When you need a way for clients, students, employees, or anyone else to communicate with you from distant areas of your campus or property, a wireless call box or callbox is one way to do it. A call box is a box made of metal or fiberglass that contains electronic circuitry that enables someone to press a button or pick up a handset and call a central location for assistance. Some callboxes also allow calling a handheld two way radio so that assistance can be mobile.

There are two main types of call box units available, wired and wireless. A wired callbox involves running a cable to it from the central location. This section is about the other kind, the wireless units.

The benefit of a wireless callbox is that you save money by not having to do trenching and running expensive cable to the unit. You also don’t have to pay any air-time or telephone service fees with these wireless systems. As mentioned, another benefit is that since the unit is wireless, people monitoring the units can carry handheld radios that communicate with the call box. That allows your monitoring people to be mobile.

The range of these units is several miles, which can be extended by adding an external antenna. Some units can use radio repeaters to extend this range even more.

If you have existing two-way business radios, you’ll want a system that can integrate with them. Some call boxes can be programmed to be compatible with virtually any brand of VHF or UHF business band radio.

One problem you may have in placing a call box is the lack of available power. You’ll want to choose a system that lets you use battery or AC power. You can also get units that have optional solar power so that they can run for several days on a single day of sunshine.

If you need to remotely control gates, magnetic door locks, or barrier arms from your portable 2-way radio or desktop base station intercom, then select a unit that has this capability. With this ability you can let someone in a gate or door when they call you. There are units that also let you turn on a strobe light at the callbox location to help draw attention to it.

Another useful feature is the ability for call boxes to store a voice message that is played when someone presses its button. This could be a message that gives the caller specific instructions on what to do. These units can also send a second and different voice message alert to the monitoring central location or portable radios. This message could give the call boxes location or it could be an emergency message of some type.

If you have several callboxes in use and you need to know the location of the unit calling in, then you can get a call box that transmits a unique numeric identifier to a radio that has the ability to decode this identifier. This is like having a telephone with Caller ID capability.

By adding a motion detector or some other detection device, you can be alerted when that detection device is activated. Some callboxes will send either a tone alert or a custom voice alert when the detection sensor status changes. If this voice message is not immediately answered, the alert message is resent multiple times.

If you are running your system on battery power, you need a unit that has battery conservation mode. In this mode, only the absolute necessities for operation are powered, and the unit can not accept calls to it; it can only make calls. You can attach an external sensor to automatically put the unit into full power mode when someone is detected near the box. This will allow you to make a call to it.

Other useful features:

• If you want to listen to what’s happening around the call box, then you’ll need a unit that can be paged so you can use the callbox microphone to monitor the sound around it.

• A low battery alert or external power fail tone is sent to the monitoring portable radio or base intercom.

• A paging feature allows selective calling of individual boxes or a group of callboxes simultaneously.

• The busy channel feature prevents someone from transmitting if someone else is using the radio channel.

• Wireless callboxes have fast installation since no wiring is required.

• Entry keypad with built-in relay lets people enter a code at the call box to open a gate or door. Remote opening of the gate by monitoring personnel can still happen also.

These wireless call boxes are being used for applications like parking lots, college campuses, airports, hospitals, construction sites, manufacturing facilities, resorts, hotels, farms, warehouses, delivery docks, campgrounds, gated facilities, or anywhere people may need assistance. So by using call boxes, you can put clear wireless voice communication anywhere you need it, quickly, without expensive trenching and monthly air-time fees.

Most businesses do a pretty good job of ensuring the safety of their employees within the walls of their business. But what is often neglected in employee safety in parking lots. Parking lots can be prone to accidents and other incidents.

One way to improve parking lot safety is to install wireless callboxes in parking lots so employees can call for assistance.

If an employee’s car won’t start they can use the callbox to call for jump starting. If a woman notices a van with tinted or no windows parked next to her car, which is a tool sexual predators use, then she can use the callbox to call for an escort. If an accident occurs employees can call for help.

The MURS Callbox XT Outdoor Intercom works well for this application. It can be battery, solar, or AC powered. With a push of a button an employee can reach your security personnel who are on a two way radio or base station intercom.

Anyone who operates a nursery that grows trees, shrubs, flowers, or any other plant life knows that they don’t spend a lot of time in the office. The problem being the office is the first place a visiting customer will go to find someone to talk to. If they can’t find anyone, they may just leave and take their money with them.

There is an easy solution for this problem that can quickly pay for itself. The MURS Callbox XT Outdoor Intercom paired with a two-way radio solves this problem. The customer simply  presses the button on the callbox and the nursery operator can instantly respond.

If the nursery grower has existing two way radios, there are models in both UHF and VHF frequencies that can be programmed to work with those radios. Otherwise, you can get unlicensed MURS radios that work with the callbox.

With this system, nursery growers won’t have to miss another sale.

If you’ve ever walked bewildered around a store searching for something, you know how frustrating it can be when you can’t find store personnel to ask for help. It never seems like there’s someone there when you need them.

How nice it would be to press a button, sort of like the “Easy” button you see in Staples office products commercials, and someone comes to your assistance. Well, with the MURS Indoor Customer Service Callbox customers can do exactly that.

The MURS Customer Service Callbox provides a fast, and easy wireless method for customers to summon a sales associate to a specific department or store location. When a customer presses the button on the Callbox, it transmits user-recordable voice messages to two-way radios, wireless intercoms, or a wireless PA system. The Callbox enhances customer service and promotes productivity of sales associates, which increases store sales.

This Callbox solves one of the most costly problems retail store owners have. That is the loss of customers who gets frustrated when they can’t find store personnel to ask questions. Frustrated customers generally leave without buying.

A recent National Retail Federation survey found “…in the previous six (6) months 62% of [all] respondents indicated…walking out of a store without making a planned purchase.” Why? “…because they could not find a sales clerk to help.” The MURS Customer Callbox Service solves this costly problem.

To further enhance staff efficiency, when an employee arrives to help the customer, a hidden reset button is pushed on the Callbox to activate an “All Clear” voice message to other personnel – permitting them to assist other customers, or tend to other duties.

The Callbox is completely wireless, and battery powered, which makes it easy to install virtually anywhere without costly remodeling.

There is no need for any external power, special wiring, expensive remodeling, airtime charges, or dedicated phone lines. Plus there’s no disruption to operations since the Callbox is completely wireless and battery operated. It can be installed anywhere in literally minutes. What’s more it can be relocated as needed in a flash.

Use the MURS Indoor Customer Service Callbox…

• Cutting stations
• Locked cabinet displays
• Unstaffed and part-time counters or registers
• Question-intensive merchandise areas
• Outdoor departments…Lumber, Nursery, Patio
• Hard to see areas of the store
• Heavy or high merchandise areas

This Callbox is field programmable to work with almost any VHF band two-way radio. Also, if you have UHF two-way radios in your business, call us and we can get you a model that works with the UHF and even the GMRS band of frequencies. The Callbox is compatible with virtually any other brand of two-way radio, including Motorola and Kenwood.

Voice messages are recorded using a simple dial pulse telephone (you supply the telephone). You can also select the number of times and how often the Callbox will transmit the voice alert.

With the Callbox, you never have to lose another customer again.

One problem people who own lake houses with gated entries have, is how to be notified that they have visitors when they are at their boat house or on the lake. One solution is to use a wireless intercom at the gate and a two-way handheld radio on the boat.

The intercom and radio can communicate up to a couple of miles apart. By pressing a button on the radio, the gate can be opened from a remote location.

The following products can be found on the Commercial Intercoms section of www.intercomsonline.com

The combination of products to do this is the MURS Callbox XT Outdoor Intercom with Gate Relay along with the MURS J-V110 Two-Way Radio