Motorola Star Tac

[Jim1348]

Can anyone refer me to a good forum to learn about a Motorola Star Tac phone? The reason I ask is that I have an old Motorola phone just for 911 when I am out of Nextel coverage area. When I first got it a few years ago I check first with our local PSAP, tried it, and it worked fine for 911 without a subscription. When I tested it recently it did not complete the call and it displayed "SYSTEM BUSY" I tried another check with it and it shows "SCAN B", so I assume that means it is old fashioned analog AMPS SYSTEM B. A friend of mine was here earlier and he tried his skills, but could not get it to switch to SYSTEM A. He was pretty confident that there are no longer any AMPS towers in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul MN area on SYSTEM B and that unless I can switch it to SYSTEM A, it is no longer any good to me. I have Googled and I know that there are other webpages out there about phones, but I look to the forum members here for a referral to a good comprehensive webpage for something like this.

[MTS2000des]

FWIW Cingular (now at&t) is shutting off AMPS in most of it's markets by the end of this year, they've already gone to charging AMPS or TDMA (IS-136) customers 9.99 a month maintenance "fee" for not switching to GSM, and they intend to also shut off the TDMA digital when they sunset AMPS. Verizon OTOH has maintained AMPS on it's legacy sites in cellular markets (IIRC Minneapolis Verizon is on the PCS band) only to fulfill their contract with OnStar. 2008 is the year AMPS is no longer REQUIRED by cellular carriers to provide service. You should have two carriers, most likely Alltel or US Cellular, still providing AMPS service.

Keep in mind that the AMPS operators only keep enough sites live for MOBILE (3 watt) coverage in their markets as that is all they need to do to service the few remaining users on the band, and OnStar devices. It is possible that you may just be too far from the cell site with an AMPS base station for your little Star Tac with it's 600mw and flimsy antenna to access the system.

If you want to keep a celphone with no service for emergency calls, I suggest getting an old CDMA phone like the CDMA Star-Tac or V60. The US CDMA carriers have alot of rural area covered, and you can always call 911 on them for free. AMPS will still be in some remote areas, but the two biggest carriers in America (at&t and Verizon) are wanting to put it to death very soon.

[N4KVE]

Go to a pawn shop & get a GSM phone for $10. No sim needed to call 911. GARY N4KVE

[kf4sqb]

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