On Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:07:01 GMT, Jethro wrote:

I am wondering....

I have a long unused 'Vector' burglar alarm system consisting of a
non-working console panel which used to be connected to 'Vector via
phone line, All the door and window sensors are still in place.

Can I buy a replacement console that will work with my sensors, and
use the alarm with some sort of horn I would mount on the house?

Or should I even consider such a thing?

Absolutely.

A lot of people are very dubious about sirens and horns. I se there
point, but I still believe in them.

If you don't want to pay 15 a month for monitoring, they may still
sell, or ebay has, voice dialiers that you can connect to your alarm.

Some are meant to be connected to the fob that old people wear around
their neck (I've fallen and I can't get up.), and others are meant for
burglar alarms. I think I paid 100 dollars for mine and I got it
connected but I never actually turned it on. Then the burglar alarm
panel burned up, and now I'm depending on a friend who owns a burglar
alarm compnay and I pretty much have to get monitoring. He may give
me a discount.

To use a dialer, you have to know someone who usually answers the
phone, yourself at work, your mother who rarely goes out, a friend.
The dialers dial more than one number (3?) and play the message you
choose to each one, in succession. If the person getting the message
presses 1 or something, it won't call any more people. Then or even
if he didn't press 1, that person has to call the police.

I like the siren because if everything is silent, it might increase
the chance of caatching the burglar, but the siren may cause him to
leave first. The one burglary I had, the guy broke in but took
nothing, I suspect because the dog next door started barking. I hated
that dog for keeping me from sleeping at 11PM and for waking me up at
7, but I guess he saved me from the burglar. If a dog can do this, a
siren can do it too. Burglars don't want to get caught. You can have
a dialer or monitoring also.

And of course the police don't respond instantaneously.

I know about neighbors not responding. I have glass and wood breakage
detectors, which worked with the doorbell, but then I got a nicer
doorbell and put the original one in the basement, but then there
was't enough power to run both of them so I got a bigger doorbell
transformer, and I didn't think about the burglar alarm. I found out
maybe a year later that whenever there was a certified letter for me,
or something that made the mailman ring the doorbell, the alarm went
off. The mailman should have told me, but he didnt'. A neighbor
mentioned it in passing after this happened maybe several times.



I'lll tell you another story. My borther bought a beautiful house
built in the 70's. It had a burglar alarm but he never used it, not
even when he went out of town. I don't know how many burglaries there
were there, in what had been probably one of the nicest n'hoods in
town when the house was built. When I visited, I decided to get it
working for him, so I armed it and tested a door, and I don't remember
what happened, but 5, 10 or 15 minutes later - i dont remember -- I
was going to take his bicycle and go for a ride, and I had the bik in
my hands with the garage door open when the polic arrived. I told
them I was visiting my brother, and I had tested the alarm. I have
the same last name he does, but they didn't ask to see my wallet, or
id, they didnt' ask if I had a key (which I did), they didnt' ask
anything, even though it could have been that I was stealing the
bicycle. I was 42 at the time, but looked younger. It was
disgusting, because if I had been a burglar, they would never have
noticed.

This was Dallas fwiw.


OTOH, if I had been black, even if i did have the same last name and
even if I had a key that fit the door, they might have arrested me.




Thanks

Jethro