Electronics Question

[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?

[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.

[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.