[NTLK] going cellular- sorta

From: Brian (bmcewen_at_mediaone.net)
Date: Fri Nov 02 2001 - 17:33:40 EST


OK, I'm taking the plunge for a cell phone.

OK, it's not like new fancy phones. It's a Motorola Microtac 650 from
university surplus- charging stand, cigarette adapter, and battery (which
seems good- 8 hrs standby with it so far on one charge)- $20.

"activating" the phone- $20 (not sure I really have to pay all of this,
this phone is one of the last ones that you could reprogram all the codes
yourself, per the web site I grabbed the info from- feedback welcome. My
guess is that they won't want to tell me all the codes and I won't be able
to reprogram it myself for less than $20 anyway. But I'll ask :).

I figure on leaving it in the car as emergency phone for my wife, and using
one of the $10/40min disposable cell cards.

Now, the newton-related part- suppose I (find somewhere and ) buy the
motorola data kit (spend the $ that I'm NOT spending on that very tempting
emate deal), this phone family is reported to work with a "cellect" PC
card, per the FAQ But the blurb for the data connectivity kit says use for
fax machines, etc etc- it just provides a RJ-11 socket and dialtone.

I can think of no logical reason I'd need a special modem card for this,
but hey the cell world is made of special cases that almost but not quite
provide what you want :) - if someone knows why this might not work with
my spare 14.4 modem card, I'd love to find out now.

Any info on if other models of phone that data cable
<http://www.motorola.com/GSS/CSG/direct_phones/accessories/connectivity/cellconk
it.htm>
would work with, should we decide to become modern sometime, would be also
appreciated (my assumption is, I'd have to buy a new cable later on if I
got a different motorola phone). I looked for a cross-reference chart but
none leapt out.

I'm thinking that if I bring Newton, modem/ethernet, phone, phone-to-data
cables, portable inkjet printer on a trip, I should just give up and get a
tool belt to hang it all upon, like the old Dilbert cartoon "..looks like
someone just had a fax...."...the awful thing it, I can justify having all
that crud, sometimes.

B

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