OSHA’s Environmental Health & Safety requirements can be extremely costly to implement, but there are ways to save thousands of dollars on at least parts of the requirements. If you are an employer who is required to implement an employee emergency evacuation system, also known as an employee alarm system, to satisfy one of OSHA’s standards, this article will help you do that.

The purpose of OSHA’s Emergency Evacuation Systems standard 29 CFR 1910.165 is to provide an early warning system for implementing emergency action and to give employees time to safely escape a building or area in the event of an emergency situation.

Below are some examples of instances that require an emergency evacuation system, including links to OSHA’s website for more information.

• 29 CFR 1910.37, Maintenance, safeguards, and operational features for exit routes
• 29 CFR 1910.38, Emergency action plans
• 29 CFR 1910.66, Powered platforms for building maintenance
• 29 CFR 1910.106, Flammable and combustible liquids
• 29 CFR 1910.120, Hazardous waste operations and emergency response
• 29 CFR 1910.157, Portable fire extinguishers
• 29 CFR 1910.160, Fixed extinguishing systems, general
• 29 CFR 1910.161, Fixed extinguishing systems, dry chemical
• 29 CFR 1910.162, Fixed extinguishing systems, gaseous agent
• 29 CFR 1910.164, Fire detection systems

What is an emergency evacuation system? According to OSHA, “An employee alarm system can be any piece of equipment and/or device designed to inform employees that an emergency exists or to signal the presence of a hazard requiring urgent attention. National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 72, National Fire Alarm Code, requires a fire alarm signal to be distinctive in sound from other signals and can not be used for any other purpose.”

The OSHA Standard goes on to say that you can use audible alarms that “include bells, horns, sirens, voice announcement systems, and other devices that can be distinguished above and apart from the normal sound level within the workplace.” They say the most effective means are voice signals or an interrupted steady sound (off and on sound).

One of OSHA’s recommendations is a “Workplace Announcement System.”  Here’s how they define that: “Speakers can be used to play a live or recorded voice message. They are often ideally suited for large workplaces where phased or guided evacuations are needed.”

See OSHA’s Employee Alarm Systems web page for more information on these requirements.

In businesses that have large buildings or cover a lot of ground, installing a wired emergency evacuation system can cost tens of thousands of dollars. What you will learn here is how to do it for a fraction of the normal cost.

The heart of this system is a Wireless PA System. A wireless PA system consists of a wireless receiver box connected to a horn PA speaker via a cable, and then some sort of wireless transmitting device, which could be a two-way radio or base-station intercom.

Someone who wants to make a page to the Wireless PA system just has to set the transmitter to the same channel as the wireless PA and then press the push-to-talk button on the transmitter.

The system has a range of up to a mile or more and the range can even be extended by adding an external antenna to either the Wireless PA, the transmitter, or both. If you have a wired PA system already, you can also get a Wireless PA System Interface device that will receive transmissions from radios and then broadcast those transmissions over your wired PA system.

There are several devices that can communicate with the Wireless PA system. The indoor or outdoor Customer Service Call Box is one of them. It  can be used as a panic button that when pressed sends a recorded message to two-way radios, base-station intercoms, or to a wireless or wired public address system.

You can record whatever message you want, or you could simply record a siren sound that plays when the button is pressed. If you have multiple areas where you need a panic button, then you’ll want to make sure you can distinguish between the recordings so you know where to send help.

There are other devices you can add to your system such as Wireless Call Boxes if you have locations outside that need to broadcast emergency messages from a fixed location.

A wireless call box is essentially a two-way radio in a heavy duty water-resistant housing. When its button is pressed, the person pressing the button can talk to other hand-held radios, base station intercoms, and even the Wireless PA system.

There are some situations where placing a phone call to notify an emergency response team is just not fast or reliable enough. With a wireless call box, a simple press of a button notifies everyone that needs to know.  Probably the best way of using it would be to have it contact emergency personnel who then make pages over the employee alarm system.

Keeping your employees safe in any way you can should be a top priority of yours. Using all of these devices as an employee alarm system is one way to do that, while saving thousands of dollars over the cost of a wired system.

All of these devices can be found at www.IntercomsOnline.com .

Many retail stores and businesses cannot afford to have a full-time person manning the front door to greet customers. Business owners and employees could be roaming the building or buildings,  or even the grounds around the building where customers arrive. Such is the case with landscape nursery operators, funeral home operators, used car lots, or hundreds of other types of businesses.

What they need is a way to monitor the front door from a remote location. They need the ability to be mobile and still know someone has arrived.  That’s where a wireless alert system comes into play.

A wireless alert system consists of a battery-powered, wireless motion detector installed by the front door, and fixed base station intercoms. mobile handheld intercoms, or both to receive notice that someone has arrived at the front door. When a customer arrives, the motion detector will send a verbal “Alert zone 1″ message to let monitoring personnel know someone has arrived at the front door.

If you have multiple entry doors, you can set up four motion detectors and each door will have it’s own alert message so you’ll know which door the customer came in.

Not only can you use this system to monitor the front door, but it can be used for communication between employees. The handheld radios and base station intercoms can be used to talk between units.

This system has a range of up to four miles so you should be able to cover your entire business with communications and alert messages.

The system also works as a security system at night so if you or someone is within range of the motion detectors, they will get the message.

The system is not only cost effective, but can be easily installed in a matter of minutes. You will find this system by clicking here: wireless alert system

When you purchase a two way radio in the United States that operates in the business band VHF or UHF frequencies, the FCC requires that you get a license to operate them. Like all government requirements, paperwork will be involved and it can be confusing and time consuming.

Instead of going it alone through this process, we recommend that you use a licensing coordinator that handles all of the paperwork and processing.  During this process, they’ll ask some questions about your location, the radios you’re using, and how they’ll be used. Then they fill out all the forms and get them submitted to the FCC for approval.

The cost for this is usually in the $400-$700 range per frequency for a 10 year period generally.  Below is contact info for three licensing agencies that we use most often.

CARA Enterprises, Inc.
Doug Thompson
1383 Farm Meadow
Salt Lake City, UT 84117
(801) 278-9728

Atlas License Company & Data Services
Linda Simons
7202 North Shadeland Avenue, Suite 215
Indianapolis, IN 46250
(800) 252-0529

http://www.alcds.com

National License Corporation
9050 Briarclift Road
Indianapolis, Indiana 46256
317-849-5866

http://www.nationalicense.com/

A wireless gate intercom provides long range, 2-way voice communication to any two-way radio or wireless intercom. You can use them to open gates or doors and even do it while you are mobile. You won’t be confined to a desk unless you only want to use a desktop intercom to access your wireless gate opener. These wireless gate intercoms are essentially long-range two way radios in a water resistant case. Models for public access areas even have a vandal resistant case.

A wireless gate intercom makes it possible to quickly implement a communication system without expensive and messy trenching. These gate opening intercoms have a range of up to a mile, or even further with use of external antennas.

Click on the link below for a video with more details about wireless gate intercoms.

Wireless Gate Intercoms

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We quite frequently get requests for our MURS intercoms from people in Canada. Unfortunately we cannot ship these to Canada since they use a frequency that is used by government agencies for emergency purposes.

Some of our wireless products (Callboxes and base stations) do have IC approval (Canada’s equivalent of the FCC).  As part of that, radios we ship directly to Canada must have only the specific agreed upon frequencies available for field programming.

In other words, we have models that have a default freq. of 151.0550 MHz and 151.1150 MHz available for the customer to select between.

Note that there will be a few day delay on shipping these units out since we have to program them.

Below is a sample of the products you can order, but we will replace them with the Canadian version. The lower-cost MURS Multi-Mile products cannot be reprogrammed so we cannot ship them to Canada.

MURS Commercial Intercom (1 unit)

MURS 110 Commercial Handheld Two-Way Radio (1 unit)

MURS Callbox XT Outdoor Intercom

MURS Callbox XT Outdoor Intercom with Gate Relay

MURS Basic Commercial Callbox

The 900MHz and MURS wireless intercoms we offer at IntercomsOnline are not for use in the United Kingdom (U.K.), but we do offer versions of the MURS intercoms that can be used in the U.K. if you are willing to get a license. There are a couple of good articles about the license free requirements of Europe below.

License-free usage in U.K. requires that radios have a fixed antenna and our radios have a removable antenna.  So to use our wireless intercoms, you will be required to get a license. See the Business Band link below for more information.

License Free
http://radiotechnology.suite101.com/article.cfm/pmr446_cb_2way_radio_in_the_uk

Business Band
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/licensing/applications08/changes/

There are two styles of MURS two-way radio handhelds you can choose from. The MURS Multi-Mile Handheld Intercom is a light-duty, less featured two way radio. The MURS 110 Commercial Handheld Two-Way Radio is a heavy-duty fully featured two way radio. There is a big difference in price so you’ll want to make sure you choose the right one for you.

Both units will achieve a similar range and they both have all 5 of the MURS channels. For basic communication you could choose either radio.

The only advantage the MURS Multi-Mile Handheld Intercom has other than price is the fact that it integrates with a long-range motion sensor (MURS MAT which comes in the MURS Base and MURS Alert Kits). The MURS MAT will send its “Alert Zone 1” voice message to the MURS 110 Commercial Handheld but for some reason it sounds a little garbled.

The MURS 110 Commercial Handheld is built to what’s called “MIL-SPEC” standards. In an effort to achieve standardization objectives for purchases of products used by the military and other government organizations, the U.S. Department of Defense created standards that these products must meet. You will see these standards called military standard, “MIL-STD”, or “MIL-SPEC.” These standards ensure products meet certain requirements, commonality, reliability, compatibility, and similar defense-related objectives.

The Department of Defense also has standards for two-way radios and radios that meet this standard must meet levels for such criteria as vibration, rain, salt air, sand/dust, shock (dropping), humidity, temperature as well as other factors.

Buying a product that meets mil-spec standards means you are buying a quality product that is built to withstand tougher use.

The MURS 110 Commercial Handheld also has features you won’t find on the MURS Multi-Mile Handheld. They are summed up below:

The MURS Multi-Mile Handheld…

• is smaller so it fits in your hand better
• has Channel Scanning so you can listen to multiple channels at once
• has an audio output and microphone input jack so you can use headsets. These devices screw on to the radio so they can’t be pulled out. There are several types of headsets available.
• has NOAA weather radio capability for weather reports or for automatic alerts of storms
• has a programmable softkey that can be used for weather radio, gate opening, or for activating other devices that use 2-tone decode. Programmable on a per channel basis.
• has a charging doc that allows you to charge a spare battery for uninterrupted operation
• has an optional multi-charger unit available for charging multiple radios at once.
• has a voice scrambler when used with other compatible radios. With this feature turned on, other people won’t be able to understand your conversations.

So if all you need is plain voice communications and the environment you are using the two-way radio in isn’t too harsh, then the MURS Multi-Mile Handheld would be sufficient. If you need a really tough two-way radio with some features, then the MURS 110 Commercial Handheld is for you.

When someone needs a video intercom at their doors, the Expandable Recording Color Video Intercom System at IntercomsOnline.com is the unit we like to recommend. Not only does this unit send live audio and video to the indoor 4-inch, full-color monitor when someone rings the doorbell, it also records full motion video and audio on to a Secure Digital (SD) card that you can place in your computer to copy and view it. If someone breaks in to your home or business, most likely they’ll ring the doorbell to make sure no one is there (and pretend they’re selling something if you are). Since the Expandable will make record this event you’ll have a nice video to show the police.

Not only this system record, but as its name says it is expandable to a total of 2 cameras and 4 monitors. So you can handle both your front and back doors, plus put monitors throughout your house or business.

A built-in infrared system for night vision provides supplemental lighting to enhance night viewing. The door phone camera operates in color during daylight and black & white in low lighting conditions.

The 2-wire installation is easy and you can even add an external electric door lock to open the door from the indoor monitor and the door status indicator tells you when the lock is open!

At IntercomsOnline.com we occassionally get requests for an intercom system that works on a truck scale. Customers want a system truck drivers can use to communicate with the people in the truck scale office.

There are several problems with this application that many installations share. One is that when a truck pulls up on the scale, they can stop in various places so where do you put the intercom? Another is that different size trucks use the scale so what height do you put the intercom?

There are usually a lot of obstructions such as concrete or even railroad tracks in between the office and the scale so it may not be possible, or cost effective, to run wire between the intercoms. Most installations therefore require a wireless system.

Another problem is that when a driver in an 18-wheeler pulls up, their mirrors will keep them from getting too close to an intercom so their arms won’t be long enough to press a button to activate the intercom.  We get requests for a wireless intercom with voice activation capability, but this system doesn’t exist due to the problems it would have. The noise from the truck would keep it transmitting so no two way communication could exist. Any system also has to be fairly loud to overcome the noise.

If you can run wires, one system that works fairly well is the Aiphone Access Sentry. If you combine it with some sort of an alert device to let you know a truck has pulled up, you can activate the remote unit to start talking to the driver. The driver does not have to press a button to talk back.

If you need a wireless intercom then there really is no getting around having to get the driver to push a button to talk. We do carry a motion sensing intercom that alerts you when a truck pulls up, and it lets you listen in to the area around the intercom, but it doesn’t have the volume needed to overcome noisy trucks.

If you can get away with one way communication then you could install a Wireless PA System. The wireless PA system lets you broadcast voice messages over a loudspeaker to the driver.

You could combine the wireless PA with a Wireless Call Box to give you two way communication. The driver could get out of the truck and press the button on the call box to talk to you. If you have AC power where the callbox is installed, then you can put the call box in intercom mode so you can call out to the driver. Otherwise you would have to wait until the driver presses the button on the callbox so it wakes up from its battery-saver mode.

While there is no perfect solution, if you have the budget there is a solution. The wired solution is cheaper to purchase up front if you have the wire installed. While a wireless solution is more costly, if you factor in the cost of installing wire, it can be much cheaper.

Below is a picture of wireless PA system and its components.

A waterproof two way radio is usually one that meets mil-spec standards. Buying a product that meets mil-spec standards means you are buying a quality product that is built to withstand tougher use.

In an effort to achieve standardization objectives for purchases of products used by the military and other government organizations, the U.S. Department of Defense created standards that these products must meet. You will see these standards called military standard, “MIL-STD”, or “MIL-SPEC.” These standards ensure products meet certain requirements, commonality, reliability, compatibility, and similar defense-related objectives.

The Department of Defense also has standards for two-way radios and radios that meet this standard must meet levels for such criteria as vibration, rain (water), salt air, sand/dust, shock (dropping), humidity, temperature as well as other factors.

You may also see radios with an “IP” designation. IP stands for Ingress Protection and it is an international standard that specifies the sealing effectiveness of the enclosure of a product. It is a two digit code that tell you how effective the enclosure is to penetration from fingers, dust, and water.

For instance, for a radio that meets IP 55, the first 5 means it is protected from the amount of dust that would interfere with its operation. The second 5 means that it is protected from water that shoots from a nozzle.

So when you look for a waterproof two way radio you really want to look for one that meets mil-spec or IP 55 standards.