telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) (10/15/90)
Although I've had my Radio Shack CT-301 cell phone for awhile now and
am quite happy with it, I gave in to temptation the other day and
bought a new 'bag phone' which was on sale at Leader Communications in
Chicago for $100 in a special one day only sale late in September.
Manufactured by Technophone Corporation of Melbourne, FL, this phone
has a three watt output, a dual NAM and several other good features
including very easy programming right from the keypad. The most common
features are programmed using the 'Menu' key on the keypad. These
features include:
Menu #
00 Display own phone number
01 Display own serial number in hex format
02 Display last call time
03 Display total airtime since last reset.
To reset, enter your four digit PIN, and press Menu key again.
04 Ignition Sense. With this enabled, the phone is switched on using
the vehicle ignition switch or by the four digit PIN when in
mobile mode. The phone is turned off using the ignition key, the
PIN, or with the on/off switch on the phone.
When disabled, the phone is switched on and off using the on/off
switch on the phone or with the four digit PIN.
05 Horn Alert. When properly wired via the car battery in Mobile
mode, an incoming call will sound the horn or blink the car lights
as desired. When horn alert is turned off, the phone rings in
the usual way.
06 Mobile/Portable mode. In mobile mode, phone is normally powered
from car battery. Lights on phone stay on. In portable mode, phone
illumination is switched off after thirty seconds to save battery
power.
07 Restricted Calling. Toggled on, the phone can only be used to dial
a number from the twenty memory locations. Attempts to manually
dial other numbers fail. Toggled off, the phone can dial from the
memory or keypad as desired. Your four digit PIN has to be used to
toggle this condition on or off.
08 Change PIN. Enter the old four digit PIN followed by the new four
digit PIN, which then takes effect immediatly.
09 Enable Service Mode / Service mode on/off. Use this menu item
to see your current status: (a) channel you are using; (b)
incoming/outgoing signal strength and system ID. When on a call,
the display shows additional information including SAT expected
and SAT frequency received (hz).
10 Auto Roam. Do you want to automatically go into roaming mode when
you leave home territory? Toggle this on or off.
11 Normal / Inverted system. If you are 'normally' on A, this changes
you to B and vice versa.
12 Select NAM 1 for operation.
13 Select NAM 2 for operation. Press 0 to toggle between NAM shown
the other NAM. Certain other information will be displayed on a
second screen.
There are 31 memory locations, 00 through 30. 00 is reserved for the
last number dialed. The main display shows received signal strength
in the form of little squares which light up. The more squares (one
through six) the better your signal at the moment.
To program the two NAMS:
Press on/off key to power up phone.
Press CLR three times in rapid succession.
Press # 0 0 0 0 0 0 # # 9 5 3 7 3 9 # STO 2 9 STO STO.
Press on/off to power down the phone.
Immediatly press on/off to power up the phone.
Display will now read WHAT NAM?
Enter 1 or 2 to correspond with the NAM you wish to program.
The display will read AREA ID. Enter the five digit number.
Press the * key.
The display will read some ten digit number. By default it will
read 666 888 6666. Enter the ten digit telephone number for this NAM.
Press the * key.
The display will read O/LOAD CLASS. Enter the two digit number,
typically in the range of 00 - 15. Mine is set at 04.
Press the * key.
The display will read GRP ID. Enter your two digit group ID Mark.
Enter 15 to advise the tower you have all 832 channels available.
Press the * key.
The display will read EXp ?. Enter 0 or 1 for your Extended Address
Bit.
Press the * key.
The display will read IPCH. Enter the initial paging channel. This is
typically 333 for A carriers and 334 for B carriers.
Press the * key.
The display will read SYSTEM ID. Store the three letter system ID, or
any three letter code to remind you what system you are on. For
example, to enter NYC, press the 6 key two times and the display will
show N. Press # to step to the next letter and press the 9 key three
times to get Y. Press the # key to step to the next letter and press
the 2 key three times to get C. Press # to terminate the process. The
letters Q and Z, and a blank space are represented by the digit 1.
Press the * key.
The display will read SAVE NAM? Press SEND to save the NAM or END to
disgard the change. Then press END again to terminate the edit session
and power down the phone, or in response to WHAT NAM? press another
number to repeat the process for another NAM.
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Leader Communications is a Cellular One agency; this means I had to
sign a three month contract with Cellular One, but the prices are
quite competitive to Ameritech, and in some cases better, depending on
the individual application.
My service from Cellular One is $7 per month plus 13 cents per minute
of calling at night, and $4.95 for all custom calling features.
The one thing I don't like as well about this phone is the length of
time to charge the battery. Unlike the CT-301 where the battery is
about the size of a large ice-cube and takes one hour to fully charge
(for 16-18 hours of standby), the battery on the Technophone is much
larger and must stay in the charger for several hours.
Two towers in my area are only a mile away from me: one on the
telephone exchange at 5000 North Clark St. (Chicago-Edgewater) and
another one at Clark and Howard Streets on the Evanston side of the
street by the CTA el train turnaround. Cell One and Ameritech share
most of the towers here.
Over all, not a bad phone, and worth at least the C-note I paid for
it.
Patrick Townson