CELLULAR telephones now 20 years old

[ai4ep]

According to a headline ( did not get to read the article ) , cellular telephones have been around now for at least 20 years. Any one know why they do NOT work NO better than they do, after so long ?

[ae4fa]

Ummmm

Myabe because folks are still willing to pay?

[KD5UJZ]

The US cellular providers have failed to agree on a certain standard, like Europe has. There are tons of cell sites, but they support different technologies, such as TDMA, CDMA, GSM, and others that I cant think of off the top of my head. In most of Europe, the providers have agreed on GSM. Verizon and Cingular are starting to roll out GSM equipment this year in most places. When I was in CA last year, the GSM network was pretty well established.

[kf4lne]

Actually i think wireless phones work worse than they used to. 900 MHz phones used to work everywhere, but those are a thing of the past. new digital technology has added great features to wireless phones at what seems to be the cost of coverage area. My old analog phone worked well outside the valley 5 years ago, but my new digital phone works mainly within site of the interstate, but I have enhanced caller ID, conference calling, feature packed voice mail, call waiting, e-mail and txt messages and several other great features. The actual phone is small and fits in my pocket easily, has a bettery that lasts for about 3 days under normal use, an RF stage the size of a dime and some really crappy video games. My old analog phone never had all that, but it worked in places so far back in the mountains they have to have daylight piped in. My current phone doesent work on top of Mount Mitchel, and with binoculars I can count 27 cell sites that I can see, but my old analog phone still can connect to the American Roaming Network and ask me for a credit card number...I miss my old phone, nobody will activate it though so I guess I'll have to call collect or using my calling card when my digital phone doesent work...

[wb6bcn]

I agree with the works worse. The old analog system was simple, and vendor A, B, and C worked from every site. Now if you have service with vendor A, you can no longer get service from vendor B or vendor C sites.

Maybe in another 20 years and it will work as good as it did 10 years ago.

[KA8NCR]

Can you hear me now?

Wouldn't it be nice to go back 20 years and not have to worry about some jerk's cell phone ringing in the middle of a movie or someone talking on the phone loudly in a restaurant?

Furthermore, I think the cellular handset manufacturers and providers are in kahoots to keep system compatability down. If you could easily switch with your current equipment, both parties would lose sales.

[n8zux]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Well people guess what ? Generation 3 technology just came out according to a W.I. mag Generation 4 is being tossed around try a whopping 10,000 mbps ! why in the world would you want a old boat anchor ? also as a cell phone user verizion wireless users can update their roaming service by dialing *228 , what happened 1st. round I had US Sprint as a roaming area, then went to Alltel, what really stinks is Alltel is too stingy to do a courtsey exchange such as caller ID, etc.. range does not have to do with how far its the software that is programmed for roaming service to work sure TDMA CDMA GSM is around, these people have constantly trying to keep up to date Example GPS for emergency dispatch FCC mandate gues who just forked over 3 Million Dollar Fine ? and sold their cable system to COMCAST ? AT&T ! who else. W.I. mag has the scoop on it what happens here is you dial 911 automaticly Dispatch locates you on the CRT ok thats why there is a big push for GPS in the cell phones, another device that helps saves lives.
Catch ... go to Boonedocksville USA where the popoulous has poverty as local income, no cell towers there.. I found that out ADs are misleading, creveat emptor ( Let buyer Beware ) wouldn't surprise me they keep switching stuff around to keep you guessin. Nextel & Qualcom wants courtesy service also also Nextel has its share of happenings too. too long to post ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[K9STH]

Actually, cellular telephones have been around for almost 30 years. Motorola started experimenting with cellular technology in the late 1960s and early 1970s and had a couple of systems working in the Chicago area by the mid-1970s.

Also, the consumer doesn't realize the difference between cellular (900 MHz) and PCS (2 GHz) technology. They "assume" that whatever they get from the vendor is "cellular" and expect it to do the same. Of course 2 GHz doesn't cover as well as 900 MHz under most conditions. In addition, the power levels of the units have dropped from 10 watts in the original Motorola experiments to 3 watts a few years ago to 300 mW in most handheld digital units today. The drop from 3 watts to 300 mW is a 10 dB difference. In addition, the antennas are no longer full sized but are of the "rubber ducky" configuration which puts in another 6 to 10 dB loss. It is no wonder that areas that were covered just a few years ago are no longer covered.

Cellular technology is, by design, of limited range. However, the reduction in e.r.p. (effective radiated power) in the portable units has reduced this range by a large part. The lower power output of the units has contributed as much to the longer battery life as the use of newer technology in the construction of the batteries themselves. People wanting smaller and smaller equipment, with the resultant decrease in antenna length, etc., has also been a serious contributing factor.

Back in the mid-1990s, when AT&T Cellular was trying to get the business of Texas Utilities Electric Company (now TXU on the "big board") away from Southwestern Bell Cellular, they provided me with 11 portable phones. These were the 3 watt versions that were about the size of a small Franklin Planner and had not only a full sized antenna, but it actually was about 8 inches long consisting of a true colinear full sized antenna. Those worked very well sitting on the seat of your automobile or sitting on the dash. Back then, these were of the smaller portable units available. A lot of other people were using the trunk mounted units with 3 dB gain antennas mounted on the vehicles. Those worked very well but were not portable. But, within a year the trend was first to the 600 mW and then to the 300 mW portables with the shortened antennas. Starting then the performance started to drop off.

About 3 years ago, I was having problems with my Ericsson portable (there were areas in which I had to be in several days a week that had many dead spots). I ordered a full sized antenna, but it was always on "back order". Finally, I just made a full sized quarter-wave from a stiff piece of wire. Frankly, over 90 percent of the dead areas disappeared and the quality of the signal in other areas that had been marginal before increased markably.

Of course the price of equipment has dropped considerably since Motorola started the cellular systems. Back around 1977 Motorola was selling cellular telephones at $3600 each! They would finance them at $100 per month with no finance charges. However, they were not shipping any units since there just were not more than a handful of systems actually in place. Thus, they furnished either RCC or Teleco mobile telephones "at no charge" until a cellular system came into your area. At the time I owned the Motorola reconditioned equipment center for the south-central United States and we were reconditioning various models of mobile telephone equipment that Motorola was furnishing to all of these cellular customers (they didn't want to furnish new equipment because of the cost!).

Anyway, cellular telephones have been both a "boon and a bust". There most certainly are people who should not drive while talking on one (and there are people who have no problems at all driving while talking), there are people who insist on using them in restaurants, theaters, etc., there are people who walk down the aisle at WalMart with their cellular telephone "glued" into their ears (my wife and I were at a local WalMart on Wednesday and on just one of the grocery aisles there were no less than six people talking on their cellular phones!), and so on. Then, the convenience of having "instantaneous" communications with their offices, etc., is worth a lot to many people. Emergency personnel can be much more effective in their jobs using cellular technology. The list of "good" things goes on.

The end result is that cellular and PCS telephones are here to stay!

Glen, K9STH

[WA2ZDY]

The above posts are well taken, and Glen of course is correct on his assessments. There is another factor to consider.

I don't know where you folks are all located in relation to population centers, etc. But please keep in mind, the cell phone service providers are not going to install cell sites that won't "earn their keep." They are expensive to install, expensive to maintain, and often are fraught with political stupidity.

Thus it is that service will be less available in rural areas and out in the middle of nowhere. Here in central New Jersey, exactly midway between Philadelphia and New York City, Verizon and Cingular coverages are nearly 100%. Nextel I know has better walkie-talkie coverage than phone coverage (I don't know how that is, but it is just the same.) But they aren't anywhere near 100% coverage, even here in very crowded NJ. Sprint and whatever the other 1900MHz PCS provider is don't even claim to provide coverage away from population centers and major highways.

A visit to a Radio Shack store here shows the pathetic coverage of Sprint, and how opportunistic they are. Of course 1900MHz PCS coverage requires a denser tower population, which doesn't help. But Sprint has coverage areas on their map that look like dots centered on crowds. Even the Six Flags amusement park in the middle of the Pine Barrens has coverage - the only coverage for miles around on the Sprint network. Why? They know the city folks take their phones to the park on the weekend.

Again, it's all about the money. If there aren't enough users to pay for the site AND turn a profit, there'll be no site. Cell/PCS phones aren't like the landline - yet. FCC hasn't required the companies to provide "coverage for all."

[KD7LDH]

What really concerns me is how much people use cell phones.... Go to your local mall and look at the ratio of people on a cell phone to those not on one.... How much Cell phone RF exposure (I do acknoledge 300 Mw really isn't much at all and you get more exposure just stading near certain things and such) is too much?




-KD7LDH

[K6UEY]

It 's been 20 years, wow the time sure fly's by, I believe that is the incubation time stated for the brain cancer to begin to show up. There were studies done in I believe Norway and Sweden that proved the use of cell phones would produce brain cancers which should start showing up after about 20 years of usuage. There was also studies here in the US done by the manufactures of cell phones but their findings were different from the independent studies.
If you think about it you are placing a microwave transmitter close to the side of your brain and keying the transmitter. Doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to suspect there may be tissue cell heating from the RF, close coupling even at low levels can do irrepairable damage to the cells. As some nowadays already have a shortage of working brain cells, maybe this is the reason for the Dumbing down of America, with the damage from the phones #all will be reduced down to the lowest common denominator allowing equality for every one .
My advice is to invest in company's active in Cancer cure's and Cancer Prevention Studies, that should be a big industry before very long .
ENJOY!!! It is already later then you think ......73, # ORV
#http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[kf4lne]

I am quite content with my VHF rig in the car and my dual band HT. I can get in touch with anybody I need to via simplex or repeater if needed. My cell is for business only and I rarely use it. I don't even have a home phone any more, but I am planning to add one for a simplex phone patch later.

[KD7LDH]

LNE,

How can you run a business just off a cell phone?







-KD7LDH

[N9WOS]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I miss my old phone, nobody will activate it though so I guess I'll have to call collect or using my calling card when my digital phone doesent work...
[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

You can get your old AMTS cell phone activated.
But the only way is via pre paid service.

That is how I have my cell phones set up.

$10 for every 30 days or
$20 every 90 days.

The time roles over from month to month.

After a few years you can have a few #hundred
Dollars of time ready for use if you don’t use
Your phone much.

The only problem is the coverage area is limited.
(ie) local coverage only.
Roaming is a pain In the tail end.

[K3XR]

never owned a cell phone...i could see the need, and indeed, the advantage for business....since i am retired and not expecting a call from the president any time soon....the answering machine will do fine....like in all walks of life, there are the 10 percent pure idiots out there who have a cell phone going off in a movie theater, classroom etc.

[ai4ep]

http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif one possible reason for other nations having better service, coverage, etc. is the GEOGRAPHICAL size of the country. Some nations are no bigger than one or two of our states, so that is part of the situation.
kd4amg

[W4CGP]

New phones are operating in a digital voice mode (as opposed to the analog, possibly FM phones of yesteryear) which means that the phones can receive decent signals without any static. Familiar-sounding to PSK-31 and CW folks? The legal limit of fixed mobile phones, such as a car installation, is 750 mW, I think. I don't know of any phone which will transmit at that power.

The ultimate benefit to cell phone companies:
- It's digital. Each digital cell phone takes up much less bandwidth than an analog cell phone.

- It's encrypted. No more cloning.

- It's efficient. Battery life is no longer a problem with the heavy talkers in the world.

The bad thing? The slightest attenuator (such as a tree) can severely hamper a cell phone's signal or cause it to drop out completely. Analog phones would just get static and keep on going.

I don't have a cell phone, all I want to have to have for the next 5 years is a pager and an HT.

[WB2WIK]

The personal wireless telephone system in the U.S. works great, I think, considering the size of our country. The only places I've ever seen it work better is where there is unitized service or very small geographical area to cover, such as in Hong Kong.

One of the biggest disservices ever foisted on the American people was the divestiture of AT&amp;T. Classic case of fixing something that wasn't broken, and had it not occurred, our personal wireless telephone systems would be far more advanced, unitized, better and cheaper than they are today with dozens of competitors all doing a half-fast (also half-slow) job.

Still, I'm impressed at how well our systems do work. Here in California, I can't remember the last time I &quot;drove out of range&quot; of a telephone call, unless I went through a tunnel. I note to add even better coverage locally, some of our providers are installing &quot;baby cells&quot; hanging beneath the cross arms of local wooden utility poles, thus placing usable cells very close to the streets. I just noticed one installed in my own neighborhood (wasn't there a week or so ago!http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif, with three antennas hanging down from the wooden cross arm of a utility pole, placing the antennas about 30' over our heads -- talk about getting up close and personal!

WB2WIK/6