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