What are /r/911dispatchers' favorite Products & Services?

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Been on nights for 15 years and I love it. Stick to the same sleep schedule on your days off if you can. I only adjust back to lightdweller hours for vacations.

This stuff is amazing. I have blackout curtains up too throughout the whole house. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07MVPNTMB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_H.8eFbWCC95SX

Every time I see a post like this I feel obliged to share this book: The Resilient 911 Professional. Not even joking, it probably saved my own life.

It's important your partner understands the nature of shift work and what you do. My husband is a police sergeant, so he knows the environment but in the past I had issues in relationships with less tha understanding partner. It's difficult. I also encourage you read Emotional Survival for law Enforcement (https://www.amazon.com/Emotional-survival-law-enforcement-officers/dp/0971725403) it's for family members too, and doesn't just apply to sworn.

My very last day of work I am going to dispatch a radio channel using these phonetics...

The book is titled "P Is for Pterodactyl: The Worst Alphabet Book Ever".

It's great, C is for Czar, T as in Tsunami, etc...

https://www.amazon.com/Pterodactyl-Worst-Alphabet-Book-Ever/dp/1492674311

After PRQ-QA closes I get their name and confirm phone number; "Alright (Mr./Ms.) *****, if anything changes give us a call back." CLICK. As long as it is clear of noise for 1-2 seconds I get off the phone. If I sense something I might tell them "You can hang up now".

I've been a nightshift worker for most of my adult life and I definitely agree with some of the tips here.

1. Blackout your room for sure!
2. Either use white noise or earplugs to help with outside sound. I got a headband and its fabulous. I don't have this exact one, but they're similar and its awesome.
3. GFUEL - oh my gosh this stuff was a game changer for me. Caffiene and vitamins, no sugar and almost no calories. No big rush like from energy drinks just feeling... awake, no crash either. No, I'm not affiliated with the company, its just amazing!
4. Try different things to find what works best for you. For me personally I prefer to go to bed within an hour of getting home but that's because I like having time to do things before I go to work and I hate alarms. Same goes for either keeping your same schedule on your days off or not. If you're trying one way and its not working for you, then try another :)

I went from 8a-8p to 8p-8a in October. If you have days off before the switch try to nap a little bit during the day and then stay up as late as your body will let you. Then nap during the day the next day and repeat. It took me about a month to feel actually adjusted but I’m 6 months in now and I love my shift.

As far as day sleep goes, get blackout curtains for your room, I even got a sleep mask (the best one)

The transition from days to nights is interesting but once you get a hang of it it’s great.

Hi, i’m over in the UK, working with the ambulance service in Scotland, and interested in how the text-to-911 system works. I see it doesn’t provide you with a location. I run a sideline business, EmergencyLocate, here’s a demonstration of my system in action, I’d love to know if you think it would help? EmergencyLocate Demo

We had to do one in training that made no sense to me, but here it is. Our instructor pulled 4 of us up to the front of the class and put all of us back to back. So imagine us facing like this + , she then said now walk to me. So we all stood back to back and moved to her location while telling the ones who were looking in the opposite directions when to move and what direction. That part made sense, I guess, but it went a little weird when the point of it was what happens when you have bad teachers. She told us to do it again, but said "I never told you to stay back to back." So we were confused and walked to her casually and she said, see how easy that was, thanks now have a seat. She said "commuincation is key, and it's easy to be confused with bad instructions, which is why they stayed back to back."

I guess it makes more sense typing it out, but the teamwork thing would of made more sense in the end. Also since I am now interested in this topic, I found this and hopefully it helps. http://www.onlineexpert.com/elearning/user/pdf/natsem/managingdiverseworkforce/team-buildinggamesactivitiesideas.pdf

Find an old officer of your choosing and have him read you VINs through a cardboard tube for an hour and tape it. Then whenever you have time, listen to it and type what you hear. Bonus points if you can also find a firefighter that will read you size ups with their SCBA mask on and type those out as well. I'm mostly kidding, but only mostly.

Seriously though, there are free online programs like https://www.typing.com/student/lessons

And I agree with a few others here that I think I'm as good as I am from playing MMO online games. Of course, I'm older than WoW and was an Everquest junkie but... same results!

2 weeks should be enough to get a minimum of 60wpm with touch typing. I learned through typing.com fairly effectively, idk if anyone else has a better site in mind.

For an example, one of Facebook’s addresses is 2a03:2880:f112:83:face:b00c:0:25de

Expect lots of numbers, letters a-f, and colons. You can possibly find out what company owns it by doing the ARIN lookup at https://mxtoolbox.com/SuperTool.aspx

Yeah no you gotta get the ones that have the round earpiece that sits on the outside of your ear

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G49I2FA/ref=sspa_mw_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01G49I2FA&pd_rd_w=DHYYP&pf_rd_p=510b7685-091d-40ed-ab1a-815626382515&pd_rd_wg=g9Cyv&pf_rd_r=NKE3BBF0ZSMVZ4R4EG3J&pd_rd_r=f7498290-9bfd-4d9d-9c6f-09a35...

I've never put in a link, I hope this worked

Weird, I’m not sure why the link didn’t work.

It’s this one for reference. Plantronics H31CD Starset https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00007FH7K?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Yea it goes way into your ear canal. I finally found an ear piece that worked, but the unfortunate thing was it was hurting pretty bad after a few hours.

I ended up returning my blackout curtains to Amazon before even using them because I found this sleep mask that had built in Bluetooth. It blocks out light really well and I use the sleep meditations in the Insight Timer app to fall asleep. I find the guided meditations work best for me rather than just background sounds. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QJ1JZK6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_2nzxDbB7DHGYM

Some people take the prescription Provigil to increase alertness while awake, but i've found a lot of success with over the counter like this one

I use the alligator clips from this badge holder set. Just wrap the loop around two coils of the headset cord to keep it from sliding up/down the cord.

I carry this Kavu bag, I work 12+ hr shifts depending on staffing. I fit my lunch bag, water bottle, planner, book, chargers, than a smaller bag that I have headache medicine/pens/eye drops ect.. I love it and have had it for a little over 2 years with no visible wear. I do only use it for work and bought a buffalo plaid print.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N4IXCH8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1&psc=1

> we would be better off to allow them to leave the dispatch area, walk around the block or something to not only exercise the body, but to clear the mind as well.

the thought of this is nice, but if you're halfway around the block on a stroll and shit goes down, you won't hear the radio traffic/phone ringing/whatever and it will take you more than a few minutes to get back. a treadmill in the next room means you can still hear everything that's going on in the office and get back to your console immediately if you need to.

if your dispatchers have said they aren't interested in treadmills, maybe ask them what they are interested in? our office has talked about under desk ellipticals (like this). we don't use foot pedals but i'd imagine those are small enough that they wouldn't be in the way too much.