[Rhodes22-list] Cell Phone Issues

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

Try different company phones in your home to see which works best.  (You can
borrow them if you ask.)  Some companies are located in more towers, some in
fewer, but the only real question is whether the company you use is located
in towers near where you most often use the phone.  (What difference does it
make to you if they have a lot of towers in Butte, Montana if you will never
be there?)  Most towers are shared by multiple companies.  If there is no
tower near a location you want to use, nothing will work.

Some phones have better reception than others.  Test this, too.  The newer
ones seem to be better than the older ones.

On Long Island Sound there are overlapping towers all over the place, and
reception should be excellent everywhere.  But it isn't.  Sometimes the
magic works, and sometimes it don't.

Bill Effros


----- Original Message -----
From: "brad haslett" <flybrad@yahoo.com>
To: <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 7:14 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Cell Phone Issues


We're in the process of shopping for a new cell phone
server.  Sprint PCS has turned out to be an expensive
"beeper" service.  We live 1.3 miles from the nearest
Sprint antenna but the phones don't work from our
home.  I can't call home from downtown Philly,
Portland, LAX area, the list goes on and on.  My
friends call me and hang up knowing that I'll find a
payphone and use the caller ID to figure who to call
back.  Enough!  We get a company discount on Verizon
and AT&T.  What's your experience with these services?

Second question:  Has anyone hooked up their cell
phones to the boats VHF mast antenna?  The marine
catalogs list cell phone antennas that look simular to
a standard VHF one.  Every service I've looked at show
a blank area in the Pickwick Lake area.  The "no
service" band is narrow and follows the TN river so
I'm wondering if an elevated antenna might help.  I'd
like to just leave the phone behind but that won't
always be possible.

PS:  MJM, I promise not to talk on the phone during
thunderstorms.

Brad Haslett
"CoraShen"

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