miso@sushi.com wrote:

I know of but have never seen the VHF phones in the flesh or come to
think of it, even in photographs. I'd have to research the
frequencies. I recall the idle channel had a tone on it.

These were simple moto bricks. Looked just like VHF
hi band or 2m ham (of the day). Freq was ~150 something.

...I don't recall any cell phones that looked like mobile
radios...

The PRC-6 I'm referring to are the old "Walkie Talkie"
low band VHF things used circa WWII and maybe even up
into Nam. The entire radio, or in this case cellphone,
was built into a big "bananna" shape chassis. Earpiece
near your ear, mouthpiece near your mouth, like an old
black, ma bell bakelite phone. But big and squared off.

Here's a similar style early cellphone -
http://i11.ebayimg.com/01/i/03/b5/18/ae_1.JPG

Going back further to the 70's...I knew people with
"Mobile Phones" in their cars. Looked like a regular
Western Electric Model 500 without a dial. The user
picked up the receiver and gave the number to the
operator. The operator was the same, universally
reachable operator you would get by dialing "0"
from any phone. The phone books in those days
listed, in the front few pages, "To contact
ships at sea or mobile phones, dial '0' ".


Lumpy
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