HGHXL Wrote:
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> As mountain hiker over the years in the
> Shenandoah, if by chance you have an old analog
> cell phone, even if no longer activated, good
> chance/not guaranteed that it will work to call
> 911. At some point over the last 15-20 years,
> cannot remember when, the FCC required cell phones
> no longer activated to be able to still call 911.
> If you still have such an analog phone, to test it
> locally, call 911, ONE TIME ONLY, do so at a time
> when the 911 call load is low, tell the 911
> operator who answers what you are doing, so they
> do not send police, fire/rescue, or ambulance to
> your house.
>
> Remember cellular is just an advanced radio
> service, and anything big blocking old antenna TV
> and AM/FM radio services will block cell phone
> service. When I was hiking at the top of Old Rag
> around year 2000, the analog phone which had
> activated at the time worked at the top of the
> mountain, not in the valley. Years later, same
> area, digital phones (outside of expensive
> satellite phones that do not work indoors) which
> all phones sold in the last 10 years are, that
> phone did not work at the top of the mountain.
> With analog service at the top of the mountain, it
> does better (not always) to lock into one cell
> tower lower in the valley, but with digital, it
> tries to read off of multiple cell towers and the
> call will not go through. At a certain point of
> elevation, even analog phones do not work. I was
> in a plane with a friend in 1999 (pre 911), and he
> tried a call which did not dial through because at
> 30k+ feet up and with the speed the plane is
> moving, it is trying to lock into too many cell
> towers (another reason for FAA regulations for not
> using cell phones on planes, other than planes
> with limited Wifi service). I had worked until
> within the last year, not now, for one of the cell
> phone companies.
>
> The other issue in rural low population areas,
> there is not the economic incentive for cell phone
> companies to build towers in those areas when they
> are likely not to get that many new subscribers.
> That said, in the last couple, few, and several
> years in most of the small towns have traveled
> through up and down the East Coast including West
> Virginia, there is cell phone coverage in town,
> even those surrounded by mountains on all sides.
> The problem is once you get outside of those
> towns, your cell phone may work, but a good chance
> it will not. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless
> will likely have more coverage in the rural areas
> than T-Mobile or Sprint. I have been on trips
> with friends, train trip originating from Elkins,
> VV (worked in town, rest of trip did not), in
> Everglades (my Verizon Wireless phone worked, my
> friend's AT&T phone did not), in the mountains of
> the Carolinas where my Verizon phone worked on and
> off in the woods of the mountains, his Sprint
> phone did not (we got back together in an hour or
> so with police assistance, probably the only time
> in my life in the back of a police car, only for
> less than five minutes). I recently had a Lyft
> driver in No. VA who lived about 20 miles east of
> Front Royal, a very rural isolated area, and just
> one bar of cell phone coverage in her house with
> only Verizon (told her about the in-home Wifi
> signal booster costing $200-250 which made her day
> in a very good way). I do know very recently some
> Verizon and probably other carriers too have a
> couple or few phones they are now selling with
> Wifi built in (do not have one, have not had a
> chance to check into further), but a long shot in
> the woods, if you are near a house or a building
> with unsecured wifi.
Carriers have not been required to support AMPS analog service since 2008, and they were pretty quick to pull the plug. If you find some place in the world that is still operating analog cell towers. please let us know.
You can buy a DeLorme satellite communicator for $250 - $300 and get messaging capability and GPS navigation, or an Iridium or Inmarsat satellite phone for $800 and up. You can rent a satellite phone as well.
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