At 04:07 PM 1/17/2003, David Brodbeck wrote:
>My general advice in cell phones for rural travel is to get an analog
>phone.  You'll have a hard time finding anyone who will sell you one, but
>vast parts of the country have only analog service and no digital.
>Anywhere more than ten miles from an interstate highway is iffy for
>digital.  Easily half of Michigan has only analog cell service.  Some
>areas don't even have that.

Much easier to get a phone that will drop back to analog when needed.  They
aren't really optimized for it, battery life drops by 2/3 when you shift,
and the normal handhelds still only run max of about six-tenths of a watt
(allowed 3 watts) -- but I've used mine in Maine with good success using an
external antenna tuned for analog band --  which seems to work ok on the
digital end as well, i.e. as well or better than the internal
antenna.  Haven't had occasion to use analog with the built-in
antenna.  Mine is a Nokia 6162 (not made now, but any phone called
"Tri-Mode" (I think that's the buzz-name) should do it.

david

--
David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"