Home Alarm Systems - Need Input

[flintstone mop]

BIG BAD dogs scare crooks!!
A wireless system is very reliable. Usually can get 3 yrs out of the sensors around the house. As part of your service, the alarm company has to come out and replace defective batteries.
A cellular telephone is part of the wireless notification to the monitoring point. The wired landline is suseptable to tampering and cutting.

WOW this country is going down the tubes.
I thought it was scary to secure oneself with 6 foot high concrete walls around your house in the Philippines. Along the top of this concrete wall would be chards of glass or metal impregnated into the concrete, while the concrete was still wet, during construction. Guess we better do the same! At least over in the Phils. they steal to get food on the table for the family
Fred

[WA1GFZ]

universal sound of fear. Chamber a round

[N2DTS]

Well, there are still places where people leave the doors open/unlocked when they go out, I live in one.
People watch each others houses, plus 20 cops live in my hood as the rest of town is too expensive.
Its like an armed camp, plus I have a dog and guns....

Brett

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

An alarm system will not keep burglars out of your home. They may be stupid, but they're not idiots: they know that it will take at least three minutes for the police to get there, so they'll be gone in that time.

Excellent point. Any properly designed physical protection system will have the human response (guards, police, etc) be less than the time it would take an intruder to enter and exit the protected area.

That said, unless you are being specifically targeted (you are known to have something(s) of great value, “insider” job), many burglars will move on when confronted with an alarm system, good locks or other beefed up physical barriers (bars on ground floor windows, steel or solid wood doors, etc). There are other easier targets to be had.

[W2XR]

Well, there are still places where people leave the doors open/unlocked when they go out, I live in one.
Brett

Brett,

I'm not sure that I would make this kind of information available in a public forum such as this, regardless as to how many police officers live in the area, and how well armed the neighborhood is.

You never know who may be watching. Better to be safe than sorry. I'm not suggesting paranoia, but rather a healthy respect and appreciation for the more purient realities of life nowadays.

73,

Bruce

[WA1GFZ]

Yea, Look through my solar room at the vintage 1991 27 inch RCA TV in the living room.

[N2DTS]

Well, if I look around the house, there is not much worth stealing unless they want tubes and big transformers , racks of homebrew gear and a lot of books.
We have a small crappy TV, which if stolen would be replaced with a bigger good one, and there is nothing much else I would miss, or is worth much at the pawn shop.

There is never any money in the house (or in the bank!).

Plus, the dog freaks out anytime anyone comes around, the people across the street spend all their time looking out their window at my house, three police on my block, etc....

I have often thought about what I would miss if the place burned to the ground, and there is not much at all besides the homebrew stuff.

Brett

[W4EWH]

An alarm system will not keep burglars out of your home. They may be stupid, but they're not idiots: they know that it will take at least three minutes for the police to get there, so they'll be gone in that time.

Excellent point. Any properly designed physical protection system will have the human response (guards, police, etc) be less than the time it would take an intruder to enter and exit the protected area.

That said, unless you are being specifically targeted (you are known to have something(s) of great value, “insider” job), many burglars will move on when confronted with an alarm system, good locks or other beefed up physical barriers (bars on ground floor windows, steel or solid wood doors, etc). There are other easier targets to be had.

That's true. In fact, the paradox of alarm systems is that they are most effective against "sneak" thieves, i.e., persons you know, or who have gained access under false pretenses. They're almost always amateurs, more afraid of being found out than anything else, and a well-designed, multi-zone alarm system that segments your home into "public", "family", and "private" areas will stop most sneak thieves.

Professionals, of course, are a different matter: in their case, an alarm buys you only time, so it's essential (as Steve says) to beef up the physical barriers that slow down professional thieves, keep them away from high-value areas, and impede their progress to the point where they'll move on to easier targets. However, the security has to be both good and easy to spot, so that it will have maximum deterrence value without being tested. If a thief decides to take a chance, the first blast from the siren will start his clock running, and if he can't get inside within a few seconds, he'll abandon your house and make himself scarce.

Bill, W1AC

[N2DTS]

Another way to deter crooks is to not have anything worth stealing!

When they break into your house, what are they looking for?

Looking around, I cant see them taking the furniture (which is nice), or the oven, or the homebrew equipment in racks, THAT might scare them....

They can HAVE the TV!
The computer is old, my sister gave it to me when it got a virus and its slow as mole asses.
The audio equipment is from the 70's? and any pawn shop would laugh at the person bringing it in...


What do these guys go after?

Brett

[WA1GFZ]

Jewelery box is a quick grab. The best thing is to look poorer than your neighbor

[ka1cu]

I have a radio shack unit I installed with a dialer to call my cell .hooked up to a dvr with cameras to record when alarm is tripped....no monthly charges ................

[WD5JKO]

I want to thank everybody who posted here. I have a lot to think about. One problem is the Brinks TV adds depicting a housewife in here home startled by a prowler. The alarm goes off immediately, the prowler runs away, and then within moments a 'hunk of a man' calls the house to reassure the frightened lady that help is on it's way. Then after watching that TV commercial, my wife says, "we need to get an alarm".

Well debating facts versus female emotion only results in the facts losing the debate every time. "But honey, you are not likely to arm the system during times when your up and about because the alarm will be constantly tripped". "I said, we need an alarm!"  "But Honey, an alarm might not deter the prowler. In fact he may enter anyway, shoot all of us, and take whatever he can get and then be gone before the cops arrive".

I am not opposed to getting an alarm. Quite the contrary. The issue is the false sense of safety depicted by those security commercials on TV.

Jim
WD5JKO

[N2DTS]

My parents used to have an alarm, not sure why.
Single box at the front door with a motion sensor and a LOUD horn outside.
The big thing was the key switch with led's at the front door.
After the alarm crapped out, we left the switch with the LED's on so it looked like the house was protected.

Its just looks you have to worry about I think.

I would worry more about a pipe breaking and filling the house with water while we are out, that could ruin lots of good homebrew stuff!
I used to worry about the oil tank breaking. We went gas when the oil furnace started leaking, but I always worried about the 40 year old (or more) oil tank busting a leg when they filled it and dumping 275 gallons of oil and sludge into the basement!

They are not expensive, so some outside camera's at the doors would be interesting, wireless, hook up to the computer, so you can see who is at the doors.
That would likely deter some people from breaking in, but some crooks are so stupid they would try anyway...

Brett

[KB2WIG]

Brett,
 For your approval.



http://blutube.policeone.com/Media/4433-Dumbest-criminals-Robbing-a-police-station/

[N2DTS]

I have seen things even stupider, like the guy going back to the place he robbed to get his wallet and so on....

Brett

[W4EWH]

I am not opposed to getting an alarm. Quite the contrary. The issue is the false sense of safety depicted by those security commercials on TV.

Facts and female emotion are never going to agree. That's why advertising agencies get so much money: they are expert at arousing female emotions of fear, anxiety, and jealosy so that females demand "alarm systems" to protect them from every possible random event in the universe.

The fact is that fear is a lot easier to sell than effective security: one can be assuaged with a cheap Taiwanese circuit box, a few wires, and lots of TV commercials, while the other requires professional judgment, expertise, expense, and patience.

I recommend that you simply buy some magnetic switch assemblies and motion detectors from Epay, wire them in series, hook up a relay, a transformer, and an outside bell, and tell your wife that she is now "secure". So long as you put a prominently-labeled "panic button" in the kitchen, she'll believe you.

I paid an extraordinary amount of money to have so-called "professionals" do this for me, and that is, in effect, all that they did. Trust me: you'll be amazed.

Bill, W1AC

[W4EWH]

After the alarm crapped out, we left the switch with the LED's on so it looked like the house was protected.

Its just looks you have to worry about I think.

You're partly right: that's why all alarm companies put decals on your door when they install an alarm. Deterrence is just that: the idea is to make a thief choose an easier target.

You're party wrong, though: protecting your home and family for real costs a lot more than a decal, and to do it you need to make hard choices about what is and is not worth protecting in your home.

I would worry more about a pipe breaking and filling the house with water while we are out, that could ruin lots of good homebrew stuff!

Most commercial-grade alarms include provisions for various "act of God" trip-and-report systems, such as flood, fire, etc. They are included because it's a trivial cost change to add the capability, and because insurance companies insist of having warning against such loses. It's all the same process, and if you encounter an alarm "system" that doesn't have provision for such alerting, run for the door while holding on to your wallet.

They are not expensive, so some outside camera's at the doors would be interesting, wireless, hook up to the computer, so you can see who is at the doors. That would likely deter some people from breaking in, but some crooks are so stupid they would try anyway...

Cameras over your door, or over your wrought-iron gate, don't make any difference in your security unless you have enough physical security to slow down an attacker long enough for help to arrive. If someone at your front door can pry his way in while you're still dialing 911, you've lost.

Here's where it gets heavy: convincing your family that they're not an attractive target when every TV show, every local TV newscast, and every newspaper is in the business of making them afraid of their own shadow is a nearly-impossible task. You have to fight fire with fire, and make your wife and kids realize that true security comes from knowing and being able to depend on your neighbors for help. The way to start is to price every possible "security" option, from cheap alarms to "panic" rooms to live-in guards, and to show your wife and family what real security really costs.

Let's face it: if it's possible to murder or maim the President of the United States, no $500 alarm "system" is going to protect your home. The hard truth is that protecting your home from every possible threat is a Herculean task that not even the Secret Service does perfectly, and the only measurable increase in security you'll ever get is the one where you go from nothing to something.

Going from nothing to something means making choices about what options give the most bang for the buck. Buying a high-profit "security" system from a mass-market vendor is "Security Theatre": it gives only the illusion of protection, not the reality. Your family will realize this when they see what it costs to replace your doors with cement-filled portals, your windows with high-impact plexiglass, and your phone line with a radio-equipped backup system.

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. In like manner, the best security comes from shining a light on what is realistically possible, and getting your family to agree on what you can and can't afford.

And now, the solution (cue the trumpets)!.

If you construct an alarm system which uses ham radio to relay event and alarm information to other hams, you'll have both effective security and $100 extra in your pocket every month. A simple packet setup, which reports to either a local ham or a "central alarm" station, will obviate almost all of the tricks burglars use now, such as disconnecting your phone line at the demarc or running downstairs and ripping the wires off the alarm battery.

Think of it: this is a Win-win-win. You get a secure home, you get closer ties with other hams, you get to save a lot of money.

Bill "Where's my old TNC?" Horne, W1AC