jaf@houxj.UUCP (J.FIELDS) (02/21/86)
I am buying a new house in March and I have the home security bug again. In my current house, I settled for some decent vertical dead-bolt locks very securely screwed in place and a radio blaring talk show programs when ever we were out. I guess my concerns at that time were over ridden by the following items: 1. I did not have a strong enough interest to hard-wire my own perimeter system and the local contractors wanted a small fortune to do the job. 2. The radio based systems available for self installation impressed me as pretty junky and I did not want to deal with an unreliable system which either didn't do the job or was a false alarm problem. 3. I felt that a non-perimeter system might meet my interest in low cost and moderate installation effort, however I feel that a perimeter system with externally visible window protection is a strong deterrent. I guess I am more interested in seeing the potential burglar go away rather than just encouraging a quick exit after smashing in a door or window. Several of my neighbors have since put in hybrid systems which are hard-wired where there is basement or crawlspace and radio based where there is slab. However they did not do there own installation and professional quality radio based devices were used. They have not had any reliability problems and the radio based devices are a very convenient design which combined the transmitter with either a vibration sensor or a switch. So the obvious conclusion is that I should look into putting my own fully radio based system with professional quality parts. Which leads me to ask the following questions: 1. Do radio based systems work well? 2. What brand components should I use? 3. Where do you buy these components? (Are there cheap mail order companies in this business?) 4. How much should I expect to pay? Any good advice would be greatly appreciated. Jon Fields houxj!jaf