Anyone ever have one of these or use it ? Found in a old cabover

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Vast-Yak-8713@reddit

I used one in 1993….these are pre 1993 as I recall….

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cvframer@reddit

Cellular One was my first cell phone company back in the 90s.

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Late 80s had one in my truck. Dispatch had to call a number for the city I was in and then dial my number through that number. Hey, did you ask but way better than walking back in the truckstop and calling Dispatch myself every hour or two

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jedi1-0@reddit (OP)

Look like it would have been a luxury back in the day did they have to pay for each minute or how did that work out

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TripleTrucker@reddit

It was my own phone. Too long ago to remember the cost!

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DeeDee_Z@reddit

I know it's just a depth-of-field thing, but boy, that steering wheel being SO FAR off-center really makes me want to hold on to my guts!

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ComprehensiveNail416@reddit

The company I started out trucking with had phones in every truck. Much better service and range than most cellphones at the time had. I think my wife had 15 different numbers saved for me depending what truck I was running

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Gilgamesh2000000@reddit

Were those the days of no e logs? 😂

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blackfarms@reddit

Yep. It had crazy range and you could tell well before the connection was going to be dropped.

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TheThrillerExpo@reddit

How would you know? My dad had a bag phone when I was younger and could tell my mom that the call was about to drop. He’d call her on the way home from work everyday.

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blackfarms@reddit

It's analog like a radio. The signal would start to fade in and out and get distorted, but it didn't just drop like a digital signal. The range was something like 50Km or more depending on the conditions. Modern cell phones are a few kilometers at best.

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Wasabi-Kungpow@reddit

How many bananas is that?

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Razzman70@reddit

At least 7.

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BDS_707@reddit

If it works and you don’t personally get charged, I’d use the hell out of it

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DigEnvironmental7490@reddit

It won't work, that's an old analog (AMPS) phone. That service went away like 20 years ago at least.

The installed or bag phones like that put out the full 3W of power so you could have service over a long range.

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TheThrillerExpo@reddit

Jesus fuck I’m not that old. They quit in the early 2000’s dad had to get a real cellphone when I was starting high school because the analog bag phone wasn’t going to work anymore and Alltel was switching to ATT. That was only like… 20 years ago, fuck dude.

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Ragnar-DK@reddit

Just a generation or so ago

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cleevethagreat@reddit

Welcome to the community, the jello is good here.

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leadpoem@reddit

3w damn I want a 3w cell phone. I don't need my brains

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DigEnvironmental7490@reddit

The way they were allowed to do that was that the antenna was mounted away from the person. On the bag phones it was in the big bag that held all the electronics and battery. On these car phones it was mounted externally on the roof or on one of the mirrors.

3W right next to your head would have probably been quite interesting. Maybe it'd warm you up on a cold winter's day.

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leadpoem@reddit

Oh I was young but still remember then. I like the idea of a dual use phone. Calls and warmth.

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Immediate_Regular@reddit

I really, really want a car phone like this that works. Maybe I could gut a dumb phone and stick the viscera into one of these old car phones.

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DigEnvironmental7490@reddit

I have an old Motorola Dynatac brick phone at home. I've often thought of turning into a bluetooth device to make calls using my regular phone but with the dialing and audio routed through the brick phone.

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Farmerstubble@reddit

They were great!

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Back_woods_Boss@reddit

I had one and roaming charges were crazy. Had several 1k bills.

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Steelers_Knicks@reddit

That truck looks like the military 916

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1Stack_Mack@reddit

The only 916s I remember were freightliner. You must have been Air Force if you had Peterbilt 🤣

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Steelers_Knicks@reddit

Bro Idk what they use on fort irwin, they are so old Lol

Its hard finding the correct key for the ignition

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Ragnar-DK@reddit

Im getting to old

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1Stack_Mack@reddit

That brings back memories! And my 1st personal phone was a bag phone I bought from Radio Shack in 1991. I wish I would have kept that as a conversation piece

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SeaRow556@reddit

Yes my fathers Mercedes i mean the Mercedes my father bought my mom had something like this, as well as his personal vehicle i forgot the model and make but regardless he had a phone system tied into his vehicles before cellphones were mainstream.

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HowlingWolven@reddit

Damn bro, a blow lock in the truck? 💀

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2dollahollaballa@reddit

My boss had one of those in his Mercedes in 1990

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TurdFerguson7597@reddit

I had my first phone with cellular one. I had service then in places I can’t get it now.

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navlgazer9@reddit

Yeah they would reach over 50 miles to a tower .

When I first got one and went to visit a friend in the Appalachian mountains I noticed it had a signal in his driveway . He worked for the county and knew there were no towers anywhere in that county or any surrounding counties , So we used it to call 911 and see what county answered , It was 50 miles away on the other side of a mountain .

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Spare-Good-5372@reddit

Boss had one in his personal truck years ago, but it wasn't installed as nice as this. Just a bag phone sitting in his console.

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MulberryMonk@reddit

I remember my parents back in the 90s had one. It was so fun to play with.

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El_Intoxicado@reddit

It seems taken straight from Sonny Crockett's Ferrari of Miami Vice 😂

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gizzmo1963@reddit

Bedtime damn phone i ever had. Which still had.

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navlgazer9@reddit

Oh yeah

Bag phone .

Carried mine around like a man purse . Cause I got paid for signing up to be on call on thw weekends , and dispatch would call three times Saturday and three times Sunday, and if you didn’t answer all three times you didn’t get the $125 per day for being on call .

They put out three watts , a modern smartphone puts out one third of a watt .

So the bag phones had nearly 10 times the distance of a modern one .

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DCHammer69@reddit

Almost guaranteed that’s a 3G phone meaning it’s useless in many places and will be useless everywhere soon.

Most telcos are actively decommissioning their 3G networks.

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