Out of touch w/the world

[oosik]

I had a GINORMOUS Caterpillar battery sitting on the floor - connected to the bag phone. We left that phone on all the time. Had to recharge the big Cat battery about once every three months. You would laugh if you saw what I have to do to "make contact" with my new Apple iPhone XR. Out on the front porch - hold the phone up high. Not so bad in the summer. In the winter - there has to be a real serious reason to make a call.

 

[k0ua]

I had a GINORMOUS Caterpillar battery sitting on the floor - connected to the bag phone. We left that phone on all the time. Had to recharge the big Cat battery about once every three months. You would laugh if you saw what I have to do to "make contact" with my new Apple iPhone XR. Out on the front porch - hold the phone up high. Not so bad in the summer. In the winter - there has to be a real serious reason to make a call.

If you have "some" signal outdoors you are a major candidate for my passive repeater idea. Just think of sitting in your warm cozy easychair and making phone calls. No electronics, just some antennas, and some good low loss coax.

 

[Jstpssng]

I had a GINORMOUS Caterpillar battery sitting on the floor - connected to the bag phone. We left that phone on all the time. Had to recharge the big Cat battery about once every three months. You would laugh if you saw what I have to do to "make contact" with my new Apple iPhone XR. Out on the front porch - hold the phone up high. Not so bad in the summer. In the winter - there has to be a real serious reason to make a call.

My pickup has a booster, and external antenna on the roof. I can usually pick up an extra bar with it. For your purposes the antenna would be mounted on the porch or someplace where the signal is better, which would allow you to stay inside to make a call. The phones do still have an on/off switch so you wouldn't lose your privacy.

 

[Diggin It]

I had a Nokia bag phone .... still do, stuffed in a drawer. Full 3 watt transceiver. Dinkyphones now are what ... 1/3 watt?

I also have a repeater/booster set up. Outside antenna above the roof wired to an indoor antenna. Makes my one bar outside in the yard signal into a three to four bar inside signal.

 

[Oaktree]

I
I leave the property twice a week.
1) Church
2) Sam's Club & Groceries

I'm not a church-goer, and the nearest Sam's club is a good 2 hour drive away, but I couldn't live like that. I've never exactly been a social butterfly, but I don't want to be a hermit either (well, most of the time). Hardly a day goes by that I don't go somewhere...whether it's the dump, a neighbor's or to the store to pick up a sandwich I need social contact with someone other than just my wife.

We went for a Shrimp burger this year out of state per a friends recommendation. If I would of driven by the place without knowing about it, you couldn't pay me to walk into the pace as there is no way I thought it would of been good. The reality is although the place looked like "crap" inside with limited seating, the shrimp burger was magnificent and I haven't had one yet to even compare it to. Real shrimp, grounded onto a burger gun.

Never heard of a shrimp burger, no offense but it doesn't sound very appealing. Then again, I don't particularly like shrimp, not even real big on seafood at all other than maybe fried clams once a year.

As far as being out of touch with the world, I don't follow the news regularly...sometimes catch the headlines on the radio or online, maybe pick up the paper once or twice a week, that's about it. Most of it doesn't affect me/nothing I can do about it and I learned long ago that 99.9% of politicians, regardless of ideology are idiots.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

BBQ is always iffy; especially at a restaurant that doesn't specialize in BBQ. Seems one good way to get rid of meat about to go bad is to slather it in BBQ sauce and call it "BBQ". I can usually cook better stuff than you can buy any way. As for out of state restaurants, the only one I could recommend would be the Big Texan in Amarillo. Best calf fries I have ever eaten...steaks are good too!

Both places i mentioned were bbq exclusive.

Big texan. - yum. We liked it.

 

[Jstpssng]

Both places i mentioned were bbq exclusive.

Big texan. - yum. We liked it.

I was trying to eat healthy tonight, strictly vegetables from my garden. Between your post and that of 2Lane which you quoted, now I have to get those ribs out of the freezer... at least they're also homegrown. :licking:.

 

[3Ts]

If you have "some" signal outdoors you are a major candidate for my passive repeater idea. Just think of sitting in your warm cozy easychair and making phone calls. No electronics, just some antennas, and some good low loss coax.

What is a good low loss coax? Does RG6 qualify?

 

[k0ua]

What is a good low loss coax? Does RG6 qualify?

Not at the frequencies we are talking about. 1.9 Ghz likely. Oh it could get by, but a .405 cable not .240 size cables like RG6 would be much better like LMR400 and keep the runs short as possible even then Also RG6 is a 75 ohm cable, and the commercial antennas you could buy would be designed for 50 ohm systems. A slight mismatch. Not the end of the world, but just some small amount of additional loss. These antennas would have type N female connectors on them as well not F connectors like on RG6. You can buy pre terminated LMR400 terminated with N Male connectors. So short answer is RG6 suitable? No.

 

[Wagtail]

I know that we do. (A State ID card) I was most familiar with them in college when a lot of kids didn't have a drivers license but needed something to buy alcohol. Now they card everybody, no matter how grey haired you are. It seems like there should be a happy medium.
I have a PO Box, and tried to get my street address put on my driver's license so that I could use it for buying firearms. They wouldn't do it, because "A driver's license is not an ID.

Although a valid driver licence is a valid form of ID in Australia, we also run a State ID card for those who don't have a photo licence.

Something new (to me, at least) was an Australia Post mobile (cell) phone 'app' ID which I went through the process of getting following the on-phone prompts: take a head-shot 'selfie' then enter two different document numbers (drivers licence #, MEDICARE #, Passport #, etc...). How they verify them is a mystery to me but the programme said that the two that I provided were good.

The last step of the procedure was to physically go to the local Post Office, they would scan the resulting photo/black-square-squiggly-thingy and verify that it was, indeed, me.

So now I can digitally 'sign' for deliveries or anything else that I need a verified ID for... as long as I've remembered to bring my mobile with me.

[I swear that I'm still being dragged into the 21st Century]