o/t cell phones, analog no more 911

Just test an unactivated, charged up phone,
dial 911...

I just supplied our local center here with some old cell phones I had, some analog.

Keith & Shawn

When you call 911, your phone sends a location just nanoseconds before you get the ring sound. The 911 call travels to one of the national routing centers which in turn sends it to your local 911 center. This is done with all calls regardless if its a cell or landline call. It also takes nanoseconds to route the call properly.

The cell phone does not track and show anyone a direction of the caller, it only shows its location one time as the call is initiated. For someone to be tracked, the caller would have to hang up and redial several times. Each call would show a location plotted on a map which also gives the 911 center the nearest fire, police, EMS stations.

Now, if you call from your tractor in the middle of a field, you will be expected to know the approximate crossroads of the field entrance. The 911 call will plot on a map, but can show a general location due to not having an actual road to reference to. Your field entrance may be on another road in another township. You will learn that injured people are generally disoriented from shock and sometimes go unconcious during the call.

Also, IF your phone is not GPS enabled, it will show a large circle around the cell tower that the call came from. This circle is a 6 mile radius and the call can originate from any location within the circle. This is the reason that the new phones are coming with GPS. Makes finding injured people a whole lot easier.

Old activated phones work calling 911, they will not allow a 911 dispatcher to call you back, and your location may not show on the call screen.

Trivia - Did you know that 911 lines are assigned a regular local phone number which can not dial out? If your community has 20 incoming lines, they are all numbered different and usually not in sequence. Dispatchers must use a regular outside line to call back disconnected calls.

I think cell phones are Gods way of making me pay for all the wrong things I have done in my life. Nothing but troubles, and always falling through the cracks in the contracts.

I kept getting the 'indestructable' phones, but I kept destructing them. They just dont make one for the way I live. So I decided to get cheap phones and just replace them when they bite the dust.

Analog service in my area has been discontinued for more than 1 year.

You can not call 911 on an analog phone that has no service.

You can call 911 on a digital phone only after its been activated once. Meaning someone turned it on an account somewhere.

Digital phones have less range than an analog phone and have a maximum output of 600 milliwatts. Analog phones could have up to 3 watts output power.

Analog phones could only "talk" to one tower at a time, this made 911 triangulation impossible. Current phones have GPS enabled for 911 calls and can place a caller in less than 30 feet of where the phone is located. Even if you turn off the GPS position, 911 still gets the information.

A huge number of service features can be added on a digital phone where they can not be added on an analog unit.

Battery life on a digital phone is about 5 times that of an analog.

We have them because they are cheaper for the phone companies to use and more calls per tower, etc.
Plus more bells and whistles to charge for besides regular phone serivce.

Not because thay are better.

I preferred the static to let you know you might get dropped soon.

Sounds like they wanna make sure they can track you with GPS as the newer phones have GPS.

That's got to be a great LE advantage.

T_Bone

Actually that GPS is part of what convinced me to listen to my wife and go cellular. Dropped the land line and saved $.84/year! Plus the long distance freedom.

But the better part is 911 knows within 10' of where I am. Important as I generally work solo in the woods with large machinery. Had a close call last fall with a large suspended rootball that didn't hinge as I expected. Sent me airborne down the mountain, 1/2 mile from the nearest phone.

Hard to say long it might take them to get to me, but at least they'd know where they needed to go.

On our phones, you switch on or off the GPS outgoing signal. Mine's on.

I think GPS for 911 is a great thing. I've used it for chasing bad guys as I don't have to give out the info of where I'm at and can consentrate on where there taking me too so I can think ahead and cut them off.

My phone has a 911 only option as then only 911 can track you, ya right!

One can take out the battery and then it can't be tracked.

T_Bone

Amazing how this is all changing. My wife sells wholesale, returned from a trade show with a lot of orders. Normally need half a day of FAXing to get the orders placed.

Yesterday I scanned to email, and sent out, all the orders in under 2 hrs. 17 companies and got immediate read notification.

Much better. My land line provider wants us back, but they don't have much to offer.

Not true.

Now, if you have a Cingular or AT&T phone that's over five years old you might be equally screwed because AT&T (aka Cingular) is phasing out TDMA technology in favor of GSM. But that has nothing to do with analog. Analog has been on the way out for a long time.

You used to be able to get digital phones that also did analog, but I don't think anyone has offered those for three or four years.

Now if you have a five-year-old GM vehicle with OnStar, you won't be able to contiue to use OnStar because GM chose to stick with analog long after the handwriting was on the wall.

As long as it aint my tractor :-)

So pick up one offcast by a kid upgrading to the latest gizmo, and carry it along in case of an emergency