I'm new to alarm systems, and was interested in setting up one in my home. The main reason is to alert me if someone breaks in while my family and I are asleep (preventing theft while we're gone is secondary). So I'm not really interested in monitoring, but would like to get a call on my cell if my wife and I are gone and the alarm goes off.
I called one of the online alarm suppliers and asked about the call setup (specifically for the GE Concord 4), and I was told that most alarm systems can only call monitoring companies... but I'm questioning that. They told me I could get a telephone module that would call additional numbers, but I'm wondering why I can't do that with the base system. Surely the number is programmable, although maybe only monitoring companies have the capability of programming it...?
So my question is this: are most alarm systems set up to only call monitoring systems? If so, is there a way around it? It doesn't violate any laws if I program it myself, does it?
Thanks in advance! Dave