If I try to make a call on an old analog cellphone, will i be able to hear it on scan

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I have a bunch of analog cellphones. when i try to make a call there is just dead air.. Even 911... There are no analog cell towers around so I was thinking is it posible if i were to build a analog repeater and set the input and output frequencys to the requencys on the cellphone, can i use them as 2 way raduios? or can i hear them on a scanner? anything...?

Just exparementing with these old devices. there just sitting around doing nothing
 

majoco

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Probably not. The cellphone would spend a little while trying to find a cell tower to speak to and log on to the network, obviously it would fail and give you the message that you were out of range or something. Every so often it would wake up and try again - and fail of course. There are charities that will take old cellphones to reclaim the metals and batteries.
 

WAScanMan

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I have a bunch of analog cellphones. when i try to make a call there is just dead air.. Even 911... There are no analog cell towers around so I was thinking is it posible if i were to build a analog repeater and set the input and output frequencys to the requencys on the cellphone, can i use them as 2 way raduios? or can i hear them on a scanner? anything...?

Just exparementing with these old devices. there just sitting around doing nothing

It seems like with the right equipment/money it might be do-able. It was done with GSM phones at this years DEFCON, Researcher Intercepts GSM Cell Phones During Defcon Demo - Dark Reading
 
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Yes i wanted to make the phone find my station and i can use my own network... how does the phone know that it is connected to the tower? do the tower send out tones or somthing? and how would i make a "homemade basestation" for analog phones?
 

mancow

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Google motorola bible.

Also, nothing is that simple. AMPS systems used a setup similar to trunking. The phone sat on the control channel and waitress for commands. Sub audible signalling was used as well. You might be able to simulate a site with an IFR1900 or HP8924 or something but it's hardly going to be worth the tune and cost.
 

wlmr

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I expect those old analog phones aren't capable of any frequencies other than the ones that the cellular companies have now converted over to digital. Between the interference the live systems likely would cause to any set-up you might rig together and the interference you likely would cause to them, at the very least I suspect it wouldn't work well for you because of all their cellular RF and at the very worst you would get visited by cellular representatives carrying interference direction finding equipment who have the FCC's phone number on speed dial.

Also, there was a lot more signalling back and forth between the cell system and your analog phone than simply programming a frequency and trying to use it as a repeater.
 

mancow

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We used to do that back in the day. You could jumper a couple of pins on the DB25 and get it into test mode. From there you could pick a channel and vary the power output. You could hear whatever conversation was on that frequency as well.
 

WayneH

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Yes i wanted to make the phone find my station and i can use my own network... how does the phone know that it is connected to the tower? do the tower send out tones or somthing? and how would i make a "homemade basestation" for analog phones?
Simulating a base station within your house would be okay but getting any kind of range out of it will result in (illegal) interference to whichever carrier is licensed to the channel you use. I would suggest finding an AT&T channel since no one will know the difference in service. :lol:

I generally do RDF once a year for work because of faulty BDA's, crappy RadioShack TV amps, etc. It's a PITA. Hams may find it fun but I have better things I could be doing.
 
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