Analog cell still?

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Wretched

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Up on Manitoulin Island, picked up a bunch (6-10) of active cell channels between 420.000 and 421.000.

How in this day and age is Bell using analog signals in a range that any scanner could recieve?
 

unlisted

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Really? I was just up there last week and was not getting anything on close call..

Was it actual cell calls? Do you have the exact frequencies?
 

DaveH

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Those are rural radiotelephone links, to fixed residential phones
in remote locations where wired connections don't exist, usually
due to prohibitive cost. There may not be cellular service in some
places even now. The technology may be old but it apparently
still works.

I recall back in 1999, sitting atop McLean's Mountain picking up
all sorts of these across the UHF spectrum. I'll dig back to my notes
from that time. Really enjoyable trip, I'm more than due to go back.

Dave
 

Wretched

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They seemed like actual cell calls.
One was a guy using his month old Solo phone calling customer service, also heard someone call their voicemail. Some of the freq I can recall off the top of my head are 420.250, 420.3750, 420.400, 420.675.
They were not close call hits, just found them with a regular band search, very low power where I was, not even a bar for signal. I know actual phones don't use those freq, coming off a tower somehow though.
TAFL search shows Bell Aliant Region licensed these in the early 90's in Esponola and Little Current.
 
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mikewazowski

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Dave H. Is 100% correct.

They're remote cottage phones not cell phones and the phones actually do operate in the UHF band.
 

DaveH

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They seemed like actual cell calls.
One was a guy using his month old Solo phone calling customer service, also heard someone call their voicemail. Some of the freq I can recall off the top of my head are 420.250, 420.3750, 420.400, 420.675.
.

Some customers might have a box installed on their premises that provides a "nano-"
or "pico-cell" which allows them to use regular cellular handsets within a small radius,
maybe a few hundred feet. They could also use a regular cordless phone in place of
the old hardwired one.

Dave
 

DaveH

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There are no cellphones around 420MHz.

True, but if memory serves decades ago there was a mobile radiotelephone system out in
Alberta, which pre-dates AMPS (but might have been an early type of cell system),
using the 420/409MHz band.

Dave
 

kayn1n32008

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Looking at that cell site map I can say that Telus decommisioned their analog service in Alberta in about october-ish 2008 (The work truck had a Bell analog phone and it stopped working) I would be really suprised if there is any analog service in Canada except possibly Northwest Tel, as it was late 2001 early 2002 when they finally got digital service.
 

exkalibur

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Doesn't Northwest Tel still run the Autotel network in BC?
 

kayn1n32008

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Doesn't Northwest Tel still run the Autotel network in BC?

Northwest Tel only provides telephone, radiotelephone, and cellular service in northern BC, Yukon and North West Territory.

Autotel WAS provided by Telus in BC. Autotel service was decommisioned on March 31/09. I verified this by calling Telus about 10 minutes ago

Interestingly enough Telus still holds the licences for the Radiotelephone and Autotel pairs (I just did a search)
 
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