossary of Wireless Terms is a work in progress. Some of these definitions are mine and some of them, I shamelessly copied from other sites on the Internet. If anyone has an objection to this, please let me know. You are welcome to suggest corrections or additions.

CreataLink® 2XT

CreataLink® 2XT This two-way ReFLEX ²⁵ telemetry device was originally designed and manufactured by Motorola.

ReFLEX²⁵™

The definitive commercial paper on ReFLEX²⁵™ by Allan Angus and Ross Buckenham. This is a "PDF" file and requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Remote Monitoring with 2-Way Paging

This is an excellent article by Marvin T. Serhan.

" REMOTE MONITORING & CONTROL SERVICE BUREAU;
AN END-TO-END SOLUTION "

Highly recommended.

Two-Way Paging

Here is an interesting document that includes an introduction two-way technology, and a summary of features. It is a little out-of-date now but still quite informative.

The PURC Base Station

The Paging Universal Remote Control PURC base station was Motorola's first transmitters capable of simulcast operation.

The Nucleus Base Station

A description of the NECLEUS base station which replaced the PURC.

C-Net Remote Control

A description of how the C-Net remote control works by Motorola.

PURC Tone Remote Control

A description of how the PURC Tone Remote Control (TRC) worked, by Motorola.

Unipage Terminal

This is a very comprehensive description of the Unipage paging terminal, written after Motorola bought the company. It is a very large file and is recommended for downloading by those who have a fast Internet connection.

Versions of Two-Way Paging

Do you know the difference between one-and-a-half-way paging, and "full" two-way paging.? Here is a brief description of the different versions of two-way paging.

The original Wheel of Fortune:

The Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune concept explains how to increase revenue in a paging business by offering a multiplicity of services, some of which operate in off-peak time so as to not degrade the paging system's efficiency during regular traffic hours. This version is a little dated. Please also see: The New Wheel of Fortune for a more up-to-date revision.

I created this presentation while training my manager at Motorola on all the things you can do with a paging system (circa 1991). The concepts are mine; he thought of the title. It later became very popular, and many paging operators around the world continue to use these ideas in their businesses today.

Is Paging in trouble?

You must read this if you are interested in paging:

• Update midyear 2001—two-way is taking off like a rocket! There are over one million ReFLEX™ devices in use and half of them are on WebLink's system!
• Update late 2001—the rocket is crashing. Let's hope there's something left when it hits bottom.
• Update late 2002—it appears that the salvation of the paging industry may be Telemetry and Wireless Data.

What's Going to Happen with Two-way Voice Paging?

A correction was posted here on 3-18-02 giving credit for inventing this protocol to Mike Suchoff. Evidently the previous story, as told to me by a friend, was erroneous—sorry Mike.

Here is a very interesting whitepaper written by David Ruimy Gonzales—an engineer at Motorola—on FLEX™ Decoding.

Here is a very good MSEE Thesis written on FLEX™ decoding by Scott Lindsey McCulley.

Words from the Guru
on FLEX™ and bandwidth:

By His Divine Grace, Swami Orno Grafutti.

It's healthy to laugh once in a while.

FLEX, ReFLEX, and InFLEXion are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc.

CreataLink is a trademark of SmartSynch Communications Corp.

PAGING CELEBRITIES

Some of the great people in the paging industry that I have had the privilege to meet.

Paging Protocol Reference Paper

This is an interesting and comprehensive paper by Jay Moskowitz explaining most of the various protocols used in paging and wireless messaging. It includes Input Protocols, Inter-System and Intra-System Protocols, Transmitter Control Protocols, Pager Protocols, and Host Computer Protocols. This is the best article on paging protocols that I have been able to find.

I have worked with and for Jay Moskowitz a couple of times in my career. He was the founder of RTS Wireless , Senior VP of Engineering for Spectrum Communications and Electronics Inc. , and creator of Tickertec™, a 1977 stock market alerting system that was eventually extended for the generation of stock market alerts to text pagers.

Engineering

Whitepapers

FLEX Simulcasting

High-speed Paging

FLEX Simulcasting

These are the two best engineering whitepapers that I know of — about the complex issues of high-speed-digital paging.

The first one “FLEX at 6400 bit/s” was written by my friend and colleague, Allan Angus, PE. (He patiently taught me a lot about Paging.). He was the senior technologist and system architect at PageMart/WebLink. PageMart Wireless later became WebLink Wireless and then was acquired by Metrocall. Arch and Metrocall merged and then became USA Mobility.

The companion paper to this one is: “Pitfalls on the way to high speed paging from the service provider’s perspective”, by Selwyn E. Hill, who was a senior RF engineer at PageMart/WebLink and who also patiently taught me a lot about Paging.

This is a short report on the estimated total number of units in service (UIS) in the US public-subscriber Paging market . It is based on publicly available information with my estimates added (and a little help from my friends). UPDATED FOR THE END OF 2005

US MARKET TREND BASED ON USA MOBILITY
Here is my "best guess" for the Total US Paging Market both the public and private markets.

UPDATED FOR Q1 2010 in May 2010.

This is largely based on USA Mobility's Quarterly Operating Results as found on their Investor Relations web site.

N-PCS Alerting ReFLEX, RXP, and First Responders by James Dabbs. After it finishes downloading, keep clicking your mouse to advance through the presentation. Broadband Internet connection recommended.

November 2005, White Paper, by Infostream: Paging As A Platform For Public Safety Response

Reasons Why

Paging Documentation Library

This collection of files includes both Marketing and Engineering documentation of Paging Equipment. Several of them are about Motorola two-way paging products and protocols. Click here to enter the Paging Documentation Library.

Froike Biegun

4X4AF — SK

OBITUARY
The Technical Genius of the Israeli Secret Service

Ephraim (Froike) Biegun, the former head of the Technical Department in the General Security Services, and founder of Beeper Communications Israel died on Wednesday June 13, 2007 in Tel Aviv, Israel. 1932 — 2007

" A Guide To The Golay Sequential Code (GSC) "

Motorola publication: R8-1-67

dBs and Related Units

Motorola reference publication

R38-4-1 (6D32)

Brad's Hobby

My latest project is a general coverage radio receiver, tuning from audio frequencies to 30 MHz in one Hertz steps — locked to the GPS constellation. The "dial" is a 24" color monitor connected to a laptop showing a 190 KHz window of the band as a spectrum analyzer. I have been involved with many kinds of radio receivers for over fifty years — amateur, military, and commercial. This modified SDR-IQ is a dream come true. When I was a young ham, I dreamed of the day when I might have a receiver that would read out to one kilocycle (before we used the term Hertz). Now I have assembled one that reads out to one Hertz and is accurate to ± 70 µHertz* — and thanks to GPS — it will maintain this accuracy as long as the GPS satellites keep working.

* Please note µHertz is microhertz not millihertz .

( SI =The International System of Units.)

Source of the Table:
Wikipedia contributors, "Hertz," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hertz&oldid=397481825
(accessed November 18, 2010).

Technical Stuff

• Fundamentals of Spectrum Analysis
  By Christoph Rauscher, (Volker Janssen, Roland Minihold), of Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG, München, Germany
• Calibration of Time Base Oscillators
  By Jim Bechtold, Editor, "Hewlett Packard Bench Briefs" Service Information From Hewlett-Packard, 2nd Quarter 1994
• Frequency Standards—Basics and Applications
  By Dr. Fritz Riehle, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Braunschweig, Germany
• Timekeeping and Frequency Calibration
  Hewlett-Packard application Note 52-2, November 1975, Revised July 1976. While it pre-dates the GPS era of frequency distribution, the methods are totally valid today.
• The Use of National Bureau of Standards High Frequency Broadcast for Time and Frequency Calibrations
  U.S. Department of Commerce/National Bureau of Standards, NBS Technical Note 668. Issued May 1975. By N. Hironaka and C. Trembath.

London Bombing

“What happened in London on 7 July 2005 could happen at any time, in any city, in any country.”

Report of the 7 July Review Committee .

TNPP History

Part 1 — Version 3.0

By John F. Nagel — August 18, 2011

Whitepaper: Critical Alerting in a Hospital Environment

• Cell Phones?
• Smart Phones?
• Wi-Fi?
• or Response Paging?

ALARM NOTIFICATION

• Availability
  • Cellular System Availability
  • Wi-Fi System Availability
  • Cellular/Wi-Fi Handset Availability
• Performance
• Cellular Performance
• Wi-Fi Performance
• Distraction and Workflow
• Response Paging: A Better Solution
• Response Paging Availability
• Response Paging Performance
• Distractions and Workflow

Do you think Paging is obsolete? It is a common misconception that paging technology has been superseded by newer and better means of wireless communication. This is far from the truth. Jim Nelson, President & CEO of Prism-IPX Systems, has written an excellent paper explaining why paging continues to be the right choice for critical messaging.

“Is Paging Going Away?” by Jim Nelson

• Click here for English.
• Click here for German. (Berlin Revision: November 8, 2016)
• Click here for French.

Volunteers needed for translations into other languages.

With the help of Angelo Saccoccia and his team at Swissphone we now have this great report on the health and wellbeing of Paging available in French and German. Let's work together to get this important message circulated to a wider audience. Dr. Dietmar Gollnick and his staff at e*Message in Berlin have contributed some minor but valuable revisions to the German translation.

I have received an excellent article from Marc A. Gineris, Managing General Partner and Founder of Incyte Capital Holdings LLC, “Why Paging Remains a Critical Aspect of Healthcare Communications.”

You may be surprised, as I was, when Marc compares paging to a “tried-and-true” device that we all use and depend on every day to perhaps save our lives. He makes a very good case for the title of his article.

Now when someone asks us “When will paging go away?” we can use Marc's answer to this question — along with the many other advantages to paging technology that have been reported in the newsletter and on this web site. Click here for the article.

Please note that was no “criteria” for being selected to appear on this Fake Magazine Cover as one of the “2005 Paging Persons of the Year.” The photos were selected from those that I could find on my computer and a few that I found on the Internet. Please don't feel bad or get angry with me if you are involved in Paging and your photo does not appear here. There was no hidden agenda or political motivation involved in this selection—just a fun tribute to some people in the paging business.

Click here (with names).

Click here (w/o names).

TOWER SHADOWING

By Ira Wiesenfeld, P.E. with additions and updates by Brad Dye

Click Here. August 2021.