Posted: 5/29/2007 8:35:30 AM EDT
A cell phone survival forum story. Most people I know plan on using their cell phones following a disaster like an earthquake, tornado, or hurricane. Most of us here understand such things but reliance on public telephone system isn't always the best bet. I most highly suggest amateur radio as a solution and getting the beginning license. "Technician" isn't that hard and it gives you access to the most common point-to-point bands with silly plenty amount of power. 
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This actually almost cost me my life once. A few years back a tornado hit the area with its path terribly close to my home. Land lines and cell phones were totally useless due to down lines and over loads. I desparately wanted to make sure my familly was in the below ground level of our home but had no way to insure this. I jumped in my car and fought the traffic as apparently others had the same idea. The torando passed within a couple hundred yards of my car (about a mile from my house). It took a large tree down that not only flattened the pickup in front of my car but took the power lines with it throwing sparks all around the truck. I helped the two people in the truck get out through their back window by pulling on them while the sparks flew around us. Bought a weather alert radio after that. Tj |
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Cell phone companies are not considered utilities so they don't have the same stringent rules as a traditional land line company. Standard local switching offices by law must have battery backup for a minimum of 3 days without power, and they have the bandwidth to handle a tremendous amount of calls. Most cell sites have very little power backup capacity, and the limited bandwidth caps the call handling ability at a much smaller level. |
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As a sidenote. If you get verizon Fios (fiber) they cut your landline and runs it through the fiber as well. However, since it doesn't carry power it runs off your house's electrical system. They include a battery backup in their box but it is only good for 4-8 hours. -Foxxz |
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I incorporate cellphones into my communications plans, as well as amateur radio, a landline phone, GMRS, and a CB radio, which I rarely use. My landline phone has been very reliable, although 911 can be easily overloaded. I once had to dial the operator during a sudden snowstorm to report a motor vehicle accident because 911 was at capacity and would ring with no answer. |
This is worth repeating. During Katrina, text messages got through under conditions where voice calls were out of service for days. Not only do text messages take up just a miniscule fraction of the bandwidth of voice calls, but they are persistent: The cell network will continue to attempt to deliver a text message over a period of hours - or even days - until it is successfully received. If you don't know how to use text messaging, I would strongly suggest some practice before you actually need it. (You don't have to actually send your test messages - just practice the process of composing and reading them until you are familiar with it.) |
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Guys, I work for a cellphone company as a cell tech. Heres the deal.....all cell tower rely on three things and any one of the three can mess you up during a disaster. #1 power.....verizon and cingular have this covered with permanant gennies at all their sites. Altel a big chunk but not all #2 land lines. All cell traffic is pulled outta the air and put on a land line back to the cell carrier switch. loose the land line and your not talking. This actually is the biggest problem we have. the cell equipment is fairly reliable. the idiot with a backhoe that cuts the cables is a real problem. #3 Switch. all towers may survive but if you loose the switch you are dead. Cell phones are great......they pay my bills but they are not a sat phone.....many things to break.....sat phones are great but they have their limitations too. (ive seen a thick cloud knock down a 60 ft across sat station (90 db of gain if I recall correct) so itll really screw with a sat phone. All comm sytems have flaws..... REDUNDANCY is the key......Cell+ham+CB+landline.....wokin on ham now myself |
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| Of the sites ive seen in north and south carolina 95% diesel.......5% propane/natural gas........up north its probably flipped the other way......havent seen any sites up there but have talked to a few techs and they told me they used propane powered gennies due to diesel geling |
I thought everyone learned this lesson when TWA flight 800 was shot down, and all the infobabes couldn't make their reports via... wait for it... cell phone  When I was active with the Milwaukee Repeater Club (146.91-), we had a speaker who told us that the cell network at the time was only designed for a 15% work load (that is to say, a total of 15% of subscribers could use it) and at something like 30% work load, the system would tank. Oops! 
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My DH works for the deathstar, and in May 2003, when Stockton MO got flattened by an F3/F4 storm, he drove down & provided emergency comms (ham tech) for a day until Alltel got a NEW tower set up in Stockton. The main cell towers were all destroyed there, as was the Stockton SWBell Central Office. The CO's genny was still there, but the CO was GONE! I imagine much the same happened in Greensburg. No remaining landlines that worked in town because the wires on poles were all down. No CO to route stuff through. No cell towers in the area survived I expect. |
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Even during the Rita Evacuation from Houston, a lot of people were having problems with their cell phones. The cell system was pretty well saturated. I'm told that texting did work. My family got our money's worth out of FRS that day. Since then I've picked up some additional FRS/GMRS sets. |
With the next gen of technology its not as bad as analog/tdma was.....but still another 911 and there will be lots of fast busys....... |
the UMTS system is supposed to double the current capacities. Matter of fact cingular just upgraded thier entire system(antenna/transmitters) |
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My son and I try to use our amatuer and GMRS (repeater) radios on a daily basis to remain familiar with them. We do have cell phones for the usual comms too. One may not need major pieces of comm gear, but try going without cell phones for a Saturday and you will find out how much you might need. The "Lone Wolfs" will need less than people with family. RS |
Yah they have been building like crazy........problem is ask anyone if they have a UMTS phone.......they are useing it for data at the moment as their arent many phones on the market. The more data they sell the less capacity for calls.....I dont know much about it yet but wanna learn badly......us little guys cant last forever slugging it out with king kong......wanna be up on the competitors systems when it comes time to look for new work |