Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

[gws]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

THe only "power boosters" are on analog phones. Digital phones dont support boosters.
Now there are things called boosters for digital phones but all they boost is the audio of the radio not the transmitter power

Gary (N8EMR)
gws@redbird.net

 

[gws]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

Me too.. I guess I am part of the 100mile club here. I have lots of do-dads in my truck. In addition to my cell phone, I have several ham rigs, a cb and some commerical radio gear. Allways someone somewhere to talk to. Operating the HF rig takes a bit of work moble but the others are easy. Check out
http://www.k2bj.com/images/Photos/MOTM/sanders_3.jpg for a pix of my mobile console

Gary (N8EMR)
gws@redbird.net

 

[RPM]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

It's the old story though - if you want to improve the signal on any radio based device you can increase the signal power or get a better antenna.

I installed a multi-band magmount antenna (3dB gain) on my truck for my digital cell-phone (Nokia) and it has made a big difference. It's about a foot tall.

My manager is notorious for yacking on the phone at the end of the day, so now I just put my headset on and talk to him on the way home. One call, one hour commute. The man can talk.

The signal stays strong for my whole 38 mile commute from the suburbs into a rural area (without diversions!).

 

[PBMAX]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

My drive to and fro the office is 112mls round trip.When I have to go in.I work on the road driving from tower to tower most days.Some time I put 500 miles a day on the new ford.Had it 2mnths am up 2 17k mls.The one good thing about the 10pm to 9 am shift I now work.Theres no one to keep me on the phone.

Did any one else see the test they showed last night on NBC Dateline about distracted driving?They covered evrything from cell phone to changing tapes or CD's.Of course they had reading while driving and taking knotes while on the cell phone.It's a wonder we make it home every day.

If you want a more powerfull nextel or southern link phone they still sell 3watt mobile phones but you will pay for it...$600 or more installed OUCH! and of course you have to leave it when you get out o the car...
I think Nokia and a couple others still sell 1watt phones.But It will probable get lower as the sytems get better coverage.

gws,Yea I have gadgets to CB,Laptop,2 Cell phones One of the cell phones is linked with the lap top so when I pull up under a tower I can watch what the tower is doing,Considering a Ham ticket.


Lil' Paul
Proud owner of TC21D
Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[glennmac]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I, too, am a member of the 100+ mile roundtrip club. Maybe we should have our own forum.

As one with troglodytic tendencies I HATE all phones, but given telephonic reality I find cell phones to be a wonderful convenience and safety device. I use a headset with microphone in the car. I take my cell phone in a waterproof bag when I go kayaking in remote places. I took one on my tractor when I was doing heavy brushogging in my back woods last fall. We had a good thread on how people attach and carry them on their tractors.

My firm provides me one. Been looking at one for my wife, and they are pretty reasonable in price now. For $35 per month you can get 350 hours of digital air time per month to anywhere in the country during weekday peak hours, plus ulimited calls anywhere in the country after 9 pm and all weekend, pls a free (and good) phone.

I like the free after hours bit. Does that mean I can go out in my kayak or on my tractor under the stars with my laptop and connect to the net with my cell phone for no charge except battery juice. Sounds like it.

 

[PBMAX]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

glen, I carry my cell phone on the tractor.It's a small flip phone type,easy to carry.All my stuff is company provided I need it to test the system with.Unfortunatley no,you you can't just plug in to the laptop with any phone.Like everything else it ain't free to the public.It's a service and if your cell co offers it I doubt it would be cheep...Plus it's not high speed yet in most areas.Our baud rate is a physicall 19200.But it is a purely digital signal.Routed straight to a segment of a T1 provided by the phone co's in the towers area.Which I can only guess at the burst rate of with compression today..I have connected at 48k per sec.But average is 4.8k a sec download speeds...Still it's kinda /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif! And convinient for me when I'm out at a tower in B-Freakin-K and need to send a log file back to a fellow enginer at the office for there 2cents.

Lil' Paul
Proud owner of TC21D
Laziness is the Father of invention.../w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[3930dave]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

I went looking for a recent thread, but found this one...... things change, but not really .... 17 years later we are still discussing many of the same issues.....

I know someone who collects and uses old high-end (rugged enough to survive to today....) flip phones.

Some new-production minimalist phones:

BBC - Future - The new phones that are stuck in the past

^ some interesting non-tech points raised about smart phone use.

Rgds, D.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So? I own and use a flip phone. All I want is something that says "hello" with conversation in between and then "goodbye". I bought my wife one maybe 20 years ago when she was working, as a safety device. I wanted a phone with a rotary dial, but couldn't find one.

 

[4get gto]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So? I own and use a flip phone. All I want is something that says "hello" with conversation in between and then "goodbye". I bought my wife one maybe 20 years ago when she was working, as a safety device. I wanted a phone with a rotary dial, but couldn't find one.

Showing my grandkids (3&5) a rotary phone was crazy cool for them.. Didn't know what it was for but fun to play it. :cool2:I

Felt like I was on Green Acres...

 

[turnkey4099]

Re: Cell Phones - Blessing or a Curse?

So? I own and use a flip phone. All I want is something that says "hello" with conversation in between and then "goodbye". I bought my wife one maybe 20 years ago when she was working, as a safety device. I wanted a phone with a rotary dial, but couldn't find one.

Same here. Wife bought me on way back when, changed providers a couple times, lost a few phones, etc. but still carry the flip phone and that for emergencies only I doubt if I have made 30 calls on using one since way back in the early days.

I almost got run over on a sidewalk by some broad whith thumbs going 80 miles an hour and head down. She didn't even see me as I dodged her.