Hello, and thank you for visiting Washington County Toneouts! What is Washington County Toneouts? Well, I’m glad you asked! It’s a simple service that I’ve set up to serve as a backup means of notification for Fire and EMS runs in Washington County, Indiana that either emails you or sends you a text message containing the dispatch audio of a run. Currently, I am only offering this service to members of a fire department, EMS employees, and members of the local media. If you would like to sign up, please shoot me an email and let me know which department(s) you need to be notified for.

Just remember a couple of things before signing up…. First, this is NOT meant to be a primary means of notification!!! I try to make sure that the system is reliable, however, it runs on an old laptop that I had laying around, so there is always a chance that notifications might not go out. There could also be a power failure at my home, I don’t have backup power for any of the equipment that run this. Lastly, there is the internet. Jackson Connect hooked me up with some great internet service, which has increased the reliability of the service quite a bit, but, there is still the chance that my home could lose internet. I try to notify users if there is going to be a prolonged issue, such as a power failure, however, if I’m at work and don’t notice the email from my alarm monitoring company telling me the power went off at home, I won’t know there is an issue until I get home from work. What I’m trying to say is, you’ll still need to carry your radio or pager with you!

One other thing to note, if you want the system to text you instead of emailing you, there is a chance that you’ll get mixed results. Personally, I use Verizon Wireless, and “most” of the time, I get the texts within about a minute of the live dispatch, but, there have been a few times when I’ve noticed that texts showed up hours late. This isn’t anything to do with me, it’s on the wireless providers side. Also, if you have StraightTalk, you’ll need to know if you are using Verizon or AT&T towers so I can set you up properly.