analog replaced?

I am getting a family member a Verizon cellphone, preferably slightly
old, from ebay. This family memeber lives the (rural and mostly
forest/farms) catskills/hudson valley, SID 00404. I checked all over
the area (20 miles) with my CDM-9500 and I can make calls everywhere
and I always got 1 or 2 bars, calls went through fine on digital. Never
once did I have to make a analog call. I am a little obsesed about
coverage. So my question is, should I bother getting my family memeber
a phone with AMPS? I looked on the verizon coverage map for the area
(zip 12428), I couldnt find any analog-only areas for atleast 30 miles.
Are there any times where a analog call will go through and a cdma call
wont, if every AMPS tower (I guess) has cdma equipment in the area?

A random but interesting fact is, in NYC a voice call wont even begin
under -101, and cuts out at -103 and had no bars. In the hudson valley,
I can make a call at -105 (2 bars) and can talk perfectly with no
distortion at -106 in a basement. I get -101 and 2-3 bars in heavy (120
years since last cleared) forest can again can make perfect calls. I
even made a call between my CDM-9500 and my XV6600 pda phone in the
forest, both sounded perfect. -106 is the lowest I can make the phone
go. Even in no signal zones (NYC subway), it reads -106. I am guessing
less enviromental noise.

Does verizon wireless have service where your family member lives. For
example, if a verizon phone is taken to my parents house, it will work
there (proved with my brother's phone), but you can not get verizon
service there. He was roaming. I mean there are no stores anywhere
around there that sell verizon phones. There is no signal from verizon
antenna sites there.
If you go to verizon wireless' web site and put in their zip code, it
says "We currently do not have service for zip code xxxxx."

That's interesting. So the question is whether Verizon would (or
should) permit you to open an account at an address where they have
no native service. Anyone have an answer?

Jerome Zelinske <jeromez1@earthlink.net> wrote in
news:a3Lfe.10782$BE3.6696@newsread2.news.pas.earth link.net:

> Does verizon wireless have service where your family member
> lives. For
> example, if a verizon phone is taken to my parents house, it will
work
> there (proved with my brother's phone), but you can not get verizon
> service there. He was roaming. I mean there are no stores
anywhere
> around there that sell verizon phones. There is no signal from
> verizon antenna sites there.
> If you go to verizon wireless' web site and put in their zip
> code, it
> says "We currently do not have service for zip code xxxxx."
>

Yes its officially there.

I'm obsessed about coverage too, otherwise I would have signed up with
Cingular - LOL.

What I'm curious about is this---when you can get a mint-condition
name-brand used tri-mode phone on eBay for
less than $25 (or even less), why would you give up analog voluntarily?

Even though your tests showed CDMA to be reliable there, some night in the
middle of a storm, the cowpoop may hit the fan, and the analog default MIGHT
be the only thing that gets through. Why not give them the capability?

Can't go wrong with a good old StarTac.....I keep a couple around just
because.

Dean
_________________________________________
<bulk88@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1115647887.975373.200800@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...
>I am getting a family member a Verizon cellphone, preferably slightly
> old, from ebay. This family memeber lives the (rural and mostly
> forest/farms) catskills/hudson valley, SID 00404. I checked all over
> the area (20 miles) with my CDM-9500 and I can make calls everywhere
> and I always got 1 or 2 bars, calls went through fine on digital. Never
> once did I have to make a analog call. I am a little obsesed about
> coverage. So my question is, should I bother getting my family memeber
> a phone with AMPS? I looked on the verizon coverage map for the area
> (zip 12428), I couldnt find any analog-only areas for atleast 30 miles.
> Are there any times where a analog call will go through and a cdma call
> wont, if every AMPS tower (I guess) has cdma equipment in the area?
>
> A random but interesting fact is, in NYC a voice call wont even begin
> under -101, and cuts out at -103 and had no bars. In the hudson valley,
> I can make a call at -105 (2 bars) and can talk perfectly with no
> distortion at -106 in a basement. I get -101 and 2-3 bars in heavy (120
> years since last cleared) forest can again can make perfect calls. I
> even made a call between my CDM-9500 and my XV6600 pda phone in the
> forest, both sounded perfect. -106 is the lowest I can make the phone
> go. Even in no signal zones (NYC subway), it reads -106. I am guessing
> less enviromental noise.
>

bulk88@hotmail.com wrote:

> A random but interesting fact is, in NYC a voice call wont even begin
> under -101, and cuts out at -103 and had no bars. In the hudson valley,
> I can make a call at -105 (2 bars) and can talk perfectly with no
> distortion at -106 in a basement.

First, the bars are never an accurate indicator.

Second, with CDMA, not even signal strength is an accurate indicator of
the probability of a call going through and sounding well. It's a
decent way of making an educated guess, but there are other factors
involved.

In particular, there is something in CDMA that other standards don't
have: a phenomenon known as the "noise floor." This is the limit where
a weak signal becomes indistinguishable from background noise. The
thing about CDMA is that all conversations are happening on pretty much
the same channel, over a broad spectrum. In simplistic terms, the cell
site and phone use a signal mask - a type of decryption key - to
separate the conversation they are involved in from all of the other
traffic on the channel. With that conversation singled out, all of the
other traffic on the channel looks like noise.

The drawback to this method of transmission is that the more
conversations you have on one cell, the more "noise" appears to compete
with each conversation. And so, the noise floor rises. The end result
is that a signal has to be strong enough to exceed the noise floor in
order for the call to go through.

This is why in NYC, you need a stronger signal to make a call, while out
in less populatied areas, you can make a call with a weaker signal.
Less traffic equals less noise.

While AMPS, TDMA and GSM don't really have this problem of a varying
noise floor, they can't quite load as many calls onto the same channel
as CDMA can, meaning their capacity is lower. So, it's a trade off: you
can either build out a CDMA network that covers the area in qeustion
well enough to pack in more people onto a network, or you can allow for
weaker signals but handle fewer calls.

On Verizon, Sprint and other CDMA networks, the absolute best way to
judge whether a call will go through is to check the EC/Io (pronounced
"eee see over eye not") value in the field test screen. This indicator
is kind of a signal to noise ratio, and indicates where that noise floor
is currently.


--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

I need a phone that is
A. not a toy phone, no 220mw CDMA 800 transmit power, I want 290mw or
higher
B. if transmit power is high I guess the manufacturer will put a good
recieve unit with good reciever sensitvity
C. Need extendable antenna (a lil gain never hurts)
D. must be able to do nationalaccess/1xrtt in a emergency
E. flip, i just like them

They won't. I think they should not.

> Are there any times where a analog call will go through and a cdma
call
> wont, if every AMPS tower (I guess) has cdma equipment in the area?

I have experienced times where CDMA channels were congested and the
call dropped to analog to go through. It was in NYC and Chicago, but
it probably won't happen in a rural area.

Analog has further range, depending on the handset model, so you could
be in a situation where there is no digital coverage because of
geographic limitations of the area.

Also, beware that some rural providers offer a digital standby signal,
to permit voice message alerts, SMS, etc, so you will see a D on your
phone when not using it. But when a call it actually made, it drops to
analog for the actual converation.

-MVL

On 19 May 2005 10:23:20 -0700, mvl_groups_user@yahoo.com wrote:
>I have experienced times where CDMA channels were congested and the
>call dropped to analog to go through. It was in NYC and Chicago, but
>it probably won't happen in a rural area.

That happened to me the other day along the New Jersey Turnpike.

>Analog has further range, depending on the handset model, so you could
>be in a situation where there is no digital coverage because of
>geographic limitations of the area.

Been there, done that, too.

--
Bob Scheurle | "There's nobody getting
njtbob@X-verizon-X.net | rich writing software."
Remove X's and dashes | -- Bill Gates, March 1980