Re: [amsat-bb] RE: Re: ARES and Satellites

[Bruce Bostwick <lihan161051@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

As someone who takes phone calls all day, from all sorts of places and 
on all sorts of phones, I have to say the cellphones are the ones that 
cause more problems for intelligibility than anything else, 
speakerphones included.  I can always tell when a digital cell is 
getting into a more marginal signal area -- all the DSP in the world 
won't fix what's left of those signals.  They try, and to their credit, 
they don't have static, but long before they drop out all you hear is 
unintelligible gibberish, fragments of syllables and dropout 
compensation.  The analog phones, perversely enough, can be almost out 
of range enough to drop squelch on the cell site before the static 
becomes loud enough that I can't copy, but thanks to the cell services 
hassling us all to go digital, who has the old AMPS/NAMPS phones 
anymore?  (Besides me that is..)

And it will only get worse, as profit margins get shaved and the 
service providers are under more pressure to do more with less.  The 
previous poster was right about sites making do without generators, 
cramming more transmitters in without adding battery capacity, and so 
on.  I have to wonder if people will get so disgusted with the hit or 
miss quality of their cellphones that we see a resurgence in 2 meter FM 
autopatches .. I have to admit that I've gotten on a patch now and then 
when my AMPS phone can't get a usable signal, and while they used to be 
dead even in terms of quality, the patch is now clearly superior ..

But if more people wake up to cellphones not being a panacea, maybe 
they'll see that ham radio does have a place after all .. ;-) .. give 
your girlfriend my congratulations ..

On Thursday, Aug 7, 2003, at 17:01 US/Central, Keith N6ORS wrote:

> Cell phones are fantastic!
> they are so fantastic in fact that my girlfriend got so tired of the
> crappy sound and unreliable service that she got her ham license!
>
> So see! they do serve a purpose.
>
> 73,
>
> Keith (N6ORS)
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>
Heard from a flight instructor:
"The only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask, resulting in my 
going out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of 
torn and twisted metal."

----
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