Verizon Bag Phone

[Swede]

Does anyone with Verizon cell phone service have, or use a bag phone? Does it improve your reception and if so how much? I had an analog bag phone years ago and the coverage was much better than I get today. What other options, besides a satellite phone, are available?

[ctdad]

I didn't know bag phones were still around. A friend of mine has a cell phone signal booster in his truck and it helps quite a bit in areas with marginal service. Not portable though

[Swede]

The bag phones are still advertised on the internet. You will pay about $500 for one. I just don't know how much if any improvement a person would get. Apparently there are not many that have one.

[>>>---WW---->]

Gee Swede! I thought those things went out with the dinosaurs. You're really telling your age now!

[Swede]

WW: If a bag phone was good enough for Joshua and the spies to use for their communications, when the spies were checking out Jericho, It is good enough for me.

[Z Barebow]

Don't waste your money. As I remember, the bag phones were analog phones and the carriers no long use analog infrastructure (In a nutshell, bag phones are now museum pieces).

The best suggestion I can give is buy a vehicle kit from Wilson. Depending upon your phone and carrier, they have different adapters and systems. The key with any enhancement system is to have a fixed/external antenna. (The rubber duckie antenna or the ability to connect to an outside antenna is one of the reasons why bag phones did so well, performance wise) Wilson also makes home based systems, if you have problems in your house.

With modern phones, in an effort to make them smaller, the antennas have been "compromised". In an ideal world, the antennas would be much longer. With the additional tower density, carriers can get away with the compromise. But when in "God's Country", tower density isn't there. (There are additional things which affect modern cell phone performance, but I won't bore the forum)

I can go on, but I will stop unless additional questions come up (Communications is my job)

Don't worry Swede. I personally have never owned a cell phone. They have always been provided through work. I finally got a phone with a camera ~ 9 months ago. My teenage girls had better phones than I did.

[Swede]

Thanks guy for the info. I now remember an old adage I just made up for this occasion: When in doubt it is a good idea to save your money. If you have no doubts, it is probable that you have not looked into the matter enough.