Electronics Question

[Just Plain Jeff]

Those of us with older coaches may have what we have: An old-style cell phone with a cord plumbed into the dash.

Somewhere along the line 'a guy' told me NOT to take that out because there was some emerging technology that would be on the market which would utilize that circuit in a helpful way.

His explanation went way over my head.

Any news/information on this?

Thanks in advance.

Expertise Level: -10

[Petervs]

Those old cell phone gadgets had a power source for recharging the handheld battery, a connection for the remote roof mouted cell antenna, and often an output to a speaker and microphone so you could talk hands free.

The only future use for one of these that I can envision is to install the handset and turn on the blinking lights for the BLING contest at some future POG rally. Nobody wants a bare spot in the dash either.

Rip it out, you will never miss it.

Peter vS
94 Marathon XLV

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Boy, that went right through to my heart.

There is something sensual about picking up my hard wired cell phone and feeling something that weighs about a pound, has big buttons, and has the mouthpiece near my mouth when the ear piece is next to my ear.

That sucker works and allows me to plug whatever I want into the phone jacks through the bus. I have had fax machines and answering machines and extension telephones plugged into the jacks which are connected to that big old antique (it's 10 years old so in electronics years that is the equivalent of a century).

That sure beat the sissie girl little flip top phones with a keypad so small you can hit three buttons at once that doesn't power my bedroom phone extension or the answering machine or a fax machine. Peter, be sensitive to the needs of us Neanderthals who are comfortable with reel to reel tape recorders and carbon paper. Yes I have an answering machine, and not voice mail.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Pretty weird 'concidence.'

A neighbor just came up and donated a Marinco (new) cable. It is a combo fone landline/cable tv yellow cable. I'll bring it to TGO on the 28th for first dibs.

But Jon may NOT have my John Denver 8-track tapes.

They are going to come back, I can feel it.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Imre,

This is a secret just between us. Keep it to yourself.

Actually I don't often use that big old cell phone. Two reasons. I hate the phone so I rarely make calls and hate answering them. When it rings Di usually goes to the LR to use the extension.

Now we are in tall cotton because I now have a cordless phone and answering machine, so instead of reaching under the dash for that big heavy old sucker, I use the nice little cordless phone. None of this is because I knew my brain was getting fried on bad stuff, but because it is easier.

BTW, that big old sucker is set up with a dedicated speaker and a microphone hidden somewhere, and I have used it hands free just like the On Star. It's just that to press the button to answer it I literally have to lean over under the dash to see the right button to push on the keypad and with the glasses I have it is easier said than done.

Don't tell anybody.

[garyde]

I am not quite sure I understand. Is the Dash phone a Cellular phone which is integrated with other standard land line phones in the Coach? As far as the EM Radiation, I believe Imre is refering to the Antenna for Cellular phones which would be on the Roof of the Coach. The Handset on a Dash mount would not have any of those parts & smarts.

[Just Plain Jeff]

This is one of those dash-mounted 5W jobs with the remote speaker. Since we are Po' Folk, the previous owned disconnected the service from the provider, fearing late night calls to the relative we have who has a phone in their trailer in the Ozarks.

Foto courtesy of the new LED flashlight.

Expertise level -9

[Jon Wehrenberg]

That there is the phone, but it is mounted very low under the RH side of the dash so it is difficult to see the buttons when driving. It is connected to a converter that allows you to plug stuff into the phone jacks and they act like they would on a regular land line, even though the antique phone shown is a cell phone. I'm sure a technical guru can explain that in language the techies would understand.

[Jeff Bayley]

Jeff- I would love to have one of the old style phones in my coach but not enough to install one. I wish one was in here already. The speaker phones usually work great and you get better reception wiht the external antenna and more power. There is no (rumored) threatening radiation as suggested by Imre on these style units or at least not within ear shot of your head. The radiation (which is stronger on these units) would be emited from the transceiver and more specfically the remote antenna which is of course is remotely located away from the handset as garyde more less said. This would be harmless. The radiation question (on our portable transceivers) seems to be debatable I guess but I always use a bluetooth or similar headset with my cell phone for convieience, not protection from radiation but if it turns out to be protecting me from radiation then great bonus. You should keep that old/powerful phone and use it.

Jon talked about plugging other phones and fax macines into his extensions. This is not riding on the normal old style phone alone. There is a 3rd party adapter that is available that (I recall) works in cooperation with your base unit style cell phone and normal cell phone service. You can plug a home style phone (or fax) into the 'network' so to speak and it behaves just as it would at home. You don't hit "Send" or "End"; just use as normal. I looked at them but decided against it for some reason however a customer using it who orginally told me about it was very happy with it. I can't recall the name of the thing.

[Lee Bornstein]

The Phones in question are the Motorola "Bag" phones.
Liberty installed these with handset under dash, Transmitter and RJ-11 adaptor inside wall on drivers left side under Tag Lift Lever

There are several components to the system.
Handset - Contains pushbuttons, display, and functions of traditional handset.
Hands Free Microphone & Speaker
5 Watt Transmit/Receive Unit
RJ-11 Adaptor allows Fax, Modem, Answer Machine to connect to Cell phone.
Rooftop antenna.

This device is ANALOG only and is not supported by all Cellular Service Providers.

Basically, It's an antique and only real benefit is extended range sometimes.

Lee

[Jon Wehrenberg]

It's an antique, but in that context then so is the bus that got attached to it.

They both work.

[garyde]

It's an antique, but in that context then so is the bus that got attached to it.

They both work.

That,s an interesting point Jon. The fact is some things become obsolete before others. The useful life of a Prevost will be much longer than say a cell phone, computer, or similar electronic.
That is one of the reasons we keep upgrading to newer buses. We want all the new inovative stuff!
The Prevost bus is fine, its the individual constantly wanting whats new and unique.

[rfoster]

Garyde: You hit the nail on the head with that post. You are exactly right, if my coach had larger TVs or power awnings, there would be no reason to want to trade up, as the Bus part (chasiss) offers no advantage. It is human nature to always want something different and satisfaction with a vehicle for example can come with the maturing process, or in the case of Jon and JPJ aging. But it didn't work on JPJ or Mango.:cool:

[dalej]

Roger, I found a real easy way to a bigger screen display is to move your eyes closer! ;)

[bill&jody]

as i now have satellite broadband, i just got a skype account - $15 for a whole year of US & Canada unlimited calls, $30 if you sign up after 1 feb (i believe that is the cutoff date). there's a little box you can attach via usb that is a usb to rj11 adapter. my adapter hasn't arrived yet, and since i don't use windoze, it'll be a day or 3 gettin' it to work, but for windoze users, it might just work outta the box. plus there are a number of usb skype phones plus a polycom that supposedly "just work".

i evesdrop'd on a voip call last summer, and if you ignore the half second delay, it was a very clear call.

gotta luv all that hi-tech stuff. i think of it as digital stainless.

[rfoster]

I tried that- made me seasick, and those awnings, I just keep hitting the button and nothing happens.

Hey If you got your handy dandy impact wrench from HF, you need to get a handy dandy wheel protector to keep the impact socket from marring your pretty shiney wheels. Got mine at Truck Pro for 3.99 plus tax.

Save you some grief from having to polish the rub marks out. Give you more time for humor and pictures.
:cool:

[Lee Bornstein]

Bill & Jody:
I have MotoSat Internet Service and tried Vonage a while ago. It was terrible because of sloooow upload speeds with satellite.

Let me know how Skype performs for you. Delay is tolerable but loss of clarity because of low data speed is a no no.


Lee

[ken&ellen]

Run do not walk away from Vonage!:mad: We made that mistake and are still living the nightmare. Went we moved to rual Virginia we contracted with Hughes Net satellite for broadband....expensive and not very good. We had VOIP system with AT&T, but they did not offer coverage in our zip code? Vonage claimed that they were compatible with Hughes, formerly DirecWay, and they were not. We have been trying to cancel for several months, but they are more difficult to cancel than AOL ! It never worked as advertised and the 30 day cancel program they advertise is a crock of _ _ _ _! Since moving to Georgia we have gone to DSL......great speed....and our sat equipment is setting in the garage. Oh yeah....Hughes wants a huge cancellation fee and their customer service, like many high tech company, is from some third world country where English is not spoken! Ken

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Our heavy "bag" phone is gone.

It was analog and as long as we were in an area that supported analog it worked. Mike Kerley finally convinced me to join the digital world so I had a digital phone installed in the bus. Only this phone has no keypad or head set. It is a box that receives and sends cellular calls digitally, and through a connection to regular phone jacks it serves the same function as the Motorola bag phone and converter, in that we just plug regular phones into the jacks, and with a switch in the bus we can use the same phones via the cellular device or a land line connected to the coach.

The Motorola handset has been removed but I never actually used that phone anyway.

[Ray Davis]

Ken&Ellen,

Assuming you had an F1 (the smaller dish), then I would have expected this not to work too well. There are some people that have gotten it work somewhat reasonably, but I think they are in the minority.

I went with the bigger dish, and have a service plan which is fast enough that I can run VoIP without issue. But, it did take the larger dish, and the higher rate service plan.

[mike kerley]

Congratulations Jon,

The box you bought sounds like some of the broadcast gear we utilize for remote broadcasts. I am not real familiar with them (I'm the dinosaur RF engineer taking care of the tube type transmitters almost as old as Lew, almost) but have seen them in the field. I know the ones used in broadcast are several K$ each and work well except for dropping calls.

I spoke with one of the cell techs at one of my tower sites last week and he confirmed that analog cellular will, for all intents and purposes "stop working" in February of 2008. Thats the federal mandate for continued analog service. So the bag phones will be history soon there after. He stated analog cell phones account for less than 2% of the total traffic on cellular.

How about posting the brand and model of the equipment you found. I'd like to compare it to what Clear Channel buys.

It was good meeting you in Titusville.

Mike K

[truk4u]

Jon,

Give us the poop on the system you bought. I used to have an old Motorolla bag phone and a gizmo that allowed it to hook into into the coachs regular phone jacks and liked it. Sounds like there is something now available to do the same thing with the digital phones?:p

[Jon Wehrenberg]

As soon as I can get the info from the box I will post it.

[bill&jody]

LB-
the clarity is excellent. shoot me an email with your phone #, i'll call you on it so you can hear. i don't have a dial-in number on skype yet.

for everybody else: i have gotten my li'l blue box (its actually grey) to work with windoze, outta the box. i need some tweaking for useability, but the calls are quite clear. because i'm on satellite, there is the half second delay, but the voice clarity and recognizability (is that a word?) is excellent.

the little blue/grey box allows me to hook up a plain ol' telephone (doesn't care whether its wireless base station or simple handset) to the laptop via USB. the linux version lets me dial from the phone, the windoze version (afaik) only lets you dial from the keyboard - the linux version isn't completely working yet (there's a surprise). i think i still have some optimization issues with the satellite link, so it drops bits and pieces sometimes, but i think i can get that to work cleanly after i get some time to diddle around with that aspect. the little box has excellent noise and echo suppression as well.

anybody else that wants to hear the voice quality, same offer.

cheers,
wmm

[Jon Wehrenberg]

The new cell phone that brings me from the unsupported analog world to the digital world is a Phonecell SX5T CDMA2000 1XRTT. (what a dumb product name and number).

It is a fixed wireless terminal made by Tellular (http://www.telular.com)

It is a box that receives and sends cellular phone calls, but does it through conventional phone jacks that it is hard wired into. It requires a 120V AC power supply. On my coach it replaced a phone so it only needed the power supply and a new antenna, along with a connection to the phone lines in the coach.

It may not be appropriate, but I am going to see if this would work for the house phone system with three lines. I'm not a fan of Bell South.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

The story gets better. I just talked to a Verizon tech.

If I can push the right buttons in the right sequence on my computer I also have broadband service with this new device and I can connect my laptop via a phone line and continue defending myself against insults while on the road.

Is it possible I am moving into the digital age deeper than first anticipated?

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Verizon also offers to current customers the option to get high speed internet through there current cell phone #. Its not a phone card does not require signing a additional contract, with an additional #.

With a mobile office kit you can purchase at any verizon outlet and with the enclosed osb cord and disc and a call to verizon they hook you up in minutes. It dosen't use air time off your package and is just as quick as high speed we have at home and the best part, they allow you to turn the service on and off at will. One day, one month, 5 weeks, whatever, you can turn it on and off to your convienience and your only charged for the days on.

We used it the entire time we were gone, 51/2 weeks. When we got home and I turned it off I was plesently supprised to find out we didn't even have to complete out the 2nd month but could turn it off and would actually only be charged 51/2 weeks it was actually in use.

Monthly fee 59$.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Verizon also offers to current customers the option to get high speed internet through there current cell phone #. Its not a phone card does not require signing a additional contract, with an additional #.

With a mobile office kit you can purchase at any verizon outlet and with the enclosed osb cord and disc and a call to verizon they hook you up in minutes. It dosen't use air time off your package and is just as quick as high speed we have at home and the best part, they allow you to turn the service on and off at will. One day, one month, 5 weeks, whatever, you can turn it on and off to your convienience and your only charged for the days on.

We used it the entire time we were gone, 51/2 weeks. When we got home and I turned it off I was plesently supprised to find out we didn't even have to complete out the 2nd month but could turn it off and would actually only be charged 51/2 weeks it was actually in use.

Monthly fee 59$.

All of the above is very true, Joe, however, not all Cell phones in the Verizon stable have this Broadband Connectivity capability. Just call Verizon and ask if your current phone has the capability to connect as your broadband antennae to your laptop.

I did not know about this capability before I bought the Wireless Card, but I do love the VCard for connectivity.

Thanks Joe. No get out there and clear the snow and ice off your bus. :D

[merle&louise]

Does anyone know how the Sprint Air card works for WIFI?

I have had Sprint cell phone service for many years and I would really like to stay with Sprint.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Works pretty well from what i've seen. Its just that its no different than having to get and pay for an additional phone. You have to sign an additional contract. We hope your trip is going well!

Gary often times I omit stuff, good clarification. In addition you should also make sure Verizon has good wide service coverage werever you might be off to.

When we looked into it my exzisting phone wouldn't work and they upgraded me to an applicable phone for no charge, but did have to reup the service.

[garyde]

Does anyone know how the Sprint Air card works for WIFI?

I have had Sprint cell phone service for many years and I would really like to stay with Sprint.

I believe a Sprint card will allow you to connect to Sprints Cell sites, not to a Local Wifi system which is different. Gary

[bill&jody]

wifi cards and "air cards", also known as wan cards, are two diff technologies. the verizon and sprint cards are basically cell phones on a pcmcia card (the slightly larger than credit card sized gizmo that plugs into the side of a laptop) that carries digital data where the voice usually goes. near a cell site with excellent digital service, it has a theoretical speed near 2Mb, ie., 2 million bits per second, roughly 200 thousand characters per second. i vaguely recollect seeing some ref to a card that can dance to either tune however.

if you live inside a stainless box, radio waves have difficulty getting in and out. when using the verizon card, i usually put my computer on a desk near a window, otherwise it goes deaf and dumb, and speed deteriorates.

a company called wilson (as well as others) make a box that has an external, higher powered antenna, and an internal low powered antenna that boosts the tower signal to the inside of the bus. see http://wilsonelectronics.com/ ("http://wilsonelectronics.com/")

if you haven't already bought a wan card from verizon or sprint, please please be sure to get one with an external antenna. you'll be glad you did.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

if you haven't already bought a wan card from verizon or sprint, please please be sure to get one with an external antenna. you'll be glad you did.

Bill I got the external antenna and put it on the roof of my "plastic" coach but didn't see any improvement in reception, over just the Verizon AirCard Antenna? Is that because I am not lucky enough yet to have SS all around me like most of you guys in your bus, therefore my reception in plastic is not hindered?

[lewpopp]

Gary,

I have been wondering for a while. You have more DISCOVERIES than Christopher Columbus. What's the story? Yes we are cornfused. Do they only last for a year? Should we all list our past laundry. I guess that's what you are doing in your signature, am I correct?

Lew

[bill&jody]

hmmmm......
does external antenna mean an antenna connected to your wan card via a small cable? or do you mean something like the wilson mobile amplifier? i don't own / havent tried the wilson (or similar) boxen.

i have a cheapy external antenna for my cell phone that takes me from one dot to 5 bars. i would expect the external wan card antenna to dramatically improve your reception. as for the stainless, curb your stainless envy. no, it only serves to shield both the incoming and outgoing signal. fiberglass is much more wifi/wan friendly.

the verizon software that runs on the windoze pc indicates signal strength - i would imagine the sprint s/w does the same. either way, you should see an improvement with the antenna. maybe somethin's hosed. check your "meter" in your pc software. re-orient your antenna. check your connections. if you have good cell phone _digital_ service, you should have good wan service.

[Stelan73]

Sprint has a new mobile broadband device just reaching the market, made by Novatel Wireless. You install the drivers and plug the device into your USB port with a USB cord. It sports an external antenae. It supposedly gives broadband speed and the good news is you can use it on multiple computers unlike an air card which is computer specific. I have had one for a week and it works great. I use it on the bus and take it home and use it on my PC which has eliminated the need for a separate home broadband service.

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

Gary,

I have been wondering for a while. You have more DISCOVERIES than Christopher Columbus. What's the story? Yes we are cornfused. Do they only last for a year? Should we all list our past laundry. I guess that's what you are doing in your signature, am I correct?

Lew

Lew, I was wondering when somebody would ask me about all the Plastic I have?

The answer is A TIMESHARE. I know everybody knows what a timeshare condo say in Florida, or California is, where you own a Fractional week or two?

Well that is what we have in these 3 40' Discoveries. We have a Fractional Ownership in these coaches. We reserve them online when we want to use them, and they are delivered to us washed, clean and full of Fuel. All we do is load groceries, clothes and take off, and bring it back when we are done.

Will talk more about it ( if anybody is interested ) if we get to make the POG III Rally, which we are trying to do. But it really has been a great experience for us, to be sure we liked the traveling, camping, whole breaking down along side the road thing. KNOW WHAT I MEAN ? :eek: Oh and by the way we do like the WHOLE THING, and that is why we are still looking for the right bus. :D

Gary S

[Gary & Peggy Stevens]

hmmmm......
does external antenna mean an antenna connected to your wan card via a small cable? or do you mean something like the wilson mobile amplifier? i don't own / havent tried the wilson (or similar) boxen.


Bill the external antenna I am talking about is shown below, and is connected via coax from the base of the ant. to the wan card. I am sure if I permanently and professionally mounted the antenna and ran the cable properly, I would see a big improvement in reception, but I love the Verzion Air Card and its connectivity anyway.

http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=63&products_id=275

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Gary, According to the mfg/seller. ( No ground plane required ). The radials on the mast probably act as such. Check this out further unless you don't mind drilling and screwing things to the bus shell. You deffinately don't need a professional instalation of a permanent devise that can be kept portable and still function for all practicality. :cool: JIM RATING: 5/10