What does it mean when the Central Dispatch company for your alarm system calls and tells you that they are missing the SELF TEST SIGNALS?

When your alarm keypad says “COM FAIL” or Communication failure it means the panel has been trying to send signals and is not able to.

When dispatch calls to tell you that they are getting MISSING SELF TEST it means that dispatch normally gets a signal from your panel checking in and they are not getting those signals.

Most of the time this is an issue with the PHONELINE or the CELLULAR UNIT.

If your system is a 3G Cellular unit it will no longer transmit signals after 12/31/2022 and the way to fix this is to have a new 4G/LTE cellular unit installed.

3G Cellular systems were taken off of the phone company cell towers and the transition was supposed to be done by the end of 2022.

Fire Alarm panels are required to send several signals per day and if the dispatch center is no longer getting any signals they will need to notify the fire marshal.

Another issue that could be happen is if you have changed your analog POTS line to a VOIP digital line then the alarm panel tries to send the signals to a computer at the central station and VOIP is 18 volts and analog lines are 54 volts and VOIP lines cut the sign wave off on the top and the bottom so much of the times packets are lost and signals are corrupted or not sent. The solution to this is to install a cellular unit.

Often you will be able to save more money by canceling your phonelines and having the alarm company install a cell on the fire alarm, security and the elevator phones.

Call Larry Love 801 898 6003 Larry.Love@JCI.com for more information and pricing. Johnson Controls Fire Protection / Simplex Fire Alarm Systems