"Courtney Thomas" wrote in
nk.net:

It's an NEC B3800 Series (832 CH) and the Owner's Manual describes it
as a cellular pack-phone. It's handset has buttons and the receiver
has an antenna about
8" long. It has a battery brick and cigarette lighter plugins.

Is this an 'analog' phone ? I didn't know an analog phone's receiver
had buttons. If it's not, does it have the virtues of the analog bag
phone anyway ?



Yes, they are all AMPS phones, back when every carrier used the same
interface system. Throw the battery brick in the recycle bin at Walmart.
You won't need it. Just plug it into the cigarette lighter of your car
and turn it on. After it has booted up and shows you the signal level,
dial 611[SEND] and see if it connects you to a cellphone company TSR
line.

This one went for $10 on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEC-B3800-SERIES-ANALOG-BAG-
PHONE_W0QQitemZ230023842726QQcmdZViewItem

If you leave the handset in the cradle, it'll be a speakerphone that will
wake the dead!...(c;

Fill out the email form on:
http://www.necwireless.com/contactus.asp
and ask them if they can email you a pdf owner's manual and/or service
manual so you can control the phone's control functions. What you want
the phone's access to be in is STD A/B or STD B/A, either one is fine.
In this mode, if it doesn't find the system it was originally setup for,
it will switch to the other of the two analog cellular systems,
automatically and make the calls. Unlike your little digital phones, the
companies had no control over WHO it would connect with. It will connect
with either system, anywhere in the country. If it is set on HOME, it
will not roam to another system. You don't want to leave it there. If
it is set to A only or B only, it will only roam to one system, not both.
STD A/B or STD B/A tries the home system first, then roams over to the
other system to make the call. That's where you want it...

Be informed, I am no longer allowed to call 611 on either Verizon
Wireless, the A carrier or Alltel, the B carrier from any analog phone in
Charleston. They will, of course by Federal law, still call 911, which
is the important number. I guess too many people with dead toyphones
were calling saying, "Can you put my good working ol' bagphone on the
air, again, so I can make calls in this DEAD ZONE?!" Cellphone companies
all have amnesia when you're in a dead spot....(c;


--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.