Our systems will monitor themselves. You can program up to six phone numbers and a personal recorded message into the base unit. When the armed unit is tripped by a sensor, all sirens will sound and the first of the six phone numbers will be dialed. When the recipient answers the call, they will hear the personal recorded message. At this time they can listen into the home over the built in microphone (all sirens will be muted so recipient can listen in). If an intruder is detected audibly, the listener can command all sirens to sound again, hang up with the system and dial authorities. If the listener ends the call, the unit will call the second person and it will continue dialing numbers until a listener hits #(pound). This way answering machines / voicemails will not stop the cycle.