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Thread: ADT alarm and armed response

  1. #21
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Oi Chatmaster! Missed you on all the ohter threads which were very interesting so you must have been hitting the boring ones lol.

    My uncle was a sniper in the old SADF, and he took me under his wing. The training is harsh, make no mistake, but it was absolutely one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. The standard by its very reason is extremely high, and you have to be able to hit a target with your back to the target, then turn on count, and without aiming, hit your target spot on. Your grouping needs to be very close, and I was always very impressed when I could get little sunglasses - that's what I call it anyway.

    I have to point out, in the interest of useless information, that it is impossible to hit a bee. The flight pattern is too erratic and upredictable.

    I am rusty now though, but it is all in the breathing, and you don't have to be a good shot to be able to protect yourself. A human body is a huge target, but I just wanted to be able to be good enough to wound and not to kill.

    What bothers me about this thread is the underlying sense of helplessness. We have not only given our power away but our sense of responsibility.

    I am not for the trigger happy lot, and I am not an advocate for violence meeting violence, but there is so much you can do to safeguard yourself and your family, yet we just don't want to pick up the responsiblitly.

    So we pacify ourselves with security companies, paying good money for protection that may or may not come, relaying on the police when we know they are faced with unsurmountable problems.......we grew up under a paternalistic government and now we refuse to believe that Big Daddy will not come and save us.

    Wake up, you are on your own, and you and only you can come up with a plan to protect yourself and your family. You can pop into your local police station for a few pointers and tips, they are more than happy to help, and you can gear up your neighbourhood. Your neighbours remain your first line of defense.

    A criminal will run if given the choice, and they are human too, so they will choose the soft targets, they are lazy like everyone else and will take the easiest route open to them.

    In all the years we have not had to fire a shot, except for our one neighbour who fortunately moved, who fired off three shots one night, pursuing a speeding vehicle on foot wearing slip-slops! He was nick-named Buurman, and I do believe the last time old Buurman touched based with any form of exercise,was in primary school running to the tuck shop to be first in line. Have to give him a perfect score for optimism though as the vehicle was hauling ass with screaming tires, I don't know whether it was the shots or the sight of Buurman in hot pursuit that put them off. Buurman was leaning back hard to compensate for his SA boep, struggling to find his centre of balance, waving his gun and screaming abuse!

    I think we can use this as a platform to discuss different plans and views, and perhaps help each other and safe a life.

  2. #22
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    well finally...after 8 years of waiting for the right house at an affordable price... it looks like i will be a home owner soon...now to decide which security company will be serve the needs of my family...after listening to the radio this morning even armed guards at home dont seem to work.

    one thing i have noticed in the morning is how many of the houses which have been up for sale for a long time sudden this morning have sold signs...is it because of the interest rate? have people got desperate and dropped the price to get rid of the house quickly.

  3. #23
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alta Murray View Post
    My uncle was a sniper in the old SADF,
    That reminds of selection after basics. The whole intake was standing on parade and as each speciality was called out, interested/qualified troopies would march off to the allocated area to volunteer. For example, they'd call out "Drivers. Troope with drivers licences will be selected first" etc.

    They started with the tougher stuff.
    Recces - a small group
    Parabats - quite a few more
    Snipers..... No-one.

    The Kommandant could be heard quite clearly over the PA saying "Thank goodness we don't have any of those mother f*ckers here."

    Yep. Sometimes it doesn't pay to wear pips.
    Quote Originally Posted by murdock View Post
    one thing i have noticed in the morning is how many of the houses which have been up for sale for a long time sudden this morning have sold signs...is it because of the interest rate? have people got desperate and dropped the price to get rid of the house quickly.
    Makes you think about today's bargain is tomorrow's miracle price.

    Congrats on getting the house, Murdock.

  4. #24
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    i got lucky or did i...maybe i thought paying 40 % less than the market value was a bargain...but am i not going to now sit with a property which will be worth even less in months to come because of the way people are battling to get bonds even my bond aplication was rejected they said i only qualified for a bond of 470 thousand with my present income...where can you buy a house for that price...you would be lucky to find a 1 bedroom flat for that price.

    all i am hearing in my travels every day is how people are battling to survive...and another scary thing i have noticed is how many of my customers have their staff of short time...the only people who are not battling are goverment staff getting big increases...eskom got big bonuses thats why we have to now pay the price....i dont understand how goverment staff get more than 10 % increases yet the private sector people got less than 10 %....goverment has suplus funds yet the petrol price...interest rates...rates...electricity...food prices...and everything else is going up....i am just an uneducated fool who doesnt know much about politics and stuff...but something sure as heck dont seem right to me.

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    thanks dave i am like a kid in a candy store with the house...i have so many things i want to do in the house but i found out this weekend it is not going to happen overnight...i have a small budget and a huge imagination and plenty energy...good thing the house and garden show is coming up soon i can go get some ideas on cheap smart ways to fix the house on a shoe string budget.

  6. #26
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Hee-hee, sure Dave, though the training was tough for the snipers and you have to have natural talent, they had it so nice afterwards, did easy time. Now like an old aristocrat once said : Any fool can be uncomfortable. So a toast to all the mother fu@#$ of the world, though I married a troep.... but then I can always plead that I just don't understand men.

  7. #27
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    Murdock congrats, may your new house be a home, and that no money can buy.

    Take heart dear friend, when we moved in, we moved into an empty shell, like in devoid of a working bathroom and kitchen in the house. We only had x amount to spend on building our house, and worked out that it will be very expensive to add onto the house later on, so we went for the whole nine yards in size. Sure size matters, tell yourself that if you have to use the gardeners loo, and cook on a primus.

    My uncle came to visit us back then, and he told me that I will never be happier than I was right then, that I will always look back on that time as the best time of my life. He may be dead now, but he was right. I am passing that onto you.

    We didn't even have a shoe-string budget, we were fresh out of money, we had nothing! Since then we have re-decorated twice, and the only tip I can give you is that your space should reflect your inner world. Some of the magazines have excellent tips as well, and what I did in the end, and it saved me a lot of money, is to select the perfect picture for every room, and then do the room up. No unexpected results and money wasted, and then you add a layer of your personal touch.

    Have fun!

  8. #28
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
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    My goodness yes!!!! At long last!! They are actually called civil servants, standing in service of the people, yet they are the millionares today. Check the cars they are driving! It makes absolutely no sense!! In the old days if you worked for the governemnt you took the bus, do you remember those chaps in their safari suits? All the public services are falling apart, and we pay for it? No logic to the set-up at this stage, but then they are called officials and they are here to rule us. So shut up and stand in line is the official line. Yuk

  9. #29
    Email problem Leeu's Avatar
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    Murdock, I want to tell my experience with Chub, A couple of years back I had a Take Away business on the South Coast, at this time I drove up to JHB twice a month on business, on this occasion, I was in JHB when I received a call from Chub to say there is an alarm at my shop, what must they do, I told them to react, the control then informed me if nothing was wrong I would not hear from them again that night, on all alarms I react myself as well, not been on the coast at the time I phoned my son and request him to investigate, when he arrived at the shop he found the shop keeper next door had forgotten to disarm his side of premise before entering, he called me back to tell me this, I asked had Chub respondent yet, to the negative, thinking I am doing them a favor by canceling the call, I called them, the first thing I did when they answered was to ask what was the status of the alarm and was informed that they respondent and all was in order, been pissed off with my son I called him back to have a go at him, but the shop keeper came to his rescue, saying from the alarm to now he has been sitting on the steps waiting for the armed response, he did not want to be mistaken as the intruder, so how was that service, arriving back I cancelled their contract and contracted a local reputed service, to date no problem and I lived 20km from my shop and had to rely of their honesty, on many occasions I still responded to the call as back-up just to find they are investigating or completing their report before leaving the site

  10. #30
    Silver Member Loman's Avatar
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    Exclamation Alarm Systems

    I've recently moved back to SA after four years in Mozambique as a technical manager for a armed response company and was astonished by the inadequate service so many South African armed response company's deliver.

    But even more troubling was how many south africans didn't test their systems or worse, challenge the so called technicians that show up from time to time.
    Just before i left Mozambique there were two incidents where two guys pretended to be working for the local armed response company and disconnected their siren, PIR's and contact magnets. Then just walked in the following night and took everything.

    I decided to check whether it is possible in SA or not. I targeted ADT since it would be easier explaining what i've done to just one company.

    One morning i cruised through Port Elizabeth and stopped at the first ADT sign i stumbled across. A very nice old lady opened up and i explained that I'm from ADT and there seem to be a problem with the alarm system. I didn't even need to open the case as they didn't change the default installers code.
    I changed zone 2-6 to an unused definition and left zone 1 like it was (front and back door). there is no burglar proofing so access could be through a window.
    The second house's owner almost broke my neck, shouting how useless ADT is and the lack of communication as he canceled his contract last month and if anyone from ADT ever set their foot on his property again he'll bury them under his peach tree.
    The third house was a little more tricky as the case had a tamper on and opening it would trigger the alarm and a message sent to ADT. In the end i had to go to each PIR and unscrew the com and NC wires and twist them together whilst i'm assuring the owner that, no he would not have to pay anything as the fault is ours.(That should have made him suspicious since ADT is all about the money)

    That afternoon i went back and undid the changes i've made and explained to the owners how easily it would have been to leave it like that, waited till they are away and enter without any fuss.

    I've done that only to prove a point and i hope that by reading this you might improve the safety and security of your family and friends.

    The company i've started five months ago mainly deals with computers but because of the high demand for quality intruder alarm systems i've decided to continue with that as well.

    If only ADT and the other famous companies would spend more time on training and quality control i wouldn't have to go and redo their screwups. Not that i'm complaining, i'm making a killing

    I would advise all those shopping for an security system to: (depending on the property, its layout and size)

    1) Consider beams rather than electrical fencing - electrical fences are easily diverted by anyone with a little knowledge, it is also more prone to false alarms. When shopping for beams rather buy the one that has two or more beams that have to trip before an alarm condition occurs, a falling leaf for example would not trigger it then.

    2) The price difference between the 25watt siren and the 40watt siren is on average R35. I would opt for the 40W

    3) Install a couple of lights around the house that would switch on when the alarm occur. The installer of your alarms system should know how to do this, if they don't, kick them out as their incompetence would cost you money due to incorrect installation.

    4) A very cheap way to effectively install CCTV in your house: What you need are some webcams, up to 16 if you need that many, two or three hubs (depending on how many webcams you have) and a computer. Many programs are available for this but I'll focus on the one i used the most often - SurveillizCam. There is a free version available but only one channel ( one webcam) can be used. For you that need more channels the program can be bought for a very reasonable price. The program captures a photo every couple of milliseconds and uses that as a reference to the incoming video and when the picture changes it starts to record. This will save many MB on your hard drive and you can watch the entire day in a couple of minutes as it will record only motion.
    The program is from novosun and can be downloaded from their website:
    www.novosun.com
    * The free version is limited to one channel!

    5) If you are interested in a wireless panic alarm that come standard with many of these intruder alarm installations get an extra transmitter that you can carry around your neck ( ask your company for a suitable one - the keyring model is a little inappropriate) Lets face it, when you need to press the panic button you don't always have your car or house keys with you.

    6) When you do get the wireless panic alarm ask for one with two channels. 1 channel that triggers the siren but doesn't send a signal to the armed response, the second that sends the signal but doesn't trigger the siren.
    Use channel one for pesty children, channel 2 when you have an emergency.
    Making the panic alarm silent is preferable as the intruders doesn't know that it has been triggered, until the armed response arrives.

    7) Insist that they get the power supply from the DB board on its own breaker. There has been cases where fires have started due to a dodgy connections in the ceiling.

    8) Many people these days prefer to go wireless with their whole alarm system. Unfortunately many people also forget that the batteries needs changing. The batteries in contact magnets are guaranteed for three years, some might last for five. PIR's last anywhere from 6 months to one year depending on the amount of activity. Check them regularly.

    9) Many systems can have anywhere from 25 - 65 passwords. After installation change every one of these passwords as a precaution in case one of the installers had other ideas.

    get familiar with the system and test it every week. Get quotes from a lot of companies before you decide on one. You can get one company to install the alarm system and another just their transmitter for the armed response.

    Out of curiosity i asked a company for a quotation to install a intruder and panic alarm in my business when it opened.
    The quotation was R5 465. I installed it for R 2980.

    Hope i've been of some help. Any further questions, just ask and i'll be happy to answer as soon as i can.

    Take Care

  11. Thank given for this post:

    daveob (20-Nov-08), John Kelly (27-Dec-08), Superscenic (04-Dec-08)

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