Cellular Phones And Settlements...

[MaxxSterling]

Hey, just thought I'd throw this out there... I work for a Major Cell company and I can tell you that most of our cell sites have battery back-ups and also generators stationed at them. So, if you wanted to steal a generator, that's a good place to hit. OR... If you were trying to establish short-range communications, if you got a cell site up and had a working cell, you should get about 5-15 miles worth of range, unfortunately digital range sucks compared to analog, but thought it might be useful info... Plus cell sites are usually fenced in, or at least locked up and generally off the road.

[J. Lionheart]

Interesting info there! Would a cell tower be able to properly route calls within that limited range, without additional resources? I'm not sure where in a cell network the switchboard functionality occurs. That could provide a great communications network for security in a particular survivors enclave.

As for the generators/power, is that generally solar, or is it more of a gas generator on standby system? Something like this could be a great resource for a survivor community that's in-the-know.

[MaxxSterling]

So long as the city or location of the "switch" has power, individual sites could be brought back online, even if they were in an area with no power. As far as the generators, they are gas. Good news is though, if the switch is still up and running, you could turn on sites probably within a 50 mile or more area and be able to have actual cell usage, depending on terrain and overlap in those areas... However, if you get the site running (A HUGE ASSUMPTION HERE) by just flipping the power back on and hoping nothing technical needs done, you are good to go, but if it does not work, you'll have to locate the "Switch," usually in a building somewhere within 50 miles or so, and if you can get power to that location and get the systems back on, then that would pretty sweet. -This would be more for a group that had already established a defensible position and now was looking to expand. -There is lot more to it than this however, it's a fantasy setting, so have fun with it. No more roaming charges? Thank you Zeds!!! Side note though, if you could capture a 911 dispatch center and then get the switch and sites online, ALL CELL PHONES can ALWAYS DIAL 911, so long as there's service and the phone works. So, even if nothing else works, have the Reapers call 911, have the Reaper operates use those calls to dispatch them, just like the Po-Po of today... Hey, if one persons group gives this a go, great. Even if the group isn't directly involved, maybe a community of survivors hatched this plan and need help to make it happen! Rewards are, cell phones work within say a 50-75 mile or more radius depending on how rural it is and how many cell sites they get back up within that area. If your group is staying put in an area, this is much easier than lugging a CB or Walkie around, plus you can text and send inappropriate pixs to friends! And that is stealthy baby!!! If they are ambitous and someone knows something about something... 911 can also track cells phones and triangulate positions if they really want to. Good luck, hope it helps.

[J. Lionheart]

Impressive.

Thanks for the info, and the reminder about 911 functionality. That would be a challenge to seize control of and defend the necessary resources, but it would be an impressive step-up in communications!

[azazel1024]

Good info to know. Other options are

CB radios with shorter antennas about around the same range, up around 5 miles, with a base station to a vehicle receiver more like 10 and up around 20 miles between base stations.

FRS/GMRS (think walkie talkies). FRS only has a range of about .5-1 mile in semi-open country with line of sight (IE no hills or really big buildings blocking the LOS). However, GMRS which is less common has a range of up to about 5 miles and can communicate with FRS on channels 1-7, though the FRS is going to be limited to being able to reply within that .5-1 mile range. A possible method for a small town to provide communications to its responders. The 'grunts/first responders' could carry a plain jane FRS walkie talkie and the dispatch could have a GMRS radio. Or, if you could find them everyone could have a GMRS radio, though they are much rarer then FRS (the typical current walkie talkie).

Of course since in DR we are now in a world with no gov't regulation, those FRS, GMRS and CB radios can be modified with abandon. You can modify them with linear amplifiers for more range (good luck finding any that will work properly with simply salvage to work with) or with external/better antennas for more range.

Its not great, but an option for short range homestead/town based communication. There is also always slavaged ham radios for long distance communications, though would be hard to shoe horn on to say, a motorcycle for communicating long distance back to your base.
-Matt

[jedi078]

What about the actual cell phones? Would service automatically be terminated if the bill is not paid? Also if the service providers network goes down then the phone will not be useful right?

[azazel1024]

Speaking of generators briefly, I don't really like the power usage or power production figures for electrical devices in the book. I don't have it handy, but I seem to recall a refridgerator pulls something like 4,000 watts in the book...yet the average fridge is powered off a single 120v 15 amp circuit...that means a maximum of 1,800 watts, and I know it actually pulls quite a bit less then that, even in a defrost cycle.

The generator outputs were also rather on the low side for the weights involved.

Same with a number of other devices.
-Matt

[asajosh]

With the right materials, think of the the awsome "tree house" you could build, substituting the tower for a tree! And the base would serve as a fenced in parking lot.