Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!NADC.ARPA!prindle From: prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Continuously ringing telephone (on VHF) Message-ID: <8805111234.AA29347@NADC.ARPA> Date: 11 May 88 12:34:09 GMT Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 17 Approved: telecom@xx.lcs.mit.edu Ten or eleven channels on VHF would appear to be the old (pre-cellular days) mobile phone system. I ran into this many years ago with a home-brew VHF set (vacuum tubes no less!). If you would call a mobile number (they all had the same exchange), the call would be signalled out through the lowest unused channel (presumably the remote was scanning or listening on the lowest unoccupied channel too). Because so few channels were available, and had to cover a very large area (i.e. all of Philadelphia and it's suburbs), subscribers had to be severely limited and prices per unit of time were very high. The land-line signal was very strong because of the wide area coverage required. I've wondered what became of this service now that cellular is the standard. The constant ringing sounds like a remote tried to place a call to a land-line and it never answered; perhaps this is just a test signal generated by the mobile-phone company so the FCC won't take away their license or reassign those channels; perhaps they still have some customers? Frank Prindle Prindle@NADC.arpa