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| FRIDAY - AUGUST 22, 2003 - ISSUE NO. 72 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dear Friends and Industry Colleagues, Well, it's Friday again and time for the newsletter. I hope you had a good week and didn't get hammered too bad by the e-mail worm. More to follow on that subject. I want to welcome the all new advertisers. Their support of this newsletter makes it possible for me to continue and for the whole paging and wireless data communities to benefit. Please take a look at their products and services. If you need anything, please give them first preference and mention that you saw their advertisement in Brad Dye's Newsletter. I really appreciate the following comments about last week's issue. |
NOTE: This newsletter is best viewed at screen resolutions of 800x600 (good) or 1024x768 (better). Any current revision of web browser should work just fine. Please notify me of any problems with viewing. This site is compliant with XHTML 1.0 transitional coding for easy access from wireless devices. (XML 1.0 / ISO 8859-1) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reader's Comments:
And another: Good morning Brad. I received a copy of your newsletter. I was wondering if you know of a company who will purchase pagers that are owned by my customers? Thanks! Colleen M. Miller Nasty E-mail Worm on Tuesday This is a real bad one! I received over a thousand e-mails with the worm attachment, and then I started receiving many from servers telling me that I had sent them an e-mail with a virus-infected attachment. I knew they weren't really coming from my computer, even though they all showed that they were from my e-mail address. Fortunately this is another one that doesn't affect Macintosh computers. If you got one "from me" please realize that it didn't really come from me or from my computer. The worm got my e-mail address from someone else's computer. Following is a little technical info about the worm: W32.Sobig.F@mm
The worm utilizes it's own SMTP engine to propagate and will attempt to create a copy of itself on accessible network shares.
Note: The worm deactivates on September 10, 2003. The last day on which the worm will spread is September 9, 2003. Also Known As: Sobig.F [F-Secure], W32/Sobig.f@MM [McAfee], WORM SOBIG.F [Trend] Type: Worm Infection Length: about 72,000 bytes Systems Affected: Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows XP Systems Not Affected: Linux, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, Windows 3.x Source: Symantec Security Response If you are a Macintosh user, this worm will not propagate through your computer unless you manually forward to someone, but never-the-less you will continue to receive the infected e-mails from others. If you want to stop it completely, just set up a new Mac Mail "rule section" according to the information here. Macs are soooooooo cool! First Reports of a Virus Affecting a Paging System The computer is a client on the TNPP side of the [Unipage] terminal it is for in-coming and out-going traffic across the internet via a CommOne systems soft ware. The program (trojan) was running hidden on the win 2000 oper sys. It could send commands via the serial port of the computer to the Unipage terminal on the TNPP bus. It appears to be disruptive in this way. I only examined it long enough to determine that it runs hidden and has a lot of commands regarding channel parameters in the configuration files. All is all not good! The back door program was on the computer that receives and sends TNPP for our Metrocall affiliation. It was causing disruption of the Unipage terminal via the serial port. It was running hidden in the recycle bin. I believe some of the lockups and resets that we were troubled with occurred due to this intrusion. Source: Newsletter subscriber | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PAGING AND WIRELESS DATA NEWS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bye Bye Boynton Beach The Former Motorola Paging Headquarters Wednesday, August 13, 2003 The two years remaining on Motorola's lease at its former plant in Boynton Beach is unlikely to hold up development of the property, part of a $1 billion office, retail and residential project. Source: Palm Beach Post Public Security and Wireless in Mexico In response to the latest increase in robberies (followed by on-board rapes) in Mexico City's mini-buses, its Police Department, known as Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, is currently evaluating the viability of installing panic-buttons on these mini-buses. The program, currently in its assessment phase—with almost fifty mini-buses testing the solutions offered by over 25 different suppliers, will—if successful—represent the largest deployment ever of vehicle-tracking units in Latin America, since there are over 30,000 mini-buses in Mexico City alone. Before anybody begins freshening up on their High-School Spanish and packing their bags and goodies to head South, keep in mind that: a) The program is still under assessment; b) The Mexico City government is NOT purchasing the units, but merely acting as both an "assessment board" of the various options and technologies (currently spanning from 2-way paging, Cellular, Cellemetry, and Satellite), and as a filter, forcing the various service providers to reduce their prices to a minimum (currently below $520 US per unit, and decreasing, plus monthly service fees); c) The units—if and when they're purchased—will be bought by the various bus-drivers' cooperatives that already have the government's concessions to provide public-transportation services in various routes throughout the city. The most promising aspect is the possibility that this trend becomes a law, therefore considerably increasing the market for AVL solutions in Mexico. Source: A friend in México FCC 12.5 kHz Migration Order Challenged In a Petition for Reconsideration filed at the FCC on August 18, 2003, AAPC jointly with Allied, Arch and Metrocall challenged an FCC requirement that Part 90 paging-only frequencies migrate to 12.5 kHz operation in phases commencing with January 17, 2004. Their Joint Petition noted that the FCC's action may have been inadvertent, but, in any event, was "improper as a matter of law" as well as "unwarranted as a matter of fact." The Petition pointed out that "12.5 kHz technology cannot simply be phased into paging systems over time," and that carriers instead would have to "'flash cut' their systems and equipment to 12.5 kHz." Paging carriers thus "would have to either jettison their existing 25 kHz systems and equipment entirely, or overlay complex and costly networks to accommodate 12.5 kHz modes of operation." The Petition concluded that "the ensuing disruptions to both service and customers, as well as the aggregate financial cost to the industry, would be staggering and potentially fatal to some of the carriers." The Petition buttressed its arguments with a synopsis prepared by the Steering Committee of the Paging Technical Committee evaluating the adverse impact which 12.5 kHz operation would have on the U.S. paging industry. The Petition requested the FCC to reconsider its decision and to continue exempting Part 90 paging-only frequencies from the general FCC implementation of narrowband channels in the Private Land Mobile Radio Services. A copy of the Petition is posted on the AAPC Government Relations web page. Source: AAPC Newsroom Paging Equipment For Sale in Brazil There is a large amount of paging equipment for sale in Brazil. The current owner bought the equipment from PageNet of Brazil when they deactivated part of their network. One exception is a GL3200 which is still located in Miami. It was never put into the production system because of the decision not to implement ReFLEX. About one-half of the parts are brand-new and in boxes. Other parts came from a big GL3930/3000 that was dismantled and sold for junk. The owner is willing to have the equipment packed and shipped anywhere but would like to receive payment before shipment. He is also willing to give a discount to anyone wanting to purchase the whole lot of equipment. If you are interested in any or all of this equipment, please get in touch with me. I will put you in contact with the owner and then you and he can work out all the details between the two of you. A link to the equipment list follows. Equipment List | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FEATURED ADVERTISERS SUPPORTING THE NEWSLETTER | ||||||||
 AAPC’s Mission Statement Defines Purpose
Our industry must move forward together or perish individually. If you want to get involved, please click here. Come and join us! Their "newsroom" is a great source of information. They also host the Paging Technical Committee site. There is a lot of good paging-industry information here. Click on the logo above to find out about joining. |  High-speed simulcast paging with protocols such as POCSAG and FLEX™ requires microsecond accuracy to synchronize the transmission of digital paging signals. Zetron's Simulcast System uses GPS timing information to ensure that the broadcasted transmissions between the nodes of the Simulcast System and associated transmitters are synchronized to very tight tolerances. This system is ideal for public or private paging system operators that use multiple transmitters and wish to create new paging systems or to build out existing systems into new regions. For more information about Zetron's High Speed Simulcast Paging System, the Model 600 and Model 620, go to: www.zetron.com/paging. | |||||||
 ISC Technologies is the industry leader in the pre-owned Paging equipment marketplace. We specialize in purchasing, reconditioning, reconfiguring and sales of quality paging infrastructure. We can customize and configure equipment at a fraction of the cost of new. All equipment carries a standard warranty to insure your trouble free operation. At ISC Technologies we service what we sell and more. Our factory-trained technicians repair most Quintron, Glenayre, Motorola, and Skydata equipment. All of our repairs are done on a Time and Material basis, saving you money over flat rate repair. From vacuum tubes to surface mount equipment, we are ready to handle your repair needs quickly and cost effectively.
|  Wireless Communication Solutions Hark Systems has provided the wireless industry with innovative products for over 20 years. The Omega family of products continues that tradition. The Omega Gateway performs the function of a TAP Concentrator, a TNPP Router, and an Internet Paging Gateway. This allows the paging operator with TAP and TNPP connections to their paging network to offer email and Internet based paging services. Any message coming in via any supported protocol (SMTP, SNPP, TAP, TNPP, HTTP) can be converted to another protocol and sent. Pages can also be sent to email boxes for safe keeping. Subscribers can log on with a web browser and view stored alpha messages. The TNPP router function has the most extensive routing and filtering capabilities in the market today. The Internet Gateway also has extensive anti-SPAM and other selective filtering options to protect your system. The Gateway is available as a turnkey system or software only. The Omega Unified Messaging Platform gives you the competitive edge by offering the ability to bundle a variety of services that can include Voicemail, FAXmail and email as part of customized subscriber packages. Subscribers can view faxes, listen to voicemails, and modify features using a common browser. System administration can also be performed remotely as well as locally. This robust set of features allows the system operator to build a profit center with low initial expense and expand as needed.
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Coming soon. | ||||||||
 ProfitPlus by Netflow—the software that streamlines pager billing and system maintenance. ProfitPlus interfaces to your Zetron terminals allowing easy changes to pager settings and billable services. Zetron Interface: Multiple Zetron Series 2000 terminals supported. Default pager settings. Terminal/phone number association. Future activation/deactivation dates. Easy group maintenance. Automatic Billing Records: Point of Sale transaction automatically enters pager airtime into monthly billing cycle. Contract pricing. Recurring and one-time billing capabilities. Tracking: Agent commissions. Phone number inventory/analysis. Product inventory transfer from stockroom to sales locations to customer. Capcode usage reports. Duplicate capcode detection.
Contact Netflow, Inc at: 800-236-5861 | 
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  Product Description: TGA's SNAP System is designed to accept and deliver messages using network-based interconnect and certain message handling protocols. Control and configuration capabilities are included to format messages and associated content or routing information into acceptable parameters for delivery to a wide variety of devices and services. TGA SNAP consists of several TGA software modules installed on a commercial quality computer running Microsoft's Windows 2000 Operating System. The version of Windows 2000 can be either Professional or Server with certain operational and functional differences defined elsewhere. TGA also offers an option for customer-supplied commercial quality computers where TGA installs and configures the software. TGA may require the proposed computer in advance to determine its compatibility, performance and configuration. Check with TGA Sales to obtain the detailed specifications of a customer-supplied computer. MESSAGE HANDLING FUNCTIONS INBOUND:
OUTBOUND:
SUBSCRIBER ADDRESS ALIAS:
MESSAGE HANDLING CONFIGURATION: INBOUND:
OUTBOUND:
* Class of Service (COS) in the TGA PRISM Message Gateway is a service provider created table containing its message handling parameters. Multiple COS tables may be used for different input handling parameters of the same service provider.
TGA SNAP is a trademark of TGA Technologies, Inc. | 
Developers and Manufacturers of Paging and Mobile Data Equipment Selective is a developer and manufacturer of intelligent paging receiver/decoders and mobile data equipment. The PDT2000 Paging Data Terminal is a large display pager designed for desktop or in-vehicle mounting and it, along with our range of other Paging Data Receivers provide a significant message processing capability. The PDT and PDR range have multiple uses and capabilities including:
Our mobile data equipment includes a range of Mobile Data Terminals (MDTs) which may be interfaced to a variety of wireless networks including trunked and conventional radio, paging, GPRS & CDMA cellular, Mobitex etc. Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) and GPS solutions, Dispatch & Messaging software. Local area paging systems, paging interception and message reprocessing software, field force automation and mobile dispatch solutions. We export worldwide.
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 TRANSMITTERS AND RECEIVERS Salcom's synthesized UHF and VHF transmitters, receivers and transceivers are utilized in many areas of the telecommunications industry, often in conjunction with Salcom signalling products. To realize additional market segments for the RF products, specialized OEM products have been developed utilizing the standard core technology. Most of these products are utilized in third party telecommunications and telemetry systems. PAGING EQUIPMENT EMERGENCY TRANSCEIVER SEA AIR AND LAND COMMUNICATIONS LTD | ||||||||
Would You Like To Advertise Here? If you have any wireless equipment that you would like to buy or sell, please let me know. I don't charge individuals for listing something for sale. If a sale is made through this newsletter, I ask the seller to send me a 10% commission, much the same as the voluntary payments that are requested on the Internet for shareware. It's on the honor system. There is no cost to the buyer. There is a small charge for companies wanting to put their products in the newsletter and on my web site. There is no obligation for payment of a commission for this kind of basic advertising. I would be very pleased, however, to get involved in the sales process as a manufacturer representative—for quality wireless products and reputable companies. It's only $15.38 per issue for the basic advertising package. ($400 for 6 months or 26 issues.) Details about the advertising plans can be read here. | ||||||||
Your company's logo and product promotion can appear right here for 6 months. It only costs $400 for 26 issues—that's $15.38 an issue. | ||||||||
| OTHER PAGING AND WIRELESS DATA PRODUCTS AND SERVICES | ||||||||||||||||
Two-way Radio Products
| Radio Paging Transmitters
VHF PAGING TRANSMITTER
To request pricing and delivery information for the PTX-150, please click here. You can check out their paging products here. | |||||||||||||||
| Wireless Automation & Telemetry Check out the following four categories of two-way wireless data communications. We have the ability to customize solutions to meet your (or your customer's) needs.
To visit their web site for more information, click here. |
CUSTOM APPLICATIONS
If you see someone in the field (like salespeople, technicians, and delivery people) using paper forms, their company could probably save a pile of money, and get much better timeliness, accuracy and efficiency, by using converting to Outr.Net's Wireless Forms. Custom applications for as little as $995, delivered in just a few days. Outr.Net has a web page on Wireless Forms for Timeports at: http://www.outr.net/overnight_pw.htm Their latest newsletter is: "Crossing the Chasm" with Mobile Data http://www.outr.net/newsletter_chasm.htm Please call me so we can discuss your need or your idea. | |||||||||||||||
Unication Co., Ltd. Introducing the new line of 802.11b products Quantity—1,000 minimum each item—per order
These are wholesale, direct-from-the-factory products. To send me an e-mail for pricing information please click here. | Sea Air & Land Communications Ltd. Designers and Manufacturers of Communications Systems You can check out their web site here. | |||||||||||||||
Legacy Technology Solutions LLC
Paging infrastructure repair with warranty. Please ask for Virgil Jarrard, President, and tell him Brad Dye sent you. They are located in the Dallas suburbs, and they occasionally have some good deals on reconditioned paging equipment as well. Check with them for current product availability. You can send Virgil an e-mail by clicking here. | ||||||||||||||||
The Ambient Orb
Now in stock at your local Brookstone store Green... the market's up. Yellow... unchanged. Red... stocks are down. Know your financial position at a glance. The Orb slowly transitions between thousands of colors in response to stock market activity. Pre-configured to track the Dow, it can also be set up to mirror NASDAQ, S&P 500 or your individual portfolio. You don't need a PC or an Internet connection. Just plug the Orb into a standard outlet, and you're instantly tapped into the pulse of the market. There are no monthly service charges for the basic service, and it only costs $150.00! Mirrors more than markets As an alternative to tracking stocks, the Orb can be customized to respond to weather conditions, pollen levels, or even the Homeland Security Channel. This is a Wireless Data receiver that receives its market updates over the WebLink Wireless nationwide paging system. It should work just fine in most major populated areas in the United States. | ||||||||||||||||
Wireless Messaging Software InfoRad® Wireless Office (Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP) is designed for the professional who needs full-featured wireless messaging capabilities. Features include enhanced user interface, message log with search function, scheduled paging, group and individual message addresses, TAPI Smart™, multiple protocol SMS communication compatibility. AlphaCare™ support services available. With a 32-bit architecture, InfoRad Wireless Office is designed for compatibility with Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. For more information on InfoRad Wireless Messaging software, and a free demo, please click on the logo. | ||||||||||||||||
| UNTIL NEXT WEEK | ||||||||||||||||
Don't forget to share any news you hear about the paging or the wireless data industries. I hope you have a great weekend!
FLEX, ReFLEX, FLEXsuite, and InFLEXion, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc. | ||||||||||||||||
| UNTIL NEXT WEEK | ||||||||||||||||
CLICK HERE TO REPLY DIRECTLY 
For over 55 years, RELM has manufactured and marketed two-way FM business-band radios as well as high-specification public safety mobile and portable radios, repeaters and accessories, base station components and subsystems. Products are manufactured and distributed worldwide under RELM Communications, Uniden PRC and BK Radio brand names. 
Distribution agreements for Dealers and Stocking Distributors are available in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe. 
If you have the ability to sell and service two-way radio equipment and would like to represent Uniden PRC, BK Radio, and RELM Wireless, please let me know as soon as possible. This is a unique opportunity. Requests for other countries will also be considered. Please call me today. 
