Hurricane Sandy Question- Did cell phones still work well ? 2 part question

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Angus McGunnigl

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May 22, 2002
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1. I was wondering about how the cell phone/towers/systems worked ?
I did see a couple stories of some areas down, but was wondering how that system worked overall.

2. Do power outages/cell towers out/etc affects the use of those GMRS/FRS type walkie-talkie radios ?
I don't beleive they do, but if anyone know different, I'd love to hear.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
Cells are RADIO repeaters to the main provider.If no main zip as happened in NJ & NYC because of flooding to the Central Office and power out,the Cell towers only have limited power back up. The others are point to point radio not through a repeater with Limited range depending on the area.
 
i live in lbi, i was evacuated and moved to my brothers house in north jersey. i heard 70-80% of at&t towers went down. 3g/4g went down and 1x speeds were bad. i use verizon and i could make spotty calls and i could not get internet on my phone. then 4 days into the black outs generators at the cell sites started failing.

all in all i had enough service to make calls. i was actually impressed it didnt go down completely
 
just a note, when cell service is spotty, you can often be able to send a text. it might not say its gone through, but it probably will have. This is when you have one, or no bars of service, not in the case of the phone saying "no service" Also most phones use lots of battery power when searching for signal, so the best thing, if you find signal has fully gone, put the phone in airplane mode to shut off the transmitter, then turn it on every hour or so to check the status. That way you are not wasting battery. Or if you have a dumb phone, just shut it off entirely. my smart phone uses more power to boot up than it does just on standby.
Some people also think that even if your phone says "no service" you can also make 911 calls. its not true. Cell phones are supposed to able to call 911 (or 999 or 000 as applicable) without a SIM or contract service, but I wouldn't rely on that, and they need signal regardless. I've also met people who think that 911 works even if the battery is dead, make sure your loved ones haven't been fed that line. I know its been said before, but never treat your cell phone as an emergency communication device, odds are, even if the towers have power, the call volume will keep you from contacting anyone anyway.
 
#1: we lost power and cell signal last monday...still no power (3 poles are still down in my block) but cell signal came back the other day though.
 
Litchfield County Ct.--Power out for 5 days. Still had cell service. Spottier than usual though.--KV
 
FRS is not effective mode of communication. Very limited line of sight distance. Great for families at a park but not long range. HAM was the only mode of public communication that was successfully used during Katrina. HAM operators relayed messages out of NOLA to family members, etc.
 
Land lines seem to last longer, but are subject to wires being downed by falling trees and so forth. Many are dropping their land lines and going totally to cell or inhome "cell".

I am most interested in the comments about NJ cell phone availabilty as it is a perfect example of a regional near worst case for cell phone towers.
 
We've gone "all cellular", but i'm considering getting a HAM license and picking up a pair of handi-talkies.
 
I've got a HAM license and two radios; one hand held (15 watt), and one bigger one (50 watt) in my vehicle.
It is a great thing to learn about and learn to do.

As I understand it, the cell phone systems are only designed to handle a few percent of the subscribers
at once, so are easily overwhelmed in a crisis.

Battery power was a big issue in this most recent event,
a lot of phones ran down with no way to recharge them.

I heard a lot about people trying to find gas for their new generators,
it's really important to think these things through in advance, IMO.

There is no guarantee of outside help or resources after the proverbial S hits the F.
 
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Thanks for the replies.
We havea set of the Motorola FRS type things and they do work fine for the beach/camping/etc.
I'm goign to look into the HAM thing.
My wife rally would like a more reliable comm. tool for the unlikely event that we are separated during some sort of drama.
I have more research to do now.
Thanks again.
 
Angus McGunnigl said:
1. I was wondering about how the cell phone/towers/systems worked ?
I did see a couple stories of some areas down, but was wondering how that system worked overall.

2. Do power outages/cell towers out/etc affects the use of those GMRS/FRS type walkie-talkie radios ?
I don't beleive they do, but if anyone know different, I'd love to hear.
Click to expand...

Cell service become worse immediately after the storm. Went from a usual 3-4 bars at my house down to zero to two at best. Two days after we lost service completely. I would imagine battery backups at the tower died??? We still had service in other areas but it was very spotty. When electric service started coming back so did the cell service. Its better now, but still nowhere near 100%.

As for GMRS I noticed no difference before or after the storm (which was no suprise).
 
Angus, there are no easy answers for reliable long distance communications. High power radios are not a silver-bullet to the problem as you are still dealing with limited frequencies, and lots of usage. Plus you have to assume that your communication is being monitored. Might not be a big deal, but then again, its a risk. Also I've used lots of radios, and they take getting used to. You don't get typically get good signal quality, so you have to adapt your manner of speech and how you listen. I would not rely on having someone in a stress situation keep all that in mind. Where I used to work we used radios all the time, and it happened more than once of someone accidentally holding down their talk button, wiping out the channel, or I was told of one case, someone panicked and forgot that you can't hear anyone while you are pressing transmit, so they thought the radio was dead, it froze them up, and they hampered the response.
Having a bag phone, with a big antenna and booster in your vehicle might help some, as you might reach unaffected towers, but it still no guarantee.
 
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