Those Smart Phones

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Seacowboys, Sep 5, 2021.


  1. Seacowboys

    Seacowboys Senior Member Founding Member

    I remember the first cell phone I had, a bag phone that weighed around four pounds and was very expensive to operate. All it did was make calls and let you answer them, it didn't have a camera, video recorder, texting, internet access, it was just a phone and they even passed laws to keep telemarketers from calling you because it was expensive.
    I've got a whole box of old cell-phone: Blackberries, flip phones, I=phones, Androids, Burner phones, ones that looked like television remote controls, ones that looked like walkie-talkies...I have watched the damned things go from "Don't call unless it is an emergency" to kindergarten children on the plan. Now they track us everywhere, send little popup ads for things we looked at on Ebay, movies we browsed, the amount of data gathered and catalogued on each of us is astounding, frighteningly astounding.
    I still have a cell phone that I leave at home or in my truck. I do not carry one with me any more, I generally look at the call history every few weeks but almost never answer a call or return a message. This is officially a part of technology that I have decided to not use any more, beyond that limited capacity and may just stop using them all-together. My damned phone will alert me to a sale on a grease fitting but failed to notify me that my Uncle Billy had passed away. Uncle Billy was more of a father to me than my own but apparently less important than a zert.
     
    Last edited: Sep 6, 2021
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  2. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    I carry a privacy pouch., a miniature faraday cage that you can slip your cell phone in and it completely blocks any incoming or outgoing signals. I have a business and have to be able to receive calls, but if I am turning into a truck stop or Walmart or any public place I slip it into the pouch well before I turn in. There have been "contact tracers" that send out a text message to your phone that you have been somewhere that you might have been exposed to Covid and you are ordered to self quarantine at home for 10 days. The police will come by and check to see that you are there. If not you face fines and possible jail. This is happening across Europe and there have been reports of it starting to happen here in the US.
    I am buying a sat phone. They have become very reasonably priced. You can buy one for $99 a month for a year and you get 150 minutes per month and unused minutes roll over. Incoming calls are free and it works anywhere in the world.
    In a SHTF scenario cell phones are likely to be useless. With sat phones you can stay connected with those in your group who have them also.
     
  3. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

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  4. techsar

    techsar Monkey+++

    And by what lawful authority is this permitted?

    Oh, that's right...none!
     
  5. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    I just put mine in a potato chip bag in case the Terminator is tracking me....:rolleyes:

    Wish I still had my old satchel phone, though....
     
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  6. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Me, I am on so many lists already that if “They” want me, it would be trivial for them to come get me… Yea, I get a few messages directed to the previous owner of my number, and I always reply with an obscene Comment or two… That has cut down on those after a year or so…. So far the Car Warrantee folks haven’t found me, but it is only a matter of time, I suppose.. What makes you think that your SATPhone isn’t reporting your GPS Location up to the geosynchronous bird? They use that information for Spot Beam Steering when a connection is in progress, especially when at the higher Latitudes…
     
  7. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    I carry one, super cheap flip phone. Why - public pay phones have disappeared.

    Stays off until needed.
     
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  8. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    Years ago, I saw a study by the USGS that estimated something like 80 million ounces of silver was sitting around in old cell phones.
     
  9. TnAndy

    TnAndy Senior Member Founding Member

    Could you post a source for them ? I wouldn't mind having one.


    My guess is there is an "OFF" switch for sat phones as well.
     
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  10. Brokor

    Brokor Live Free or Cry Moderator Site Supporter+++ Founding Member

  11. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

  12. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    The way I understand it sat phones are far more private and safe than cellular. They are encrypted for one, secondly they are satellite based and virtually impossible to intercept. And as for an off switch, again, turning off a satellite or numerous satellites in a network would be very hard to do. But they do have GPS function which I would think could be turned off like on a cell phone.


    This from the website

    Can my satellite phone be traced and spied on?
    It is very hard to trace and spy on a satellite phone. Eavesdropping on a satellite phone is virtually impossible since the signal travels vertically towards the sky - compared to cellphones where the signal travels horizontally towards the cellphone towers and through this transmission it can be intercepted and decrypted.
     
  13. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Actually, NO… the Geosynchronous Sat based phone Channels are monitored by NSA Sats just a few thousand yards away from the Birds that are communicating with them on the ground… The newer mesh sat based phones are downlinked to specific network connected earth stations that have NSA earth stations within a few miles of their Corporate earth stations… All these signals are then uploaded to NSA Memories for later cracking and monitoring… NSA has been doing this for many decades from earth stations around the world, like the one in the middle of the Yakima Firing Range near Bruster, Washington, State where the west coast Inmarsat earth Station is located… There is another NSA earth station near the east coast Inmarsat earth station, and one in Australia, near the Indian Ocean Inmarsat earth station.. The NSA has all this covered, because all of these corp. stations ARE REQUIRED to have FCC LICENSED Frequencies and emissions, in order to operate from these fixed locations.. If you think I am kidding you are deluding yourself..
     
  14. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    So I defer to your knowledge of communications BT. But are you saying they are not more reliable or private than cell phones. I would expect that about any kind of commercial comms would be able to be monitored. My use for the sat phone would be in emergency situations where cell phones were nothing more than paper weights.
    Also if kept in a faraday cage I would think that by using satellites they would be more secure from an EMP pulse, either man made or natural. What do you think?
     
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  15. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    The reliability of the networks, that Comm devices are connected to, is roughly the SAME, as the long lines fiber networks of the internet, as ALL phone and data is the same and runs concurrently on those fiber networks… SAT based phones are connected to those same fiber networks that carry cellphones and mobile data, and span world wide… lose a Major Switching Router Hub like in SLT, SAF, NYC, HAWAII, and the like and your Satphone is no better than a cellphone who’s nearest tower is out of backup Generator fuel… Security is and never was the question… That depends on End to End encryption, or nothing, and even that is suspect in this day and age…. Cellphones are local comms devices because cells are ALWAYS less that 30 miles in radius around the Site… Satphones really depend on the network that the earthStations are connected to… and that is subject to many failure points as well…
     
  16. sec_monkey

    sec_monkey SM Security Administrator

    c h _ n e s _ malware plus spyware has been found on a boatload of old school flip phones made in c h _ n _ over in r u s s i _

    dem phones send all da data straight to servers in c h _ n _

    dont aks wut is on oder phones .. ..

    jus sayn
     
  17. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    assume all communication is monitor/logged.
    Buy burners. activate far from home. use in city you don't frequent to call another burner. don't passcode lock. leave at bus station with minutes left on the phone.
     
  18. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    You're 100% correct. One of my best friends and my brother's Father in Law worked there for about 25 years. You obviously know that area,one the border fences for our family ranch was where the YFC stopped and our land began. As a kid I used to give the MP's hell by sneaking through the fence on my dirt bike and looking for "Army stuff". They finally got tired of trying to catch me and started calling the house. My trips "across the border" came to a abrupt stop for a long time after that.
     
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  19. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    It is not a real Secret Base, but it is also not generally know to the public at large.. (the NSA Site inside the YFR) but to get into that section you have to first get access to the Firing Range itself, then thru a number of different CheckPoints for the site, and buildings, themselves…
     
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  20. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    When we first moved to Portland, I had a buddy who lived on the side of one of the big "Hills" around the city, like Mt. Tabor, Rocky Butte, and such, anyway, at the top of this one was a bunker of some sorts, fenced off serious like with cameras and other electronic detection systems. We used to hike up there and try to see what there was to see just two round doors in the ground, about 15 feet diameter! For months we tried to convince our dad's it was some sort of military site, but they said it wasn't and couldn't be! Finally, we dragged both our Dad's up there to show them, and holy shit, I kid you not, a platoon of serious Army dudes came out and grabbed us and started questioning us! Found out years later, it was a secure come uplink site with defensive missiles to keep from being targeted and knocking out the secure links! I'm not sure what or how, but it's gotta be a part of the NORAD system, given it's location and proximity to the Air National Guard Yankee Star Base 1! Likely a super secure comms site for them! I have also seen other sights like this around the city and out on the coast as well, though nobody believes me! Lol
     
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