Re: Alarm monitoring service like ucontrol that uses DSC native communication hardware?

[Frank Olson <Use-the-email-links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert L Bass wrote:

> Many alarm companies mark up the monitoring (which
> is farmed out anyway) by as much as 2,000%.  One large
> nation-wide monitoring service charges alarm dealers
> $2 per account per month.  The service is resold for
> anywhere between $20 and $40 per month (nice margin).

Uh-huh...  quite similar to the way you "marked up" the first year
monitoring from your old provider.  Didn't they give that to you "free"
with the purchase of a Napco panel?  So, when you sell something for
$151.00 US but haven't paid anything for it, what's the markup?


>
> Jim Rojas (posts here all the time) is a decent guy who
> offers a service to default alarm panels.  Unfortunately,
> you'd then need to reprogram the whole panel.  On the
> plus side, DSC panels aren't hard to program.

Before you go off the deep end, maybe you should have a look at the
4020's programming manual.  For a residential system, the 4020 could be
considered "overkill", however some of it's more advanced features may
be in use here (which would make reprogramming it a bit more of a
challenge than you realize).

>
> ... it sounds like you're
> not too thrilled at the prospect of  programming it.

Probably for good reason...