Boat Anchor Cellular

[N8LGU]

    Here's a cellphone for we boat anchor types!
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/287
 

[flintstone mop]

What a waste of money.
But I do remember installing about 100 of those RED phones on our emergency phone system using a good ole fashioned Stromberg Carlson PBX....cannot remember the model. Stand-alone cabinet able to handle 80 users. Saw many of those in Viet Nam. We had one at my last employment. Hardly ever used and never gave one problem EVER. It was taken out of service working after sitting almost 25 years.

[KC4ALF]

Holy Crap!
I've got a cple of old Western Electric 202's here. Wonder if I could pawn em off at that price.

[kb3ouk]

They offer 4 versions: red or black, with or without Bluetooth. the black one without Bluetooth is $100 cheaper, at $199.95. According to the description of the black one, they are original (not reproduction) rotary phones that have been modified with a cellular module stuck inside them.

[ve8xj]

Maybe when they make a Collins version. Oh that's right I don't own a cell phone.
Still haven't made the leap.
Tried to find a picture of a Collins Phone but no luck . Saw one on Ebay recently though.

[w3jn]

The sad thing is, the stock Western Electric 500 phone sounds a hell of a lot better than any cellphone.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Back in the 80's I remember seeing thousands and thousands of these WE phone cases ground up every day (by color) to provide fodder for new phone cases.

[flintstone mop]

The sad thing is, the stock Western Electric 500 phone sounds a hell of a lot better than any cellphone.

YUP
You could actually recognize a person's voice on a Western Electric telephone.

[Rob K2CU]

And it was true duplex. Ever try to get a word in when the person you're talking to has a room full of dogs, and or Kids, making noise? Modern cell phones are not truly duplex, more a vox operated deal.

[The Slab Bacon]

And it was true duplex. Ever try to get a word in when the person you're talking to has a room full of dogs, and or Kids, making noise? Modern cell phones are not truly duplex, more a vox operated deal.

that reminds me of a cute one! Our dual band repeater (220 / 440) could fun full duplex as long as you operated crossband. Lock down the PTT and yack away while the other station would do the same. It was a bit un nerving to do this on the radio and took a little getting used to. (it was great if you wanted to sneak a comment in on them) But then I thought about it and remembered that the phone was full duplex and it started to seam more natural and less unusual. It just took a little getting used to doing it on radio instead of the telephone.

The VOX operated half-duplex of cell phones annoys the hell out of me. But then, so do cell phones in general.............

[K3ZS]

The analog cell phones were full duplex.    For a while you could switch a digital phone to analog mode.   It came in handy when you were in marginal areas.    You could move around while listening to your signal and pick a spot where your signal was best while you were connected.

[WA3VJB]

The analog cell phones were full duplex.    For a while you could switch a digital phone to analog mode.   It came in handy when you were in marginal areas.    You could move around while listening to your signal and pick a spot where your signal was best while you were connected.

Early TDMA protocols sounded really crappy compared to AMPS.  When I would file news reports to the radio network, the intake desk often asked what kind of phone I was on to sound so good.  It's the one pictured below.

I had a screw-in adapter for the antenna that terminated in a BNC, with mag-mount rooftop "pig tail" cellular antenna.  Not only did this attain tremendous, noise-free range when the analog cellular infrastructure was still being built up, but then, as carriers began to abandon analog, it kept this old brickphone in service way beyond when I expected to be forced over to digital.  Now when I power it up, it sits there and polls for a cell site that never shall be found.

Roaming ...

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

The sad thing is, the stock Western Electric 500 phone sounds a hell of a lot better than any cellphone.

That old black rotary phone on the commode in the front hallway gets compliments whenever I use it. Made by CONN. TEL & ELEC for the military, nomenclature TP-6-A. If I could figure out what's wrong with the ringer it would be in the radio room on one of the tables.

Analog cells weren't too obnoxious, but the digital ones sound awful. Very thin and watery.