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It's not standardized across the US, but many states have standards for emergency radios. Find out what's standard and go with it.

One of the more useful projects of Homeland Security is to get all the agencies that have first responders connected in emergencies. It's hard, because each agency has their own system and they don't interoperate. Here's the Texas plan. And the Florida plan.

Most of the hard problems have to do with too many people on the air in urban areas. If you're a volunteer department, you're probably not in an urban area and don't have that problem. If you want something that will Just Work, get high-powered 700MHz public safety band capable VHF FM handhelds and vehicle radios for your own people and get them fitted into your state plan. A few Iridium satellite radios for command personnel and those who really need to talk to the outside world during an incident are helpful. Here's one suitable for fire truck installation. Iridium airtime costs are high, about $1.29 per minute, but in an emergency that's the least of your problems.)

I would rather insert actual satellite phone rates. Iridium is a satellite network provider. Their phone airtime rates can be found here

Looks like the cost is about $1.29 / minute. I don't know what kind of phones they might use, but a basic phone costs about $1500 according to here

Yowsers! Nowadays the Iridium phone is down to $1500 and the data kit is $189.

How can it be that expensive? Even Iridium is "only" $30/mo + $1.50 per minute, through a handset. And you can even get data services at a whopping 2.4 Kbps. Ok, that's laughably bad, but you could transfer 50KBytes in under 3 minutes for about $4.50 in airtime.

How can it be that expensive? Even Iridium is "only" $30/mo + $1.50 per minute, through a handset. And you can even get data services at a whopping 2.4 Kbps. Ok, that's laughably bad, but you could transfer 50KBytes in under 3 minutes for about $4.50 in airtime.

This kind of a service is already available in the US http://www.infosat.com/services/hsi/index.html#

I can't find anything in the local Seattle, WA area

It's a satellite phone. Order it from anywhere and it should work, right? That's the point. Any one of those Google results would work. Here's one.

http://www.infosat.com/services/iridium/motorola_9 501_pager.htm This might help you a bit.

The reason you only got "a couple listings" is because Iridium is pretty much the only game in town, and there's pretty much only one pager. There weren't exactly a lot of devices made for this market. It's no small feat to operate a global voice/data satellite network. There are only a "couple" of other providers (geared more toward government, military, and enterprise, and without "pager" offerings): InMarSat and GlobalStar, for example.

The Motorola 9501 for Iridium is, as I said, essentially the only satellite pager:

http://www.iridium.com/product/iri_product-detail. asp?productid=445

http://shop.infosat.com/pagers/

http://www.infosat.com/services/iridium/motorola_9 501_pager.htm

http://www.satwest.com/satellite_pagers_mi9501.htm l

More...

Of course, you may be interested in a satellite handset, not strictly a "pager", than can also get email and numeric messages. Keep in mind, though, that all of these satellite devices are subject to normal satellite requirements, e.g., line of sight to the sky. Yes, sometimes they'll "kind of" work in vehicles, wooded areas, etc., and you will get confirmed delivery of messages once you're again in range, but these things aren't exactly set up to work in houses and buildings. You may have no choice but to have a conventional cell phone/pager AND a satellite device for when you're remote, and have your automated systems and/or people try both devices.

For others in a similar boat, but not quite as remote as the submitter, you may also consider a conventional 2-way or 1.5-way nationwide pager, which provides delivery confirmation and re-attempts if you're temporarily out of range. But if you know you're going to be out of range for a while, you pretty much restricted to something like one of the satellite solutions. Consider a mobile phone. Most providers' digital networks offer email service, numeric "paging", and even true TAP/IXO paging. Just look into a provider that covers your area(s).

A bit of history on Iridium: Iridium was the satellite phone service launched by Motorola on Sept 23, 1998, when the last satellite of its global constellation was in place. Handset prices (over $3000) and airtime fees (several dollars per minute), as well as attempting to market to ordinary folks doomed the service from the beginning. Motorola decided to end the Iridium service on March 17, 2000, at 11:59pm. After billions were spent on the 66 satellites, and the $1 million per month that it cost Motorola for Boeing operate the satellites, Motorola initiated plans to deorbit and destroy the constellation. Various investor groups attempted to save Iridium, and the Defense Department even provided $72 million to keep the satellites operational (in the face of concerns of debris from the deorbited satellites actually hitting someone on earth, which NASA pinned at 1 in 250). In any event, Iridium Satellite LLC successfully purchased the assets of the $7 billion Motorola Iridium program in November 2000 for a mere $25 million:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0011/16iridium/
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29iridium/

The new Iridium, launched in March 2001, attempts to fix the shortcomings of the original by expanding beyond satellite voice telephone service, into data, video, realtime monitoring, and special applications in markets such as mining, oil/gas, m

The reason you only got "a couple listings" is because Iridium is pretty much the only game in town, and there's pretty much only one pager. There weren't exactly a lot of devices made for this market. It's no small feat to operate a global voice/data satellite network. There are only a "couple" of other providers (geared more toward government, military, and enterprise, and without "pager" offerings): InMarSat and GlobalStar, for example.

The Motorola 9501 for Iridium is, as I said, essentially the only satellite pager:

http://www.iridium.com/product/iri_product-detail. asp?productid=445

http://shop.infosat.com/pagers/

http://www.infosat.com/services/iridium/motorola_9 501_pager.htm

http://www.satwest.com/satellite_pagers_mi9501.htm l

More...

Of course, you may be interested in a satellite handset, not strictly a "pager", than can also get email and numeric messages. Keep in mind, though, that all of these satellite devices are subject to normal satellite requirements, e.g., line of sight to the sky. Yes, sometimes they'll "kind of" work in vehicles, wooded areas, etc., and you will get confirmed delivery of messages once you're again in range, but these things aren't exactly set up to work in houses and buildings. You may have no choice but to have a conventional cell phone/pager AND a satellite device for when you're remote, and have your automated systems and/or people try both devices.

For others in a similar boat, but not quite as remote as the submitter, you may also consider a conventional 2-way or 1.5-way nationwide pager, which provides delivery confirmation and re-attempts if you're temporarily out of range. But if you know you're going to be out of range for a while, you pretty much restricted to something like one of the satellite solutions. Consider a mobile phone. Most providers' digital networks offer email service, numeric "paging", and even true TAP/IXO paging. Just look into a provider that covers your area(s).

A bit of history on Iridium: Iridium was the satellite phone service launched by Motorola on Sept 23, 1998, when the last satellite of its global constellation was in place. Handset prices (over $3000) and airtime fees (several dollars per minute), as well as attempting to market to ordinary folks doomed the service from the beginning. Motorola decided to end the Iridium service on March 17, 2000, at 11:59pm. After billions were spent on the 66 satellites, and the $1 million per month that it cost Motorola for Boeing operate the satellites, Motorola initiated plans to deorbit and destroy the constellation. Various investor groups attempted to save Iridium, and the Defense Department even provided $72 million to keep the satellites operational (in the face of concerns of debris from the deorbited satellites actually hitting someone on earth, which NASA pinned at 1 in 250). In any event, Iridium Satellite LLC successfully purchased the assets of the $7 billion Motorola Iridium program in November 2000 for a mere $25 million:

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0011/16iridium/
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/29iridium/

The new Iridium, launched in March 2001, attempts to fix the shortcomings of the original by expanding beyond satellite voice telephone service, into data, video, realtime monitoring, and special applications in markets such as mining, oil/gas, m

Iridium who does satellite phones also does global pagers. The pagers are not too expensive about 150.00 dollars US, but the service is about 127 dollars a month for unlimited pages or you can get the basic plan that i think is around 56 dollars it gives you about 150 pages per month. If your stuff doesn't go down that much i'd get the basic plan. A place that I know that sells it is InfoSat YOur other option is have your cell phone text messaged. I usually never not have service. If I do it's not for very long, and when i get back into a populated area or get reception i get my messages right away. The point is, what if you get a page but you can't call anyone because you have no reception. That would fustrate me more.

Iridium is still around and you can easily buy one. I got mine from Infosat a while back.

It works well. The airtime is expensive but SMS is free and includes an email address. It makes a great email pager with global coverage.