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April 3rd marks the 50th Anniversary of the first Mobile Phone call made on a Motorola hand held phone.
And haven't they grown in reach in 50 years.

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April 3rd marks the 50th Anniversary of the first Mobile Phone call made on a Motorola hand held phone.
And haven't they grown in reach in 50 years.

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I well remember the early phones, more like the black table top/desk type that were cumbersome and not that flash in picking up a signal.
Chalk and cheese comparision with today's types.
 
Way back when they were the size of a brick and needed the car battery for power; in the 90s, a realtor acquaintance closed a house sale by letting the buyer phone his wife.
"I'm calling on a mobile phone!"

They were an expensive novelty.
 
Way back when they were the size of a brick and needed the car battery for power; in the 90s, a realtor acquaintance closed a house sale by letting the buyer phone his wife.
"I'm calling on a mobile phone!"

They were an expensive novelty.
It was like carrying a handbag around back then.
 
It's a worldwide experiment on the human race. Not sure it's going that well.
Mr Knobby mobile phones are definitely part of the furniture these days. I doubt people a bit younger than me would not know how to live without one.
I still can remember morse and smoke signals if need be.
Failing that a written letter via AusPost, be lucky to have it deivered though.
 
From SMH on the 40th anniversary:

Australia's first mobile phone system began in Melbourne in August 1981 with the first call made between Telecom executives. But the system was limited to a $5000 car phone that weighed 14 kilograms, could store just 16 numbers and alerted owners of an incoming call by honking the horn or flashing its headlights.

Geez, I wonder how many of those "boat anchors" are still around?

I was using two pagers back in the day but what an awesome piece of kit the mobile phone was and is.

Apart from seeing those "brick" phone on TV and in the movies, my first experience was in the late '80's actually being with, seeing and hearing the builder use his on top of a five storey building in Kent St, Sydney.

We were troubleshooting rain ingress and finding flashing that was rusted through, needed to order prefabbed flashing for ASAP pickup.
I so wanted this luxury item but the cost was a killer and seeing how tech was advancing at pace, glad I held off.
One of my best judgement calls as by early '91 I had made my way back to the bush and was gifted a CDMA Hyundai mobile.

Limited range out here of course, much the same now and the boffins are still talking about having mobile access all the way to Adelaide and 5G no less.
Ah, one day eh!

Still, if there is one item that is ubiquitous around the globe and a symbol of the modern homo sapien, it'd have to be the mobile phone.
 
5G across the country. That's what dreams are made of!!!!!
Crickey 40 k's East of Perth and numerous spots of NO service at all.
I know! Ridiculous right?
Well not really as am guessing that if we had a much bigger population filling up this great land of ours, the situation would be different.

FWIW.
Via the business, currently we have two sat phones permanently hired out. Another two on short term hire.
Also, we're having the RFDS TV series being filmed out here and they've bought all our sat phone in car kits.

At PPR, where I can see the very new Telstra tower from the back room I get 4G but out the front I get 5G. However even though a lot further away, I can see the other tower from the front and from the driveway, I can see both towers. Go figure.
 
5G across the country. That's what dreams are made of!!!!!
Crickey 40 k's East of Perth and numerous spots of NO service at all.
Man, I'm 8 minutes from Midland (unfortunately) and I still have to stand on a pile of books, one one leg and a finger in my ear, to get a signal... and even then, that only works in the laundry room.
 
Man, I'm 8 minutes from Midland (unfortunately) and I still have to stand on a pile of books, one one leg and a finger in my ear, to get a signal... and even then, that only works in the laundry room.
Ah Wayne try putting your phon up against a red gum branch with green leaves, seems to work for me at the other fsrm on the edge of the scarp. useless for a signal there sometimes.
 
For those that were unaware, Thursday is World Cannabis Day.
From Cannactiva
World Marijuana Day, also known as “20,” is celebrated on April 420. This date has become a symbolic day for cannabis enthusiasts around the world, who come together to celebrate the plant and its culture. But where does this tradition come from and why is it celebrated on April 20? I explain the origin of 420, its meaning and how it has become the day of the defenders of the legalization and decriminalization of cannabis.

What does the number 420 mean?​

For those outside of the cannabis world, "420" passes as just another number, which perhaps means nothing in itself. It could indicate anything: a weight, a price, a street address, a shift number in the bank's waiting room. Indeed, there is no number that does not have meaning: by definition, it is a sign that always represents something.

But here, in this cannabis brotherhood, we all know what 420 represents. Smoke, sweet smell, a leaf with five or seven points, a sticky flower, a joint going around in a circle of friends.

The origin of 420 dates back to the 1970s in California, United States, where a group of young high school students from San Rafael High School would meet at 4:20 pm to smoke marijuana.

Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffrey Noel, Larry Schwartz and Mark Gravich, a quintet that in their early youth called themselves the Waldos, are the only ones who can show physical evidence that they had something to do with the birth and heyday of 420.

According to the story they have told over the past two decades, it all started one autumn day in 1971, harvest time, when the Waldos learned that a Coast Guardsman from the Point Reyes peninsula could no longer care for their (illegal) cultivation of marijuana plants.

As if it were treasure huntIt was said that the Coast Guard agent himself had made a map so that whoever wanted to could get there. Somehow, that got through to the Waldos, who decided to go after the plant loot.
Not a smoker myself, but for those who are, happy Hooch Day for Thursday.
Mick
 
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