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Back in '99 I had to pick between hardwired and wireless for a big retrofit job
It was a 12-unit apartment building in Cleveland, and the owner wanted a full system upgrade. The choice was ripping open walls for new wire runs or trying the new 433 MHz wireless sensors (which felt like magic back then). I went with wireless to save on labor and avoid damaging the old plaster. Honestly, it was a headache for the first year with signal drops, but after swapping some repeaters it's still running today. Anyone else have an early wireless job that made you sweat?
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miles_burns8d agoMost Upvoted
Honestly, that whole era felt like we were beta testers for the future. I mean, we were selling magic beans that only worked if you held your mouth right and the wind blew from the west. The idea of trusting a whole building's security to a signal that couldn't even get through drywall without a fight seems crazy now. Maybe it's just me, but I still get a little nervous when I see a warehouse job come up, even with modern gear. That early stuff really left a mark.
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knight.felix9d ago
My buddy had a similar nightmare with a 900 MHz system in an old brick warehouse around '02. He spent more time climbing ladders to move transceivers than he did on the actual install. The client was ready to sue over all the false alarms. They finally got it stable, but he still gets twitchy thinking about brick walls and radio waves.
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the_elliot9d ago
Your buddy's brick warehouse job sounds like a bad install, not a problem with wireless itself.
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