In article , The Captains
Master wrote:

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 09:54:14 +1000, Peter Wiley
wrote:

I have a cellphone with extensible external antenna too. It's a CDMA
rig with a lot more range than the useless outside metropolitan areas
GSM phones.

Ahh Tasmania..... :-)

Yep. GSM is useless. It's useless in most of NSW too, geographically.
In fact it's useless in most of Australia. The ads give coverage by
percentage of population, not geographical area.

CDMA works 40 nautical miles out to sea off southern Tasmania to my
certain knowledge. GSM doesn't. Fine for high density areas like
cities, not elsewhere.

I liked the old AMPS system. We used to have an antenna on the mast
that could pull in a signal from 80 nm to sea, and a 3 watt Motorola
rig that could punch that far. Was great for coming home, saved a
fortune on INMARSAT calls to the spouses telling them when to be down
at the wharf and to kick whoever was in their bed, out again.

Must buy an Iridium handset one of these days. We have a few at work
and they work quite well.

PDW