Subject: RE: [NEXTEL-1] gcs markll vhf/uhf portable phone

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 23:14:14 -0500

Greetings,

I remember that article well.  Nevertheless, I went to my file cabinet
and pulled out this issue to refresh my memory's details. Interestingly,
the December 1989 issue is as far beck as my personal files go.  Author
Tom Kneitel, K2AES was at that time Pop'Comm's chief editor.  (Tom is now
essentially retired, so radio technician, veteran press writer, and good
personal friend Harold Ort, N2RLL is now at the helm.)  The product you
mention, the GCS Mark II, appeared in Kneitel's "Telephones Enroute"
column on page 44 of that issue.  It will surprise some to know that the
GCS Mark II was not one of those "export" model mobile phones, as Marcel
here at Nextel-1 had guessed.  That would also have been my own first
guess, if I didn't already know differently.

Rather, this hand-portable telephone was a new model for 1989, but
offered service on the older ("legacy"--politically correct term, for
those who go in for that sort of nonsense) IMTS mobile phone networks on
VHF and UHF channels.  Why would anyone offer a new IMTS phone just as
AMPS, the original FM ("analog"--politically correct term, for those
again, who go in for that sort of nonsense) cellular network was gaining
in popularity?  Simple.  GCS' reasoning was that with the cellular craze
ramping up, the IMTS channels were all but vacant.  Previous IMTS
customers had been moved ("migrated"--politically correct term...
yeah--nonsense--you know the rest...) to AMPS cellular and thus,
supposedly, open up a new market for existing IMTS carriers.

Although the $3900 price tag seems totally outrageous, we must bear in
mind that this was after all 1989.  Backtracking to when (I surmise) the
GCS Mark II was being developed, during cellular's early years, cellular
mobile phones were selling at somewhere between $1500 and $2500,
depending on model and features.  Hand-portable cellular phones were
selling somewhere around ~$5000.  Also, cellular was not then available
in all parts of the country.  Early cellular coverage maps in my personal
collection show several Northwestern and Midwestern states with no AMPS
coverage whatsoever!

But to offer an IMTS phone in 1989 for close to $4000 was probably
suicidal to production, I would think.  Seems to me it was just too
little (in terms of value for the dollar), too late.  Cellular subscriber
unit prices were dropping faster than Newton's apple.  And huge voids in
cellular coverage were filling in quickly, as the AMPS MSA's were
reaching their initial five-year build-out schedules.  GCS was innovative
with this product in one respect, though.  IMTS phones had previously
been mostly, if not entirely, all true hardwired mobile telephones. 
Perhaps GCS envisioned the future of cellular as being the hand-portable
units we now know, and had sought to get a leg-up on this in the IMTS
market.  Still, we may never know exactly why or how the Mark II evolved.
 I don't know that the GCS Mark II had any serious market success,
either.

For one reason or another, the IMTS industry disappeared shortly
thereafter.  There may still be a few rural IMTS systems operating in
remote areas still waiting for cellular coverage, perhaps.  I don't
really know.  If some remain, their utility is now seriously impaired, in
the regard that national or even regional roaming is no longer a
possibility.  I do know that in some parts of the country, abandoned VHF
and UHF Part 22 public mobile channels have been refarmed on a
case-by-case basis to other radio services, such as to public safety in
the New York City region.  Regardless, neither the GCS Mark II nor any
other product or marketing scheme was sufficient to revive our national
IMTS telephone system.

Now you know.

Alan Dixon, N3HOE
Contributing Editor
Popular Communications
<[email-masked]>

"Stop settling for half of the story.  Read Pop'Comm, and know everything
going on in the wireless world."

Popular Communications is available at Barnes & Noble and other fine book
stores and newsstands.

From: "sick1man2002" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 03:47:12 -0000
Subject: [NEXTEL-1] gcs markll vhf/uhf portable phone

i know this has nothing to do with nextel, but does with
phones. i was reading the popular communications magazine
dec 89 issue, telephones enroute, by tom kneitel k2aes.
it showed a vhf/uhf portable phone 150mhz 450mhz gcs 
non cellular phone puts out five watts of power sold
for just under $3,900 dollars and weighed 23 ounces.
has any of you ever seen or used one of these phones?
do you think this would a better phone than cell, 
the phone looks more like a two-way radio. 
the cost of that phone back then you had to be rich
to own or use one.

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 02:22:11 -0500

See my comments below-

[email-masked] wrote:

> Greetings,
>
>  It will surprise some to know that the

Thanks for the clarification -

> supposedly, open up a new market for existing IMTS carriers.

So if this phone was in the IMTS band why were the Ham operators and Pilots
complaining about interference. Or was that another phone?

>
>
> Although the $3900 price tag seems totally outrageous,

So True-

> we must bear in

Yep, thanks

I'm glad you had that article!

See being a "Pack-Rat" (A chronic illness that most RF Engineers suffer from,
including myself) pays off.

Marcel

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From: "Ugly Person" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 11:29:39 -0500

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 23:14
Subject: RE: [NEXTEL-1] gcs markll vhf/uhf portable phone

> the December 1989 issue is as far beck as my personal files go.

Wouldn't you know it, I started collecting PopComm in 1990. Go figure.
But it may have been repeated in part in Tom's book "Tune in On Telephone
Calls" which I have.
Ancient, possibly obsolete, but certainly historical.

 
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