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Old 22nd Aug 2019, 4:24 pm   #21
Andrew2
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

I've never actually owned a mobile phone, although my wife gave me her old cast-off Nokia 1100 while I was in hospital following a wee heart attack a few years ago. Since then it's gone back in the 'kitchen drawer'.
However, I came across this Telecom one a few years ago and I had to have it just for its neat, chunky looks.
The battery is completely banjaxed, but applying volts to the contacts wakes the phone up enough for it to report 'NO SERVICE'. I think it's from the late 80's.
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Old 22nd Aug 2019, 5:08 pm   #22
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My first was a Philips car mount analogue closely followed by aMotorola Microtac analogue. The first was loaned to me and they paid the bill but restricted where I could call. The Motorola was loaned but I was allowed to use it for my own account. When GSM started I bought a Microtac with the full size (credit card) SIM. I do have one of the Motorola International 1000 phones, the GSM equivalent of the early one where the car transceiver and handset were mounted on a frame with a big lead acid battery. The battery is long dead but I bet I could still power it up from a PSU. I wonder if it would actually work?
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Old 22nd Aug 2019, 11:49 pm   #23
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My sister-in-law was an early adopter of mobiles and had one of the later hand-held ETACS phones.
She was out shopping, and unfortunately her handbag complete with phone was snatched.

The police officer who took a statement thought it was bizarre that she carried such an expensive piece of kit with her, and didn't leave it in the house (?)
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 12:27 am   #24
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

Not sure when I got my first phone but must of been early 90s
I remember one day I had it in the window where I was working with a builder. He didn’t know I had the phone . Sometime during the day the phone started ringing . What’s that he said. All the names I got called and I would never have one of them things reminding me for the rest of the day. A few years later he had one like us all. I still have the phone it’s abit tatty ..Andy
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 2:20 am   #25
Graham G3ZVT
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

of course mobile phones have been around for much longer than even the old analogue cellular network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4hoSh0Ols

I didn't know anyone who had one of those, but a friend of mine had the latter iteration on South Lancs Radiophone, which I believe was called "System 3". It still needed an operator.

Did anyone use "National Band 3" trunked radio system for work?
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 7:14 am   #26
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
of course mobile phones have been around for much longer than even the old analogue cellular network.
Often referred to as zero generation (0G), with 1G being the first (analogue) generation of cellular mobile 'phones.
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 9:25 am   #27
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
of course mobile phones have been around for much longer than even the old analogue cellular network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4hoSh0Ols

I didn't know anyone who had one of those, but a friend of mine had the latter iteration on South Lancs Radiophone, which I believe was called "System 3". It still needed an operator.

Did anyone use "National Band 3" trunked radio system for work?

That's reminded me of an incident when I was one of a group of very young trainee at the Midland branch of an organisation.

We were obliged to attend a very dull seminar given by "someone from London Head Office", who arrived very grandly and clearly was very conscious of his own importance and was out-to-impress these "Northerners". He proudly carried a "mobile" phone which looked like a standard bakelite desk handset and base stuck on top of a large box, which he stood on a table by him to answer "when he was needed urgently".

Needless to say, it didn't ring in the whole of the morning, but each time another phone rang in the building he jumped and looked at the device. To our disgrace, we youngsters were soon (mostly unsuccessfully) trying to stifle attacks of the giggles......afterwards, our local boss "had a strict word with us"....he winked and just said "do, at least, try to behave next time, lads!". Happy days.....

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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 9:51 am   #28
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

When I was with GEC in the mid-1990's found this map showing the coverage of the GEC National One network in the back of a ring binder I had rescued from a waste paper basket . I think one of their offices had been the previous occupant of the building we had just moved into.
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 10:05 am   #29
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
of course mobile phones have been around for much longer than even the old analogue cellular network.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4hoSh0Ols

I didn't know anyone who had one of those, but a friend of mine had the latter iteration on South Lancs Radiophone, which I believe was called "System 3". It still needed an operator.

Did anyone use "National Band 3" trunked radio system for work?
South Lancs Radiophone was 'System 1' I remember that opening as I had just started with the GPO in Chester and we were just within its service area - 'System Two' was a 9 channel system (plus another for calling) introduced in the early 1970's, still working via the operator both ways=. Then System 3 came along in 1977 with 55 channels and automatic selection of a free channel. 1983 saw System 4 which was the first one which had automatic outgoing dialling rather than via the operator. Calls could be dialled direct to the mobile as well using the various 003X dialling codes followed by the mobile's number. It was interesting that a five/six digit number was allocated to the mobile but to reach it you had to dial the code appropriate to where the vehicle was located at the time - hence the same number could be reached with different codes depending on its location!
We still use the old 003X dialling codes on CNet when we have a number set up on our 'smartphones' - so the old codes still live on!
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 10:51 am   #30
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My mate Bob worked as an operator on System 3, and some of the calls he 'overheard' don't bear repeating! I had a scanner at the time and it spent an awful lot of its time around 163 MHz....
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 2:18 pm   #31
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My first cellphone was a "BT Steel" first-generation transportable, back around 1984. It was one of the most powerful in terms of RF output - I think it did about five watts, which explains the weight of the necessary lead-acid battery in the breezeblock-sized bit. Even with such high power, coverage outside major cities and away from motorways took quite some time to become good.

Calls cost 50p/minute +VAT!!! but were offsettable against tax as a business-expense.

In the same timeframe I also used a Securicor-supplied private version of the public BT "System 4" radiophones; this used Storno UHF mobiles and rather neat control-boxes/hamdheld microphones with a DTMF keypad. It also had a facility that by calling a particular vehicle and sending a certain tone-sequence the horn would sound repeatedly - very useful for attracting your attention when you were away from your car but not so popular when someone 'pages' you at 01:00!
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Old 23rd Aug 2019, 11:57 pm   #32
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

In a previous job I used to support the mobile side of NB3 radios, including repairs, installations, programming etc. They were mainly used by transport companies with large fleets of HGVs, to keep in touch with the dispatch office. The main drawback with them was the in-band audible data bursts when changing cells etc. And of course the various status feedback sounds such as when it found and registered on a cell. A particularly common fault with the Motorola T310? NB3 set was that the volume pot was by design allowed a little movement in it's mounting which could cause the connecting wires to fracture. If this happened to be on the earth side of the pot, the poor driver had to endure every sound from the radio at maximum volume. Our first works digital mobile phone was quite a chunky thing because it had the high capacity battery option fitted, which made it quite a bit deeper. It could have possibly been a Motorola and had a pull out aerial and a flip down cover over the keypad. I seem to remember it reverted to something called "Metro Plus" when it couldn't find it's own network. Maybe some kind of early roaming agreement. The vehicle horn alert was definitely a common feature on a lot of Motorola mobile radios, and consisted of a wire hanging out of a connector on the rear which I think was grounded if the radio was selectively called. I think the only time I used one was to flash a beacon or similar. It's not a good idea for the vehicle horn to go off when you are driving. Road rage or what?
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Old 24th Aug 2019, 5:36 am   #33
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My first cellphone was a Motorola MicroTAC - not sure which model - which I was provided when my then-manager moved to EY's Wellington office in late 1995. It was replaced the following year with a MicroTAC Ultra Lite. Both were on Telecom's analogue AMPS network. In 1999 the Motorola was replaced with a Nokia 5120 on D-AMPS (TDMA), and then in 2002 I moved across to Telecom's then-new CDMA-1x 2G network with a Kyocera 2235.

A Sanyo 5600 was next and my first "3G" phone (EVDO), while after that my first smartphone - an HTC Libra branded as "Okta Boss" - was in 2007. Then across to another technology - Telecom's HSPA network - with an HTC Snap, then Android on a Motorola Defy (horrible thing), Samsung Ativ S, Microsoft Lumia 950, and now a Nokia 7 plus.

As you may have noticed, New Zealand's cellular networks started based on US technology - Telecom (now Spark) started in 1987 with AMPS, then D-AMPS/TDMA, then CDMA-1xRTT and EVDO. The legacy of that is UMTS/HSPA in the 800 MHz band.

GSM-based standards didn't come here until Bellsouth started in 1993 (bought out by Vodafone in 1998). Our third physical network, 2degrees, started in 2009, and turned off their GSM network this year.
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 6:08 pm   #34
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

I don't think I have ever thrown away any mobile phone I have ever owned over the years .
My Bedside table must have at least 10 or 12 in including her indoors discarded ones , not to mention a few in the loft including the original Nokia one.
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 8:23 pm   #35
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49409055
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 9:43 pm   #36
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

My first was a Mitsubishi Trium, very late 1999 or possibly early 2000. Cost £49, was PAYG. It had a retractable aerial but was otherwise small and lightweight. Text messages 140 characters max (it didn't have the ability to concatenate them, either send or receive).

It was a good phone.
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 10:09 pm   #37
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

I had a NEC analog one which would go very hissy in poor reception areas but you could usually get the gist of the call, however, this got cloned while working in the city of London area...I knew it had been cloned as I had got an odd phone call from someone I didn't know.

Anyway, phone company said I could pick one of these new fangled GSM things from their range FOC. I opted for an Erricson 198 IIRC.

It worked pretty well but I embarrassingly discovered one of it's shortcomings which was that if you were near any sound amplifier at all, it would tell the world it was just about to ring with some short bleeps straight through a PA LOL
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 10:28 pm   #38
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It worked pretty well but I embarrassingly discovered one of it's shortcomings which was that if you were near any sound amplifier at all, it would tell the world it was just about to ring with some short bleeps straight through a PA LOL
Not as embarrassing as my step-mum who found that her phone would somehow play through the PA of In-Excess in Salisbury!
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 11:10 pm   #39
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Default Re: My first mobile phone (1992)

Mine was a Sony CM-H333 Mars Bar analogue phone on a contract in around 1994! I loved that phone & felt quite important with it on my belt!! How times have changed!

The analogue signal was very good in & around Bognor Regis & surrounding towns, the call rates were still 50p a minute & amazingly FREE all weekend to landlines & other Cellnet users! A big deal in 1994 for certain! It was also hideously expensive for landlines to call me!

Wonderful times........
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 12:15 pm   #40
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My first 'fixed carphone' was on Vodafone in the early 1990's on the old analogue network - it was a 1920's GPO Telephone 121 mounted on the dashboard of my Ford Sierra Estate complete with a vintage looking dial centre label! It was on the passenger side so little chance of using it when driving ;-) I had one of my mobile exchanges at the Welsh Highland Railway at Porthmadog and they had decided to adopt the '1920's look' in keeping with the time the railway was originally built. Hence I just did the same with my 'carphone'. It worked perfectly, you could dial out using the rotary dial and incoming calls rang the bell on the phone without a problem. It used an early analogue Cellular Terminal Adapter about a foot square and three inches thick mounted in the car boot. Can't remember the name of the unit - it was a US made unit - effectively the forerunner of the Nokia 'Premicell' but a lot bigger. First handheld was a 'brick' type in 1987. Had that one on Vodafone until I moved to 'Orange' as they extended their network into our part of the World in 1995. Both the above units are buried somewhere in the loft. Might dig them out one day.
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