3 watt AMPS phones are incredibly useful. It's all about bandwidth,
transmit power, and a decent antenna.

I'm saddened to hear the AMPS service is going to be discontinued, as I
have been running a 3watt bagphone 24/7 through a 4 foot Shakespeare
external antenna (3 or 6 db gain?) mounted on the sternrail of my boat
since 1991, using ship's 12v power, as my "home" phone. It's worked
great, haven't had a dropped call or "butt-in" ever, and have gotten
service up to 25 miles off the coast. Analog doesn't "click off"; if
the signal gets marginal, there's just more hash and static, like an AM
radio. Also don't have trouble with "grabby" Mexican networks here in
Southern California, which will "steal" your signal in mixed waters
near the border, and make a digital phone useless. Guess they're
digital only.

A few years back I discovered the NAM module in my Technophone is in
the handset, not the aluminum transciever box, so I bought two more
"antique" Technophones on EBay for $20, keep them in my cars as 911
devices, and switch the handset for my "live" one on long trips, to
stay in touch. They use old "brick" camcorder batteries, so that's not
been a problem. I'm into desert exploring, and with an 8 inch(?)
rubber ducky antenna, using a Jeep hood as a counterpoise, have been
able to punch out to towers when the pocket cellphone folks can't get a
signal at all. Once made a (marginally intelligible) call from a
remote mountaintop where the nearest tower was over 40 miles away (but
line-of-sight), technically impossible using digital.

The other posters here are right about not being able to sign up a new
AMPS phone; I chatted with my service about changing plans, and they
said thay haven't accepted new analog subscribers for years, don't know
anybody who does. I'm still with them paying a premium price (about
$60/month, with no minutes, 100% roam surcharge because I moved out of
my home range years ago) only because I'm now their oldest continuous
subscriber and a legacy. I signed with them when they were literally a
mom and pop startup in Woodland Hills, now they're a major SoCal
player.

I haven't figured out what to do come March 2008, maybe go Iridium or
Globalstar, although running one 24/7 standby might be a problem, and
I've heard from users the service is less than stellar. Maybe
something better will come along by then.