What To Do When You Don’t Have Your Phone

[Malamute]

... how can you test calling emergency services without actually calling emergency services? Just calling 911 and saying, "Oh, I was just seeing if my phone works" seems like it would make them angry.

You probably can't. In a small jurisdiction, you might call the non-emergency line and ask if you can do so. Simply testing it would be illegal in some places and annoying in all.

^ ^ This works in slow, quiet places. They want you to call the non-emergency line and ask if they are busy and can you can do a 911 check call.

I paid a kid at a t-mobile store $20 years ago and got a bagful of old cell phones and chargers. I have phones and chargers stashed in every room, including bathrooms. After reading this I went and plugged them in and they all still power up, most pop up an "emergency call only" message. Not the most elegant solution and has plenty of flaws, but it's better than nothing.

That works, or ask friends for old phones. I havent bought one in several years, most people buy the latest greatest, I just want a basic functioning phone. Many people are happy to give you their 1 or 2 year old phones. Some can get downright insistent when they see you with an antique phone.

[Chance]

He has some for long range use in catastrophes, but day-to-day he carries around a radio about the size of a glucometer. Using VOIP or some sort of computer based linking of repeaters, he can talk to anyone in the world.

Does that variety of radio have a name, and are there protocols you need to be aware of/certified in? Can you dial regular phone numbers with it?

Is mine the last household with a landline?

Honestly, one of the reasons I'm hesitant to get a land line is telemarketing.

What about using a regular charger and one of those cheap 24-hour timers? Set it up so that the phone only charges, say, 15 minutes per 24 hours.

This is an interesting idea. I have some 24-hour timers lying around, so this is worth a try.

I can't claim to be overly "switched on", but if I'm upright, I'm clothed, and if I'm clothed, I have pockets.

Even if I'm dressed in something appropriate for public, I have a lot of athletic wear that doesn't have pockets. My SO's uniform around the house is an over-sized t-shirt and undies.

I don't know about you guys, but when I finally get home for the night, the last thing I want to see is more texts or calls.

This is exactly what my SO does. Once she gets home, she wants nothing to do with her phone.

[LOKNLOD]

Even if I'm dressed in something appropriate for public, I have a lot of athletic wear that doesn't have pockets. My SO's uniform around the house is an over-sized t-shirt and undies.

I don't even wear pocketless athletic stuff at the gym. Heck I even made a point to find swim trunks with pockets. I probably sound like a d*ck but I can't fathom being out and about like that. If you see me out of the house in shorts, it means my house caught fire while I was sleeping or I'm currently being abducted.

[Malamute]

Honestly, one of the reasons I'm hesitant to get a land line is telemarketing...

Once on the do not call list, I get about 2 or 3 calls a year from the state university or some such thing doing surveys. I've actually done them once or twice, they werent that annoying. That sort of thing isnt restricted by the call list, but if I dont want to deal with them they have always been polite. Caller ID is also nice. And unidentified caller block.

Cell phones now can get spam calls and texts. I get a spam text now and then.

[TGS]

I get way more annoying telemarketing calls on my cellphone from the Second Amendment Foundation....single-handedly....than we ever got with a landline.

And yes, I've asked them to put me on the do not call list. Multiple times.

Does that variety of radio have a name, and are there protocols you need to be aware of/certified in? Can you dial regular phone numbers with it?

I don't know about phone numbers. The basic radio operator license costs about $10, IIRC.

[Drang]

Does that variety of radio have a name, and are there protocols you need to be aware of/certified in? Can you dial regular phone numbers with it?

Amateur Radio. You must be licensed. License is $15 (unless the FCC changed it again...) plus a possible fee for training and testing. There are various fancy methods, technologies, and protocols, including some which let you make a phone call. These are falling out of use, ironically, due to the rise of cell phones.

Honestly, one of the reasons I'm hesitant to get a land line is telemarketing.

Between the do-not-call registry and caller ID, telemarketing is a minor nuisance. (Our Caller ID is provided by the satellite provider, number and ID are displayed on TV screen. I spend a lot of time "watching" the satellite radio channels, so this is OK.)

[Bigguy]

On call 16/7, so being without isn't an option. I can promise the cell beats the heck out of the old pagers.
I've got personalized ring tones for every group, so I know who's calling without looking. Each paper and the cell numbers of the people who are likely to call me from those papers have their own ringtone. The wife and each of the kids have their own ring tone. Other social groups have ringtones assigned. If I don't recognize the number, goes to voice mail. I haven't found many telemarketers who leave voice mail, so it's just not a problem.
I take comfort in knowing that if people need to reach me, they can. But I control the door. The phone is with me 24/7. I charge it at night on the nightstand. Otherwise, it's in a pocket. The only time I'm without it is when I hit the head in the middle of the night. The bathroom is right across the hall and I'm also with out my EDC. (Also on the night stand) If I ever decide to take the EDC with me on these trips, I can't see how grabbing the phone at the same time would be much more trouble.

[StraitR]

"Smart" phones these days are exactly that, smart. They don't care about a charging schedule, a little here, a little there, doesn't matter with todays battery tech like it once did. I charge my phone anytime it approaches 50% power, and I generally charge it at work or in the car to and from. Been an iPhone user forever, so I can't swear about others, but iPhones have "Do Not Disturb" mode for those that don't want to be bothered, which can be set for whatever times you like. Or, even easier, simply turn the ringer and vibration off.

My phone has been attached to me due to work for so long that it's rarely out of my sight as it is. Making sure it's on the nightstand when I finally tuck in is no more intrusive than that of the pistol and surefire it sits next to. I get the "what if I get up up at night and walk away from my phone?" part, and admittedly I do that a lot, but I take the pistol/light without fail. At first, my wife used to roll her eyes, but after reading more and more about home invasions these days, she'll now call me out if I get up and take a few steps without it when I'm just heading over to turn on the ceiling fan or crack the blinds.

Having your phone with you is perfect if you're in a good spot to bunker down and defend, but if caught on the wrong side of the house at midnight when someone kicks in my front/back door, I'd much rather be holding the pistol than my phone. That, and any noise in or around my house or alert from the dogs and I'm up and challenging, as my three year old daughter is on the other side of our typical single story FL home with the master on one side and all the spares on the other. That said, I can see her hallway from my spot in the bed and nobody can beat me there if they force entry through any door.

[Malamute]

Your daughter being on the opposite side of the house made me think of the cameras with the hand held monitors. I think I'd like a camera showing the middle room and hallway to her room and the monitor on the table by your bed. It can be unplugged and taken with you if you go exploring. It could also monitor outside cameras.

Some run them from their phones, but if you can, others may be able to also. They may have figured out a secure way to do that though.

[StraitR]

Your daughter being on the opposite side of the house made me think of the cameras with the hand held monitors. I think I'd like a camera showing the middle room and hallway to her room and the monitor on the table by your bed. It can be unplugged and taken with you if you go exploring. It could also monitor outside cameras.

Some run them from their phones, but if you can, others may be able to also. They may have figured out a secure way to do that though.

Thanks Malamute. We have such a system, called "Wifi Baby", and it feeds via streams to any computer, and an app on our IOS devices (two iPads and both of our iPhones). We leave an iPad streaming all night on our nightstand. The video quality is excellent, the audio is good, but can reverb a bit at times. As a side note, I wouldn't recommend it for newborns, as it has on occasion, stopped streaming.

There is a newer version out now, which may have addressed some of the above. That said, we used a dedicated baby monitor/camera up until she was two.

Screen capture of the one pointed at her bed, shortly after we got it. It's much clearer in it's native form than it appears on this screenshot.