On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:48:15 -0400, HK wrote:


You used only 200 minutes over an entire year?

Crikey.

We go through about 700 minutes a month...of course there are four of us
on the family plan, one is a teenager still in high school and another
is a college student. They talk a lot, but they IM even more. Thank
goodness IM's are free. Even better, *I* don't IM. At all. Hate it.

How it worked was first year got about 1200 minutes off the bat for
about $160 which included a Motorola flip phone still in use.
There was a 200 min bonus deal.
Second year I did $100 which gave us a total of 1600 mins because we
still had 600 left. You don't lose old minutes if you re-up.
Last year still has 800 left.
So we use about 600 a year - most talking to the kids when we're on
vacation.
They all have different stuff, including U.S Cellular and T-Mobile
family plan - my daughter and her best friend.
Some of my kids have the T-Mobile family with my ex.
The thing about the T-Mobile is there are no roaming charges.
One son - the proverbial yakker - has a US Cellular that runs $60-80
month and just showed up this morning back from Tennessee unannounced
because the roaming charges are so high.
Forget to give him *MY* T-Mobile prepaid that the wife gave me for my
birthday and I have never used and usually forget to carry.
Waste of money.
No, I don't like cell phones. Can't see the buttons.
But they are nice to have for the road so we have them.

--Vic

Vic Smith wrote:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:48:15 -0400, HK wrote:


You used only 200 minutes over an entire year?

Crikey.

We go through about 700 minutes a month...of course there are four of us
on the family plan, one is a teenager still in high school and another
is a college student. They talk a lot, but they IM even more. Thank
goodness IM's are free. Even better, *I* don't IM. At all. Hate it.

How it worked was first year got about 1200 minutes off the bat for
about $160 which included a Motorola flip phone still in use.
There was a 200 min bonus deal.
Second year I did $100 which gave us a total of 1600 mins because we
still had 600 left. You don't lose old minutes if you re-up.
Last year still has 800 left.
So we use about 600 a year - most talking to the kids when we're on
vacation.
They all have different stuff, including U.S Cellular and T-Mobile
family plan - my daughter and her best friend.
Some of my kids have the T-Mobile family with my ex.
The thing about the T-Mobile is there are no roaming charges.
One son - the proverbial yakker - has a US Cellular that runs $60-80
month and just showed up this morning back from Tennessee unannounced
because the roaming charges are so high.
Forget to give him *MY* T-Mobile prepaid that the wife gave me for my
birthday and I have never used and usually forget to carry.
Waste of money.
No, I don't like cell phones. Can't see the buttons.
But they are nice to have for the road so we have them.

--Vic


I don't like them much either when they ring. But I like the convenience
of having a phone when I want it and where I want it so I can dial out.
I use mine a lot when out fishing...it's a much better way than VHF
radio to reach the "captains" of other boats to hear them lie about the
fish they are catching where they are. Out on the Bay these days, cell
coverage is damned good if you are out a bit from the cliffs and woods
on the western shore.

wrote:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:26:32 -0400, HK wrote:

I use mine a lot when out fishing...it's a much better way than VHF
radio to reach the "captains" of other boats to hear them lie about the
fish they are catching where they are. Out on the Bay these days, cell
coverage is damned good if you are out a bit from the cliffs and woods
on the western shore.

With a 3 watt analog phone and a good marine antenna cell coverage is
better in Florida Bay than VHF. When my buddy was making that limp
home from Marathon to Pine Island (the bent prop shaft thread) he
never lost cell signal but his VHF was useless



Probably because there is such demand for cell service, there are towers
almost everywhere you'd want in and around "leisure" venues. There's
virtually no service at the marina I use...it is down at the base of a
large hill along the bay, and according to the proprietor, no cell he
has tried gets much service.

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:43:50 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:26:32 -0400, HK wrote:

I use mine a lot when out fishing...it's a much better way than VHF
radio to reach the "captains" of other boats to hear them lie about the
fish they are catching where they are. Out on the Bay these days, cell
coverage is damned good if you are out a bit from the cliffs and woods
on the western shore.

With a 3 watt analog phone and a good marine antenna cell coverage is
better in Florida Bay than VHF. When my buddy was making that limp
home from Marathon to Pine Island (the bent prop shaft thread) he
never lost cell signal but his VHF was useless

Luckily, Baltimore has a tremendous Coast Guard station that reaches any
are of the Chesapeake Bay I've been in. I've been able to reach them also,
in the one instance I needed to.

TowBoatUS monitors the Bay pretty well also.

On Jul 5, 4:59*pm, John H. wrote:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:43:50 -0400, wrote:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:26:32 -0400, HK wrote:

I use mine a lot when out fishing...it's a much better way than VHF
radio to reach the "captains" of other boats to hear them lie about the
fish they are catching where they are. Out on the Bay these days, cell
coverage is damned good if you are out a bit from the cliffs and woods
on the western shore.

With a 3 watt analog phone and a good marine antenna cell coverage is
better in Florida Bay than VHF. When my buddy was making that limp
home from Marathon to Pine Island (the bent prop shaft thread) he
never lost cell signal but his VHF was useless

Luckily, Baltimore has a tremendous Coast Guard station that reaches any
are of the Chesapeake Bay I've been in. I've been able to reach them also,
in the one instance I needed to.

TowBoatUS monitors the Bay pretty well also.

Why do you need so many tows with that new boat of yours?

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:43:50 -0400, wrote:

With a 3 watt analog phone and a good marine antenna cell coverage is
better in Florida Bay than VHF. When my buddy was making that limp
home from Marathon to Pine Island (the bent prop shaft thread) he
never lost cell signal but his VHF was useless

This was about twelve years ago back when our rural 911 system was
still in it's infancy. The Fire/Rescue services all chipped in and
set up the system and used volunteer operators until the towns chipped
in to hire dispatchers until the state could get it's act together.

I was on a midnight shift when I got a cell phone call off the Pomfret
cell tower. The call was from a boater in Long Island Sound off The
Dumplings near The Race - his boat was dead in the water, had no
power, battery had run out and couldn't use his VHF.

Took me a minute to figure out what happened - atmospheric ducting
took the signal and the first tower that was in the duct grabbed the
signal. :)

I transferred the call to CG New London and they took it from there.
Called me back a couple of hours later - they found the boat,
everything was fine.

I've often wondered what would have happened if somebody not familiar
with the physics of radio might have been on duty that night.

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:22:09 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:48:15 -0400, HK wrote:


You used only 200 minutes over an entire year?

Crikey.

We go through about 700 minutes a month...of course there are four of us
on the family plan, one is a teenager still in high school and another
is a college student. They talk a lot, but they IM even more. Thank
goodness IM's are free. Even better, *I* don't IM. At all. Hate it.

How it worked was first year got about 1200 minutes off the bat for
about $160 which included a Motorola flip phone still in use.
There was a 200 min bonus deal.
Second year I did $100 which gave us a total of 1600 mins because we
still had 600 left. You don't lose old minutes if you re-up.
Last year still has 800 left.
So we use about 600 a year - most talking to the kids when we're on
vacation.
They all have different stuff, including U.S Cellular and T-Mobile
family plan - my daughter and her best friend.
Some of my kids have the T-Mobile family with my ex.
The thing about the T-Mobile is there are no roaming charges.
One son - the proverbial yakker - has a US Cellular that runs $60-80
month and just showed up this morning back from Tennessee unannounced
because the roaming charges are so high.
Forget to give him *MY* T-Mobile prepaid that the wife gave me for my
birthday and I have never used and usually forget to carry.
Waste of money.
No, I don't like cell phones. Can't see the buttons.
But they are nice to have for the road so we have them.

--Vic

So far, from what I've seen, T-Mobile seems to be about what I'm looking
for. Thanks.