If you have a motorized security gate that you want to control wirelessly from a remote location, a wireless intercom with a gate control relay is one way to do it. Not only can you control the security gate, you can also talk to the people at the gate before you let them in.

You can get a heavy duty outdoor wireless intercom or Callbox that you install at the gate. When people press its button it sounds a tone on a handheld two-way radio or wireless base station intercom. You can then press a button that activates a relay, which opens the gate or performs some other action. These Callboxes can work up to a mile or more away.

This Callbox has a switch output that can be used to open or close a gate, turn on a light, sound an alarm, or any application where remote control of an On/Off switch is required. The switch can be programmed to operate in several ways:

• On/Off Code: The switch will close when a preprogrammed code is received, and open when it is received again. The switch will also open by itself when the Callbox’s preprogrammed Automatic Turn Off feature is activated.
• Switch On When Called: The switch closes when the callbox first receives the call and it remains on until its Talk button is pressed, or a programmable timer expires (1-255 seconds).
• Switch On When Callbox In Use: The switch will close when the Callbox first sends or receives a call and remains closed until a preprogrammed timer expires.
• Switch On When Active Includes Turn-Off Code: Switch closes when the Callbox sends or receives a call with the added ability to open the switch when the Callbox receives a preprogrammed code.
• Momentary Close: Switch will close for 1-255 seconds when a preprogrammed code is received.
• Alternate Open and Close: Switch will toggle between open and closed when it receives a preprogrammed code. The Callbox transmits a single beep when open and a double beep when closed.

The MURS Callbox with Gate Relay also has a Sensor Input that allows it to also operate as a motion, gate entry, tamper or vehicle detection device. It will send a tone alert when optional switch/sensor status changes. The Callbox will send a warning tone when a change in the Sensor Input is detected. The Sensor Input will respond to an OPEN or CLOSED switch.

You can get these wireless outdoor intercoms that work in FCC licensed UHF or VHF frequencies or on the unlicensed MURS frequencies. See the free book called Two-Way Radio Success: How to Choose Two-Way Radios, Commercial Intercoms, and Other Wireless Communication Devices for Your Business for more information about MURS and these security gate control wireless intercoms.

There is a new type of nursing home that is being called the “Green House” nursing home. These are residences for 6 to 10 elders who require skilled nursing care, but who don’t want to live in a large, traditional nursing home.

A Green House nursing home has private bedrooms and bathrooms, a residential-style kitchen, and communal dining and sitting areas. Just like traditional nursing homes, they are staffed with the same staff that includes physicians, nurses, social workers, dietitians, and therapy personnel.

Research suggests that residents of small nursing homes appear better satisfied and report a better quality of life than do residents of traditional large nursing homes.

Most of the newly developed green house nursing homes are pre-wired with intercoms or call buttons.  However there are times where a wireless intercom system is needed. In houses that have been retrofitted to act as a nursing home, installing a wired system may be cost prohibitive. Also a wired system typically requires a resident to go to where the intercom is located to make a call. With a portable wireless unit, they can put it where they are.

The main deficiency of these wireless intercoms is that there are a limited number of channels available so if multiple units are on the same channel, any message will be broadcast to all units on the same channel. Units like the WireFree Portable 900MHz Wireless Intercom System set up a private conversation between two intercoms when someone responds to a broadcast.

While a wired intercom system may not fit all the needs of a green house nursing home, there are applications where it works very well.

There are two styles of MURS wireless intercom base stations you can choose from. The MURS Multi-Mile Intercom is a light-duty, less featured intercom. The MURS Commercial Intercom is a heavy-duty fully featured intercom. 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 can both take an external antenna to improve range. They both have all 5 of the MURS channels. For basic communication you could choose either radio.

The only advantage the MURS 4 Mile Range intercom has other than price is the fact that it integrates with a long-range motion sensor (MURS Base and MURS Alert Kit ) and that sensor can activate relay contacts on the back of the intercom. These contacts can be used to activate lights, cameras, or other electronic devices.

The MURS Commercial Intercom has several advantages over the MURS 4 Mile Range. For starters the audio quality is better. The speaker has a richer, more full sound. Not that the MURS 4 Mile Range sounds bad, but the MURS Commercial is just a little more hi-fi sounding.

Here are some other advantages of the MURS Commercial Intercom:

• Ability to wall mount (the MURS 4 Mile Range can not)
• Enclosed in a tough metal housing instead of plastic
• Audio output and microphone input jacks so you can use external speakers
  and headsets
• Channel Scanning so you can monitor multiple channels at once
• NOAA weather radio capability for weather reports or for automatic
  alerts of storms
• 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

So if all you need is plain voice communications and the environment you are putting the intercom in isn’t too harsh, then the MURS 4-Mile Range Intercom would be sufficient. If you need a really tough intercom with some features, then the MURS Commercial Intercom is for you.

As the overall population in the United States ages, more than 50 million people are now finding themselves providing care for a family member. Depending on the statistics you read, 25-75% of these unpaid “informal” caregivers have those they care for living with them in the same household. The most common informal caregiving relationship is that of an adult child assisting an elderly parent. This scenario poses some safety issues that can be solved with a wireless intercom system.

The following article from the Oakland Tribune gives a perfect example of why caregivers may want to use a wireless intercom system.

Seniors Safer With Intercoms

Oakland Tribune, May 1, 2005

By Nancy Grandfield, San Carlos, CA

I had the joyful experience of having my 90-year-old father live with me for 2 1/2 years before he died. We did all of the things you suggested in your fine article (“Real Life Rooms,” April 23), and had only one incident, a sad one, that I want to share with you as an additional suggestion for your readers.

He lived in an “apartment” that is really a converted basement of our house. Because he couldn’t climb stairs for meals, I ministered to him day and night, going up and down the stairs myself. Early one morning I decided to have a cup of coffee before I went down to check on him.

When I finally got to his room I found him on the floor, wedged between the twin beds, soaked with water that had spilled on him from the carafe next to his bed when he fell. He had gotten up to turn on the thermostat, fell, and had been there three hours.

My recommendation is that every caregiver should have an intercom system installed in the bedroom, the line kept open so that one could hear every noise from the elder’s bedroom. If I had that by my own bedside, I would have heard his plaintive calls the moment he fell, and responded immediately. It still grieves my heart to think of him lying there on the floor, weakly calling my name.

The WireFree Wireless Portable Intercom from IntercomsOnline.com has a Monitor feature that caregivers can use to listen to their elderly parent without the parent having to press any buttons. These long-life, battery-powered wireless intercoms can be moved around anywhere within a range of up to 1000 feet. You can find the WireFree Wireless Intercom at www.IntercomsOnline.com.

One application we get requests for is a wireless intercom that can be heard in noisy environments. Usually one intercom is in a quiet office environment and the other in a garage or workshop where loud engines or machinery is being used. The person in the noisy environment can’t hear someone calling them on the intercom.

We have a couple of ways we handle this application. Both applications require installing a wireless intercom on both the quiet and noisy sides.

In really noisy environments we recommend installing the MURS Wireless PA system. he MURS Wireless PA (Public Address) is a radio receiver that allows you to use your base station intercom or mobile 2-way radio to deliver voice messages directly to an attached PA horn speaker up to 2 miles away. While this PA system can’t be used for two way communication, it will get the attention of someone in a noisy environment so they can stop what they are doing and go to a wireless intercom to talk. In this application either the MURS Multi-Mile Intercom or the MURS Commercial Intercom will work on either side. You can mix these two together since they will talk to each other.

You would put the MURS Wireless PA on a different channel than you use to communicate between the quiet and noisy areas. So to contact someone, you switch to the PA channel, speak your message, and then switch back to the communication channel to talk to them.

In marginally noisy environments we recommend the MURS Commercial Intercom on the noisy side. You can add an external speaker to this unit that will increase the volume a little. If you have a powered amplifier of some sort laying around, you could also feed the output jack on the MURS Commercial Intercom into your amplifier to increase the volume of the signal. You can use the cheaper MURS 4-Mile Range Intercom on the quiet side.

The day of the actual event for an event coordinator is a busy day and communication is of the utmost importance to pull the event off successfully. That’s where a good communication system can help.

If the event is in a large venue then handheld two-way radios are required. Usually there is a “command central” or a base office where the coordination is orchestrated. A base station intercom such as the MURS 4 Mile Range Intercom is a good choice for communicating with the two-way radios. The base station sits on top of a desk or table.

If radio communications need to remain silenced, then the two-way radios can be equipped with headsets. A high-quality two-way radio like the MURS J-V110 Two-Way Radio fits this need nicely because it has available headset options. It is also a very durable radio that will withstand the rigors of many events.

There are new building construction codes that require fireproof stairwells where people can go in the event of a fire. The codes also require a battery powered intercom system of some sort be placed in the stairwell and another in a location that a fireman can call into the stairwell to see if anyone is in there.

The  WireFree Outdoor Intercom (Set of 2) meets the needs of the fire codes. It is battery powered and can be easily mounted inside the stairwell.

This customer wanted a way of knowing when his herd of Gazelles came in through a gate to feed. He wanted to close the gate and trap the gazelles in when they did come in. If he tried to go out there to close the gate, the gazelles ran off.

The solution was the  MURS Base and MURS Alert Kit which consists of a wireless intercom and a motion sensor that speaks an “Alert Zone One” message when the gazelles enter the gated area.

When the motion sensor triggers the intercom, a relay on the intercom is also closed. This is used to activate a wireless gate control so the gate closes automatically.

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