A question about pagers
I've been wondering about pagers for the longest time. I get that they're there to contact people in emergency cases, but the writers always remain very fuzzy with that.
Sometimes there's talk about codes, and other times those pagers seem to display whole sentences. I read it up @ wikipedia and apparently they can also receive emails now (which explains the thing with the whole sentences).
It's just always been bugging me because pagers don't have anything to type sentences or even letters on, so if you want to page someone how the hell do you do it from your own pager? Is there a drop-down menu with codes that represent a specific person or what?
Wikipedia suggests that you have to do it from some kind of main station, which would explain the constant yelling of "Someone page XYZ" instead of doing it themselves, but then there's always the "You paged me?"- question. How do they know who paged them and where exactly to find that person?
Obviously, I am very confused and I feel very stupid about this, so if someone with some actual pager-experience (LOL) could explain this a little, I'd be very grateful. =)
Sometimes there's talk about codes, and other times those pagers seem to display whole sentences. I read it up @ wikipedia and apparently they can also receive emails now (which explains the thing with the whole sentences).
It's just always been bugging me because pagers don't have anything to type sentences or even letters on, so if you want to page someone how the hell do you do it from your own pager? Is there a drop-down menu with codes that represent a specific person or what?
Wikipedia suggests that you have to do it from some kind of main station, which would explain the constant yelling of "Someone page XYZ" instead of doing it themselves, but then there's always the "You paged me?"- question. How do they know who paged them and where exactly to find that person?
Obviously, I am very confused and I feel very stupid about this, so if someone with some actual pager-experience (LOL) could explain this a little, I'd be very grateful. =)