[RMoore007]

I found this old photo of my mom and dad (on the far left) and I thinlk she may be using a cell phone.

Look closer even

I could be wrong. This was in Maine. Notice how everyone dresses up when they go out in public. I think our public dress code has relaxed a bit?

 

[sanjaun2]

Roger,
If your mom was talking on a cell phone back then, Your dad would be carting the rest of the phone around in a wheel barrel. I do remember growing up on the east coast and having to be dressed up before leaving the house.

 

[Morley]

Yep, those old "phones" had a large duffel or box attached to them that weighed about 24# (batteries). They were kind of like the old military raido phones.

 

[WildBil]

Ths is what the 1973 prototype cell phone looked like Motorola early analog phone.

The late 60's early 70's bag phone version was like this, and you had to be near NY, Boston, Chicago, Miami or SF to use one. They were usually made by Motorola or GE.

For the most part, they were puchased by larger companies for support staff, as they cost over $1k and they ran about 30 min on their lead-acid batteries, which is where most of the weight came from.

Toward the end of the recently ended analog era, they were revived for those who lived and worked in fringe areas with notoriously poor reception. Those 3 watt phones with newer ciruitry would far outreach the 100 milliwatt wonders we use. But the goverment ended all that this past year.

Could the picture be a "small" transistoried AM radio? Transistors were invented in 1947, but the first usable portable battery powered radios were sold in the 60's, although they had been around mostly as curiosities since the Germans came out with one in '53.

 

[rdwalker]

Wow, you guys make me feel old... You don't even remember that the cellular phones started out in mid-80's!

Prior to that, there were "mobile" phones, working on a very different principle and effectively unavailable to general public. Very large in size, as the other posters said.

By about 1985 we had one of the first "cellular" telephones, an affair the size of a professional CB-rig, that cost us about $3000.

Those days the coverage started out so sparsely that you were able to roam between competitors' nets, in our area NYNEX (remember?) and Metro One (remember?). Cannot do that now with their descendants, Verizon and ATT Wireless.

 

[RonKMiller]

Not sure if your Mom is on a cell phone or just scratching her ear - but here is absolutely the very FIRST "cell phone" call ever shown on TV - it was SOOOoooo cool!

I was Jonesing for one even back then.

http://www.emergencyfans.com/sounds/1emergcy2.mp3

The solution to EVERYTHING was to administer sodium bicarb, insert an airway and start an IV with Ringer's lactate! :histerica:rotf:

 

[jayjacobson]

....This is what the 1973 prototype cell phone looked like Motorola early analog phone....

The classic Motorola "brick." So big and heavy that it could be used as a deadly weapon.