Portable alarms indispensable

Alarms are generally installed as permanent features in homes and offices.
However, there are portable alarm systems that can be used to protect you when away from home, such as when you are camping or boating.
One such alarm is called Voice Alert. It is intended as an early warning alarm to supplement a standard alarm system. However, because it is portable it can be taken with you when you go camping.
It could also be used by long distance drivers when they park for the night at a lay-by or by the roadside.
Voice Alert takes its name from the fact that it alerts you not with a siren but with a pre- recorded message which tells you the whereabouts of the suspected intruder.
When used at home or at business premises, infrared motion detectors are set up outside the building to cover up to six different sectors. One could be set up at the gate, for instance, another near the garage and another at the front or back door area.
The detectors or sensors are connected wirelessly to a voice box which is portable and can be kept near you in the lounge, bedroom or anywhere else. You prerecord a message for each sector which identifies the sector.
One message might be, for instance: “Intruder near garage.” Another might be: “Someone at the gate.”   
When the motion sensor picks up movement, it will activate the voice message for the sector that it is in. More than one sensor can be installed in any given sector, but only six separate sectors can be covered altogether and assigned their own voice message.
Because they are outdoor sensors, the alarm provides a warning before any intruder breaks into the building.
Voice Alert can be taken away with you to protect you at camp sites or when you are sleeping at night on a moored boat. A truck driver could set up the sensors near the wheels of his truck to wake him and warn him, when he is parked for the night, if anyone should approach the vehicle.
It is also possible, when you go away on holiday, to arrange with Safeguard Alarms to install a temporary alarm in your home, if you do not have a permanent alarm system installed.
The temporary alarm system can be installed when you are leaving and be removed when you return. It would provide added security to have it linked to Safeguard’s rapid response service so that, should it alarm in your absence, the rapid response service can be alerted and dispatch a response team to your house.
A temporary security guard to look after your premises while you are away is another option worth considering.
– This column is sponsored by Safeguard Security in the public interest. If you have  security issues you would like advice on in this column, please e-mail your request to mail@mhpr.co.zw or telephone Jackie at Safeguard Security, Tel. 751395 9.