Jim,
I received my MURS Alert intrusion detection system [1] last week, and have given it a good preliminary test. So far, so good. I am very impressed with this unit. All I had to do was turn a couple of dials to tune it to the channel and sub-code that I wanted it on, and it was good to go. Although I did disable the red “walk test” light, because with it turned on, it looked like a one eyed beast at nighttime when it tripped. The only other thing I did and that I highly recommend is that you put a small desiccant [packet] inside the unit before you deploy it. What is really nice about this system is that [because it is wireless] you can easily move it around to suit your needs. During the day, I have it stations in the front of my house to warn me if someone approaches. And during the night, I have been pointing it at the door to my “safe room” (a reinforced outbuilding beside my home) and keeping the radio beside my bed. The range on the unit also seems to be very good. I live on the edge of a small town, and I drove into town a little over a mile. I then called my wife and had her walk in front of the unit. My radio responded clear as a bell…”ALERT ZONE ONE, ALERT ZONE ONE, ALERT ZONE ONE’ in a clear “five by five” signal level. The unit has not false alarmed one time, and has alarmed every time it should have. You can’t ask for more. As I noted in a previous post, it is very important to “terminate” the “beam” on an object within its range. This is needed to give the infrared detector a good reference. Problems start to occur with this type of detector when the beam is hitting nothing but air.
Then they may false alarm, or not go into alarm at all. I now intend to purchase three more of these detectors (as they can be set to report four different zones) and use them to secure a perimeter around my campsite the next time I go looking for Bigfoot up in the Pacific Northwest. – Actually, it is always nice to know if a bear is snooping around close by in the middle of the night.
Last night we had a big storm roll in off the Pacific coast. The rain came down sideways as the wind gusted to over 50 MPH. This is very hard for any passive infrared (PIR)-based detector (like the MURS Alert) to deal with. However, the system came through with flying colors. It did not false alarm one time. And to make sure it would still alert under these extreme conditions, I put on my rain coat and walked into the sensing area. When I came back inside, the wife told me that it had indeed tripped as it should have. Man, am I ever sold on these things! – Gung Ho
JWR Replies: Thanks for that review. As previously mentioned, the MURS Alert intrusion detection system [1] uses frequencies that can be programmed into MURS band walkie talkies, (such as the slightly used surplus Kenwoods sold by MURS Radios [2]–one of our advertisers.) A transceiver than you can carry on your belt tis a very handy way to keep informed of perimeter intrusions. Best of all, it can be used a long range walkie talkie and it can also be programmed to receive 2 Meter [3] and Weather Radio (“WX”) frequencies. I’d classify that approach as a huge “win-win.”