Thread: One for the fridgies

Originally Posted by V8Ian

No, my pager could also send very short messages.

Sort of like .... "Yer late. I'm waiting for my stuff. Got 10 guys standing around twiddl--------- ?"

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Before my first "mobile", which had a big leather case and shoulder strap, I had a new fangled pager.

I think I know what you mean. Can't think of the fancy Marketing name they gave it.

Not long after we moved here the local phone in the Village Phone Box (remember those?) was cactus & Telstra or whoever it was then brought out a portable phone as you describe for the usual customers to use.

I remember thinking "this has got to be the the dog's danglies & I recall thinking "this has got to be the best it can ever be" or thoughts to that effect. Little did I know what the next couple of years would hold.

Phone was in a case with a small External Antenna one end & a combination Hand-piece with press button Dial-er in the top.

In my box of discarded Mobiles (we all have one) I have a couple of phones aprox 2" high by 1.5" wide. with text & most functions.

****s of things to use due to their size but hey, it was Progress.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

No, my pager could also send very short messages.

Really,ours could only receive messages,or the early ones just beeped,and kept beeping every so often until a button was pushed to reset them.

At work,the pager would beep,then it was off to a pay phone,find a 5 cent piece and call the office.

Then not long after that we started getting two ways in the vans,although they used to run out of range once out of town,but we could talk from one van to another,as long as the vans were near each other,anywhere.Good for camping trips.

Although we couldn't talk to the office when past about Beenleigh,on the southside,for those that know the area,Toowoomba to the office was no problem at all.

Originally Posted by scarry

Really,ours could only receive messages,or the early ones just beeped,and kept beeping every so often until a button was pushed to reset them.

At work,the pager would beep,then it was off to a pay phone,find a 5 cent piece and call the office.

Then not long after that we started getting two ways in the vans,although they used to run out of range once out of town,but we could talk from one van to another,as long as the vans were near each other,anywhere.Good for camping trips.

Although we couldn't talk to the office when past about Beenleigh,on the southside,for those that know the area,Toowoomba to the office was no problem at all.

My first Pager was a Motorola, it just beeped annoyingly & you rang your registered #. Usually for nothing important & where would you find the myriad of Phone Boxes these days?

The crowd I worked for used Pye 2 ways. All 10watters but we had one 15 w that I could get through to as far out as the Tailem Bend Hospital if you knew where to park. About 60 miles line of sight.
We had a Remote Base Station not far from where I now live actually, on Mount Lofty as it happens, & that was connected to the Office by a pair of PMG Lines. 50 -60 mile range that had & over the sea to Kangaroo Island seafront @ Kingscote was another excellent Recieve/Transmit site. Clear as a bell recep. Well, you expect that over water.

I notice that tower is still there but not many can be using it these days as times move on.

Later on we swapped the Pyes for Philips T.M.C equipment. Solid state, much more compact & excellent performance Still used the Mt Lofty tower remote.

Our first ones were motorola as well,long skinny ones that clipped on the belt.

Even the later ones with messages were still Motorola.

The last one was a Motorola Jazz,nice and small.Only threw it out a few months ago.

Techs were always breaking them,the paging service mob charged us heaps of $$ to have them fixed.And it took a week to get it back
One day they told me who fixed them,it was a little Chinese guy that worked under his house,not far from our workshop.
From that day onwards,for cash, they were fixed very cheaply,while i waited

Originally Posted by scarry

Our first ones were motorola as well,long skinny ones that clipped on the belt.

Even the later ones with messages were still Motorola.

The last one was a Motorola Jazz,nice and small.Only threw it out a few months ago.

Techs were always breaking them,the paging service mob charged us heaps of $$ to have them fixed.And it took a week to get it back
One day they told me who fixed them,it was a little Chinese guy that worked under his house,not far from our workshop.
From that day onwards,for cash, they were fixed very cheaply,while i waited

Yep, long & Skinny (sounds like me in my younger days ) but the bloody things got caught up on timbers when working in roof spaces.

Thought I'd lost it once when working in an Insul-fibre insulated roof. One of us used the client's phone while I tried to track it in the roof & fortunately it hadn't disappeared into the stuff but was semi-visible on top.

Ah happy days.

Originally Posted by scarry

Our first ones were motorola as well,long skinny ones that clipped on the belt.

Even the later ones with messages were still Motorola.

The last one was a Motorola Jazz,nice and small.Only threw it out a few months ago.

Techs were always breaking them,the paging service mob charged us heaps of $$ to have them fixed.And it took a week to get it back
One day they told me who fixed them,it was a little Chinese guy that worked under his house,not far from our workshop.
From that day onwards,for cash, they were fixed very cheaply,while i waited

Next day, Motorola's Share price tumbled into oblivion.

I spent many half sleeping nights with one of these on my bedside table

MzE5OTc5NA.jpg

I was with a vet one night at the pub and he determined that these would fit in a schooner of beer, apparently it fell off his belt and landed in a puddle.

The we got a few of these issued, didn't do anything different but had a bigger text buffer I think

Dme_motorola.jpg


In about 2005 the bean counters decided that it was cheaper to go with text messages on our work mobiles that were Vodaphone network which had no coverage in Yass, that lasted about 3 months once they figured out they could no longer call us out and they switched to Telstra. I'm pretty sure the pager network was shut down in Canberra not long after.

Regards,
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