I'd have to say that John got it exactly right. I'm on Verizon, and it
works at most places. My current phone is a Kyocera QCP-6035 (Palm Vx
built in). It works up at Montebello, at Fremont Peak, Del Valle, and I
think it even worked at Lake San Antonio last summer, but I may be
mistaken on that one.
I've also had the same experience with battery life. When in analog
mode or when there is no signal it burns through the battery. When I
stay in the bay area, I can go nearly 7 days on a charge if no calls
come in or alarms go off (it's a Palm too). If I go through areas where
it switches to analog mode, I don't think it lasts 3 full days, and if I
lose signals a lot, it won't go two.
(Caveat: my memory of the bad situations may be making them seem worse
than they were, but this is how I remember it.)
John R Pierce wrote:
>>I'm going to get a cell phone soon - do you have any
>>advice what should I look for so it will work at TAC's
>>observing sites in the area (as much as possible)?
>>
>
>stick with AT&T/Cellular One or Verizon, with a 'tri-band' phone, make sure
>you get a phone known to have good analog performance as when you are in the
>boonies thats all you get. Don't let AT&T sell you on their newer GSM
>service just yet, the GSM coverage in most of california is pretty poor.
>
>*AVOID* Sprint PCS. Avoid Cingular.
>
>a rather good site on the local (and not so local) cellular scene is...
>
>http://www.sfbacell.com (note, its organized as one *long* page, most links
>are just jumps within that page)
>
>consensus seems to be Verizon is the best now.
>
>I'm on ATT/Cell One with a Nokia 8260 triband, and it works pretty well,
>although its so tiny that in fringe analog only areas like Death Valley,
>getting a workable signal is dicey.
>
>one thing I've found, when my phone is on analog, it eats up the battery
>twice as fast. if I'm completely out of any cell area, it really eats up
>the battery, so I turn it off on long motorcycle rides through the boonies.
>Normally, the battery on my phone lasts a week or more per charge.
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