 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
 Previous: New BPL Complaint Arrives as ARRL Nudges FCC to Answer Earlier Filings |  Next: Passport, Expanded League Presence Back This Year at Dayton Hamvention® |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
May 5, 2006
This week, visit a Web site and read about the days when using a mobile phone was more like using a radio.
Bruce Corbett, N9BH, wrote recently, "I wonder if you have any pointers to history on old mobile phone, that is, pre-cell phone. I did some quick searches, but only seem to find cell phone information. I imagine early car phone systems were more similar to ham radio repeaters, with one transmit/receive site, than to modern cell phone. I also wonder how much those early cell phone systems influenced ham radio repeaters, and vice versa."
 Privateline.com's Cellular History and Mobile Telephone History provides a thorough overview of a niche in radio technology that has become huge. |
I wrote right back, "Here is a good Web page that is probably what you seek: Privateline.com's Cellular History and Mobile Telephone History." Tom Farley wrote this extensive history of the technology and leaves no stone unturned going all the way back to the days of Faraday, Henry, and Morse. It is interesting reading for ham radio operators and general interest radio aficionados alike. In addition to learning about the history of mobile phones, you can also read about cellular phones if you are so inclined, which, by the way, are really radios, too!
I also suggested that Bruce, "might view this page, too: Wikipedia's History of mobile phones. Bruce returned with. "It is interesting how the early mobile phones were really two way radios that required an operator to patch them into the phone network."
Makes you wonder why they say, "Those were the 'good old days.'"
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU,
still does not own a cell phone! To discuss why or to discuss anything else,
e-mail Stan or add comments to his blog.
| Previous: New BPL Complaint Arrives as ARRL Nudges FCC to Answer Earlier Filings | Next: Passport, Expanded League Presence Back This Year at Dayton Hamvention® |
