Selected Daily Notes Archive (Home Page has current notes)
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June 1, 2005
Proving in the cellular concept
John Winward of Metroliner (internal link) fame checks in. More pictures tomorrow:
"While searching for other things, I found two cellular pictures and one Metroliner picture which I'm attaching to this e-mail. Naturally, they are in black and white. The cellular work I did with Bell Labs was in the 1976 - 1980 +/- time frame. Bell of PA was actively involved with cellular development."
"The small van was used to establish 450 MHz communication points prior to the arrival of the 'Big Van' which had the computer and all of our mobile 800 MHz communications gear with the exception of the fixed stations."
"The fixed stations broadcasted continuously while the van drove up and down every street plotting the received signal strength. We were looking to establish what kind of propagation characteristics we could expect in the 800/900 MHz region, as this had never been done before. We were hoping to find a form of ducting or wave guide effect from the streets and buildings as we wanted the antennas to be mounted low on the buildings and channel the signals up and down the streets."
"This first photo shows a myself and a small Bell Labs van parked outside City Hall in Philadelphia, it was an attempt to link the birth of cellular to the birth of our nation for a company article that never materialized."
May 26, 2005
What was the first all transistor mobile telephone?
From Geoff Fors (internal link):
"This is a hard subject to define. The first all solid state mobile telephone from a 'mainstream' manufacturer was the UHF T-1414 'Mark 12' from Motorola, part of the MK UHF Improved Mobile Telephone System which was offered about 1969. GE phones had vacuum tubes in the transmitters through about 1972. RCA offered a 'RCC' or radio common carrier version of their 700 series solid state radios about 1971 but never made an IMTS or a Bell System radio for some reason."
"Briefcase telephones were all transistor but I don't recall them appearing until the mid 1970's. I also recall that there were a couple of tiny firms that made MTS (and later IMTS) phones which appear to have been solid state but they are so rare that I have never found any. One of these was 'Astronautics' which made a mobile phone with a modified Automatic Electric 'Starlite' princess-style control head. S/C/M (Smith Corona) was also involved in briefcase and mobile phone manufacture in the mid-late 1960's but I have never seen one nor even any literature on them despite valiant attempts over the years to locate one."
"Therefore it appears that the first all solid state mobile phone was Motorola's MK system in 1968/69. I suspect there were some mom and pop solid state attempts a few years previous which may be lost to history. I have a prototype Motorola MK T-1414 UHF phone which is from the old AT&T Labs in New Jersey. It is larger than the MJ phones of 1963! The basic radio package which made the MK phone was also employed as a standard 12 channel mobile radio and sold as the UHF "Motran" by Motorola. This got really confusing because there was also a higher powered non-duplex UHF mobile radio, a completely different product, which they also called the Motran."
Geoff
May 23, 2005
Testing mobile phones
Siemens has a nice selection of photographs showing how they test their mobiles: the dust test, the splash test, the vibration test, and so on. Click here to go to their photo gallery. (external link) This is the accompanying text of just one image:
"A mobile phone must be able to withstand a lot: during the temperature test (thermo-vibro chamber) performed in the Siemens test lab, each new device is exposed to electrodynamic fluctuations and temperature changes of between minus 25 degrees (-13F) and plus 85 degrees Celsius (+185) over three eight-hour periods. The temperature test is one of some 20 basic tests used to test the quality of all Siemens handsets."
The dust test in action
May 18, 2005
Dave Mock (internal link) sends in these photos of early CDMA phones:
http://www.thequalcommequation.com/early_photos2.shtml (external link)
The photo at the top of his page is from Qualcomm, it is the first working, prototype CDMA phone. The date should be around November, 1989. Dave writes about Qualcomm in his latest book. These prototypes weren't meant to look sleek, just to work. See how similar the outward appearance is to the first GSM phone. This photo is from my site:
http://www.privateline.com/archive/ericssongsmprototype.jpg (internal link)
May 15, 2005
Yo Yosemite!
Apologies for not writing here recently, I am writing a magazine article. The first deadline for it is June 15th, and I must keep on schedule. But I am still here, still answering my e-mails. I will be taking a break in a few days, though, to go to Yosemite. Here's a beautiful web page, with two live web cams of Yosemite National Park. Check this page out in the morning to see the sunrise. Absolutely beautiful:
http://www.yosemite.org/vryos/index.htm (external link)
Another word on TradePub
I write about TradePub.com a few paragraphs below. They are a great resource for free industry publications. The telecom offerings are quite good, but now that I've explored more, it seems they offer thousands of magazines in scores of categories. What are you interested in? The link here goes to their telecom section (external link) but take some time to visit their site in depth. Free is good.
May 12, 2005
Bark, bark
The AP says Korea's second largest wireless carrier, Korean Telecom Freetel, will let dogs communicate with their master through cell phones. Who would have thunk? The AP relates:
"The users must first connect to Internet with their cell phones, and then register information of their dogs such as the breed and age. The service will then record the dog's bark."
"The owner will receive text messages telling them how their pet is feeling, such as 'I am happy' or "I am frustrated.'"
"The service, which will begin on Friday, will also translate basic messages into dog sounds. The service will cost about one dollar."
May 10, 2005
Fascinating article from Agence France Presse:
Relentless rise of the mobile phone rings changes for world's poor
Thu Apr 21, 1:21 PM ET
With just four calls from a mobile phone, remote Bangladeshi farmer Mir Jahid Hussein can now ensure he gets the best price for his seasonal jute seeds -- something he could once only dream of.
As it is for tens of millions of poor rural-dwellers in developing countries from Bangladesh to Botswana, mobile phone technology is revolutionising Hussein's life for the better, enabling him to cut out cheating middlemen and deal directly with buyers from district markets. (continues here --> internal link)
May 8, 2005
Free Trade Magazines!
Visit TradePub.com today to sign up for industry publications. The link here goes to their telecom section (external link) but they offer magazines and whitepapers to interest almost anyone working in technology: the life sciences, construction, IT, even business, and on and on. I always enjoy getting magazines in hardcopy. The time to fill out their forms is a very small price to get good, timely industry writing.
Tanya Montague has a new site
Get a psychic reading from Tanya for only $25. Much less than an hour of couch time and undoubtedly more insightful. Click here to go to her new site, under construction, but working. (external link)
May 6, 2005
Something new, something old
Both of these articles are external links. Read now before these URLS die.
The latest on the tower and cellular trade from Ken Schmidt (internal link):
http://www.steelintheair.com/CellTowerIndustryNews.htm
Very well done report on the fall of AT&T Wireless. By Dan Richman. Well worth reading:
http://www.businessjournalism.org/content/6477.cfm
May 4, 2005
I'm enthusiastic about carriers offering street level coverage maps as I write about in yesterday's notes. But Mark van der Hoek (internal link), who's spent an entire career in cellular radio, disagrees with my point of view. He writes,
"The problem with offering such maps to the public is twofold:
1. Keeping them updated and accurate is a monumental task. I very much doubt that T-Mobile's maps are accurate everywhere, and the real world experience will change frequently. The truth is, they probably decided to do this, made a Hurculean effort, and the accuracy will go downhill from here.
2. One word: Expectations. The minute you print a map that looks like it is detailed, people assume it is accurate. If you are presenting a map that "a reasonable person would believe to be accurate", you are liable if it is not. So says at least one court case in California, and it's not at all hard to follow the reasoning. If you give people a PICTURE, it doesn't matter how many disclaimers appear in print along with the picture -- the only message that gets through to the majority of people is the picture."
"The wireless industry has painted itself into a corner with over-selling the quality of their service. They've done it with voice and we're already seeing the same problem crop up with E911. (Look for some major lawsuits over this in the next 5 years. It's going to be ugly.) These kind of maps are more of the same. If you tell people they have coverage, they will expect it to be there, every time and all the time, disclaimers notwithstanding."
"I really think it is to the industry's AND the public's advantage to live in the real world, where radio service is flaky. Given human nature, that means that maps cannot be made reasonably detailed and accurate. The minute you do that, most people will assume a level of accuracy that the carrier was not intending to convey."
May 3, 2005
Tanya update
Longtime Sacramento favorite D.J., Harley rider, fund raiser, and witch, Mount Tanya (internal link) has been stricken with a rare auto-immune disorder. Go to her page above to read all about it. A domain for her will be coming soon, TanyaTheWitch.com, I will keep you informed.
Cellular coverage maps: pretty pictures
Click here to enlarge
Dave Mock (internal link) points out T-Mobile offers street level coverage maps of their territory. Pretty cool. Put in the address you want to see if it's covered. Well worth some time on their site, many say that street maps like this give customers the best way to choose a carrier. More on this later. For now, click on the link below to go to T-Mobile. (By the way, I have no relation with this company):
http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/ (external link)
May 1, 2005
Mechanized Combined Line and Recording System (MECOBS)
Automating the operator position was a decades long process for most telephone companies. Ronald Briggs comments and sends photographs of one of the more obscure, semi-automatic systems that came before fully automated consoles (internal link). Thanks to Ron and J.R. Snyder Jr..
April 28, 2005
Q. I found an old telephone in my grandfather's house. He was an electrical engineer in the 40's. I can't find much info on it on the Web. It has no dial, but two knobs beneath the receiver, (which seems to have a fuse or something like that missing), an electric plug and a switch board (?) plug. It has Federal Telephone and Radio Corp. Control Unit 134-A printed on it. It has a green and a red light on the base. Do you know what this is?
Click here for very large photograph
A. I don't know what this is but Geoff Fors (internal link) probably does. His answer:
"It's a Federal Telephone & Radio Corporation desktop remote control for a two-way radio base station of the WWII-1950 period. The base stations were large transmitters about the size of a refrigerator, painted black, and these remote controls allowed them to be placed in a storage room or closet somewhere and then controlled by the desktop telephone unit, which was similar to a desk intercom, and in fact could also be used for that purpose if there were several remotes hooked up."
"These would usually be found on a desk at a military police station or a railroad yard."
"Yours has been modified somewhat; I think the cords, lights and knobs on top were not on the original unit."
"If you want to dispose of it, you might put it on eBay under the 'Telephones, 1940-50' category (or similar.) I don't recall them bringing much money, particularly in modified condition, but one never knows."
Regards,
Geoff Fors
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Free Telecom Magazines through TradPub.com. Click here to go there
