Older guys - did you have a "bag phone" in the 80s?

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Older guys - did you have a "bag phone" in the 80s? (Page 1 of 4)

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:31:32 AM EST

Common, admit it. (I'm guessing many of the younger folks her have no f-ing idea what these were)

These were one predecessor to what might be considered as today's cell phones, and the poor man's way of having a car phone.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:35:05 AM EST

[#1]

Da fuck you callin OLD?

Yeah, had one, Motorola.

Hard mounted it in a pickup truck, with high gain verticle antenna on roof

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:35:12 AM EST

[#2]

Yes I did! Replaced by a "brick phone"!

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:35:47 AM EST

[#3]

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:36:09 AM EST

[#4]

I had a pager.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:36:32 AM EST

[#5]

im35 and had one

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:38:28 AM EST

[#6]

My dad grew up dirt poor so he always had to have the newest gadgets. Like that phone.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:46:40 AM EST

[#7]

Phones ringing dude.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:49:58 AM EST

[#8]

yup

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:51:03 AM EST

[#9]

I was just a little too young. I remember my parents having them, and hard mounted "car phones".

My first mobile phone was one of these, and I was picking high cotton at the time

:

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:52:25 AM EST

[#10]

I only remember doctors who were on call carrying those around. Anyone else had those brick phones and those were a rarity as well. Car phones seemed more common then. Pagers were all the rage then. I dated a girl who worked for Cellular One in the 90's and she gave me a pager. That thing was so fucking stupid and she was the only one who would ever page me on it. Sadly it was "lost" meaning I threw it out the window of my truck whilst driving over a bridge one day. I've always liked peace and quiet. I didn't really keep a cellphone around until 2004 when my then girlfriend gave me one as a part of a two for one deal Verizon gave her. Even then I took it grudgingly. To this day I still don't care for cell phones.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:52:54 AM EST

[#11]

Dang Skippy I did! Southern Bell local long distance (whatever the hell sense that makes) was 17 cents a minute. Weekends free on my mobile plan from 7pm Friday to 7am Sunday. Mom can get long winded sometimes.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:53:12 AM EST

[#12]

Worked on RR and had one. Best I remember it was about 50 cents a minute to use. Girlfriends were impressed when I would call from the train.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:53:27 AM EST

[#13]

Yup. Still have it.

Posted: 11/26/2016 2:57:32 AM EST

[#14]

Yes, and because it was analog I got much better reception/distance on it than any of the new digital phones.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:04:40 AM EST

[#15]

Yep ---------------------- While out dirt biking in the Walker River area of Nevada the bag-phone would actually work while my bud's bux-deluxe brand new Star Trek Motorola wouldn't.

IIRC it was about $200 and you could buy a car for what the Motorola cost...!

Good times...

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:05:44 AM EST

[#16]

We had car phones and my Dad had the motorola Brick.

I'm not quite old enough to have had my own brick, but I did have the first flip phone, which was still not exactly pocket sized.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:06:50 AM EST

[#17]

It was like having one of today's cell phones except they were bigger.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:08:20 AM EST

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:

Yes, and because it was analog I got much better reception/distance on it than any of the new digital phones.

View Quote

I miss the old analog Alltel network.

It may have sounded like a CB with a broken antenna, but I could get a signal from a hilltop in the deep woods of the Ozarks in the early 90's. Once they went digital it took years before you could find any coverage in many of these parts.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:11:12 AM EST

[#19]

Quote History

Quoted:
It was like having one of today's cell phones except they were bigger.

View Quote

And dumber.

And more power-hungry.

And cost a buck per minute for airtime.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:11:55 AM EST

[#20]

My dad had a bag phone, and one of the dash mounted phones.

The reception on those things put modern phones to shame.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:15:29 AM EST

[#21]

Quote History

Quoted:
Yes, and because it was analog I got much better reception/distance on it than any of the new digital phones.

View Quote

Yes, I hit towers 20 some miles across the Chesapeake bay with mine.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:16:29 AM EST

[#22]

Who are you calling old?

And yes.

ETA:
Btw, by no means was it a poor man's cell phone.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:18:49 AM EST

[#23]

I had a digital pager, we used numeric codes to "talk".

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:28:03 AM EST

[#24]

Back in the mid-seventies when I was a Drilling Superintendent, I had a rotary phone in my company truck. It was hooked up so that it would blow the horn when it rang.

If I remember right, it cost about $2.00 a minute + a $5.00 fee to make a call...and you had to go through a mobile operator.

My first personal cell phone was also hard-wired in my vehicle in the 80's. It was really expensive to use too. . Like $1.50 service fee + $1.00 per minute + a monthly fee

Having been grown before cellular became a thing, I find today's cellphones truly amazing.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:30:11 AM EST

[#25]

Pager 24/7 and bag phone when I was Duty Officer..

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:53:58 AM EST

[#26]

Yes. Next question.

Posted: 11/26/2016 3:58:34 AM EST

[#27]

Not old enough to have owned one, but my mom had one that I remember.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:01:12 AM EST

[#28]

Quote History

Quoted:
Yup. Still have it.
http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=48262
http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=48261
http://www.ar15.com/media/viewFile.html?i=48260

View Quote

I still have that exact model. Phone worked great even in remote areas with a good antenna.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:03:30 AM EST

[#29]

Nope, had a PRC-77 with Vincon though.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:03:33 AM EST

[#30]

Quote History

Quoted:
Yes. Next question.

View Quote

Do you ever wonder why you answer questions in a terse manner on a discussion forum.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:10:04 AM EST

[#31]

For business my dad used to have a phone connected inside his truck.

I still don't know how that managed to work but because of that car phone he never needed a mobile version.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:12:02 AM EST

[#32]

Nope.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:15:10 AM EST

[#33]

I think I had a car that came with a car phone but I don't think I ever hooked it up. Edit that was in the 90s though

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:17:31 AM EST

[#34]

Quote History

Quoted:
Da fuck you callin OLD?

Yeah, had one, Motorola.

Hard mounted it in a pickup truck, with high gain verticle antenna on roof

View Quote

Same here. The bag was under the seat, so it just looked like a normal car phone. It worked great in rural areas, since they had a much stronger signal than a handheld does.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:22:21 AM EST

[#35]

Quote History

Quoted:

And dumber.

And more power-hungry.

And cost a buck per minute for airtime.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
It was like having one of today's cell phones except they were bigger.

And dumber.

And more power-hungry.

And cost a buck per minute for airtime.

Mid nineties, I was paying .08 off peak, .12 peak (business rate). I don't know why I remember that. My bill was a lot cheaper back then, but I didn't have all the world's knowledge in my pocket, and any music I want on demand.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:32:13 AM EST

[#36]

Quote History

Quoted:

Mid nineties, I was paying .08 off peak, .12 peak (business rate). I don't know why I remember that. My bill was a lot cheaper back then, but I didn't have all the world's knowledge in my pocket, and any music I want on demand.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
It was like having one of today's cell phones except they were bigger.

And dumber.

And more power-hungry.

And cost a buck per minute for airtime.

Mid nineties, I was paying .08 off peak, .12 peak (business rate). I don't know why I remember that. My bill was a lot cheaper back then, but I didn't have all the world's knowledge in my pocket, and any music I want on demand.

I also think it was fairly new when I got mine around 92-94. Then came the flip phone shown above.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:38:01 AM EST

[#37]

Yup, and I still have it. It's a Motorola that I believe was thru Cellular One.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:42:11 AM EST

[#38]

no

badass Audiovox in my Ranger, then slim brick in 90

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:56:26 AM EST

[#39]

In the mid seventies I saw a guy with one in a leather briefcase.
I got a brick in 92 from cellular one.
Best reception i ever had.
I mainly used it to ordfr pizzas on the way home from work.

Posted: 11/26/2016 4:56:45 AM EST

[#40]

My grandparents did and I thought they were cool because of it.

Posted: 11/26/2016 5:33:50 AM EST

[#41]

I had one of the Motorola ones, on Cellular One or maybe Alltel?

Posted: 11/26/2016 5:39:01 AM EST

[#42]

Posted: 11/26/2016 5:45:51 AM EST

[#43]

No, I got my first cellphone in 95.

Posted: 11/26/2016 5:51:41 AM EST

[#44]

I had one. Don't remember the make and model. I remember the battery looked like a motorcycle battery.

Posted: 11/26/2016 6:00:36 AM EST

[#45]

Yup...and all glorious 5 watts of power (piss on you milli watt people ). And the thing worked all the time....3

Posted: 11/26/2016 6:02:18 AM EST

[#46]

Cool shit back in the day

Posted: 11/26/2016 6:08:03 AM EST

[#47]

'Got my first cell phone in 1988.
GE model that was hard wired into my car with the curly glass mounted antenna...
IIRC the phone cost $1400 and talk time was 50 cents a minute... Lol.
It's in a box in my basement.