john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) (11/20/89)
This is a story that could only take place in the '80s. Yesterday
while picking up incidentals to install my KX-1232 (had to get that
in), I had occasion to call a business associate in Victorville. Got
off the bike, reached into the saddlebag and used the trusty handheld.
When I was finished I put it back, apparently forgetting to turn the
unit off.
After that call, I went to the hardware store, an electronics store,
etc., etc. Then I decided to hit the expressway to go to the office to
pick up the mail. The trip is about 8 miles on a big freeway-like road
but with traffic lights. When I arrived, I checked my pager (looked at
the display) since I can't hear it over the noise of the motorcycle.
The number of Mr. Talbot in Victorville was on the display so I went
upstairs a gave him a call. He was having trouble containing himself.
It seems that he had, about twenty minutes earlier, received a strange
call. It was a big noise. There were sounds of the phone jostling
around, as well as car noises. There were sounds of speeding up and
slowing down, as if driving from one light to another.
Then the DTMF came. Single tones and tone bursts, as if from someone's
speed dial. Among one of the bursts was what Mr. Talbot recognized as
his own number! It was a cellular phone! But whose? He tried yelling to
get the caller's attention, but no luck. Then while this was going on
the noise on the line suddenly went away and he received a call via
call waiting. It was the wayward mobile again, using three-way!
Finally figuring out whose cellular phone was calling him, Mr. Talbot
called my mobile number. He call-waited into his own auto-harassment
call, already in progress. Then he paged me. After splitting my sides
over his account of the previous twenty minutes, I went down to my bike
and checked the phone. In the cold saddlebag, the unit was warm to the
touch (and very much on).
So trust me folks. Whenever you drop your handheld in the saddlebag,
make sure it's off. You'll be glad you did.
John Higdon | P. O. Box 7648 | +1 408 723 1395
john@zygot.ati.com | San Jose, CA 95150 | M o o !joe@mojave.ati.com (Joe Talbot) (11/21/89)
I received this strange call while working on a strange project involving sending a phone line (PBX station) to an FM radio station transmitter site by microwave and SCA, I had my test phone all set up, connected to my Panasonic, when the phone rang. The experimental phone wasn't quite up to par yet, so I wasn't suprised when all I heard was funny noises. I flashed and put the weird caller on hold and went to pick it up in another room, and I found that it sounded the same as on the experimental phone, RF fading and touch-tones and traffic sounds in the background. At first the tones were random, then I heard patterns that I recognized including my own number. OK, I thought, It's a cell phone, but whose? I put it on the speaker and listened until I heard a call waiting tone, so I flashed to answer it and got the same noises! Then all at once it came to me, handheld phone, motorcycle noises, three way calling, and the call had stayed up for quite some time (about 20 minutes). Since the call was long and uninterrupted, it couldn't be from the Pac*Tel system in LA, it's just not possible. The Pac*Tel system didn't offer three way calling, so, it must be John. Only in the 80's. joe@mojave I finally changed my dumb signiture. People were always telling me what a great signature I had.