Firefly, PAL communications device

original movie prop

Here is a PAL communications device as seen onboard Serenity in Firefly. It was actually a personal alarm system worn by firefighters that was designed to sound an alarm if it was motionless for a certain amount of time (like if a firefighter fell inside a burning building unconscious), alerting other firefighters that they had a fellow crewmember in trouble. When Firefly went into production, they wanted to have devices all over Serenity that could be carried by crew and mounted to walls that would look like personal communicators. The production bought an entire supply of old PAL devices from a company in California. This is one of the production purchased devices