[CCC News] Assorted News 39: Radiation, Reception and Phones.

Sun Nov 27 21:57:19 AEDT 2011

*In this edition:*

Find out about phone radiation,  and find an easy way to fix bad mobile 
reception.

/Advance apologies to customers who hate phones!/

*Assorted News:*
     Fix For Bad Indoor Mobile Reception
     Control your phone from your PC
     Update on Radiation and Tumors and the like.
     Amaysim reminder.

*General Ramblings:*
     Oh CommonDoore

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*Fix For Bad Indoor Mobile Reception.*

Many people in rural properties - like myself - run into issues with 
indoor Mobile Phone reception. In these cases, there's usually a window 
that you go to if you want to make a call or get a text. Well, here's a 
handy solution.

http://dicksmith.com.au/product/F7899/9950bt-dect-c-less-phone-twin-pack-w-answering-machine-and-bluetooth

Basically, it's a cordless phone that talks to your mobile phone.

Here's how it works.

1 - Put your mobile phone in that special spot in your house where you 
get reception - could even be in the car kit or a nearby shed.

2 - Put the base station of this cordless phone within ten metres of 
your mobile phone.

Now, whenever someone calls your mobile, you can take the call on one of 
the cordless phones. And you can walk around your house or property and 
continue talking. You can also make mobile calls from it, and as a bonus 
it'll suck the address book from your mobile into your cordless phone.

The range is quite good - I've tried walking 100 metres away from a 
solid brick home without losing reception.

It will handle two mobile phones simultaneously, as well as your normal 
landline. It also has 'big buttons.'

I have a loan unit if you wish to try it out for a few days - just let 
me know and I'll meet you at my Guyra or Armidale office to pair your 
mobile with the cordless phones.

*Control your Mobile Phone from your PC.*

In line with the above - what if you want to send and receive text 
messages but you don't want to have to go to where your mobile phone is? 
Well, there are programs that will let you do that from your PC - for 
example http://www.ct-designs.de/android/remotesms/ will let you send, 
receive and view your phone SMS messages from your computer and 
https://market.android.com/details?id=justPhone.remotePhoneTrial - which 
lets you dial numbers directly from your computer - particularly useful 
if you want to use a hands-free bluetooth ear piece.

*Update on Radiation and Tumors and the like.*

Well, we often hear rumours such as "hey your phone will give you 
cancer" and then "no it won't" by various media. I don't have any clear 
evidence to back either party and haven't done any serious research, but 
must admit I'm relatively skeptical of claims that mobile phones, WiFi, 
Microwaves, etc will kill us all. (I've been eating Microwaved food for 
20 years without issue, made lots of phone calls, etc.) However, here's 
a few simple tips to help you alleviate or work around your concerns.

/*1 - How far does the signal have to go?*/

This is probably the biggest consideration if you're worried about 
radiation sources. A cordless phone only has to go about 100 metres, but 
a mobile phone is potentially up to 50km. Thus, you need to be much more 
concerned about mobile phone radiation than your personal cordless 
phones, WiFi devices, Bluetooth devices etc.

Now, if you live in town and have five bars, again you don't need to 
worry much - the mobile phone only uses as much power as it needs to get 
to the tower, and if that tower is close then the radiation is minimal. 
However, once you get down to two or one bars of reception, your phone 
has to use full power, resulting in a hot phone and a rapidly flat 
battery while on calls.

/*2 - How close is your phone to you?*/

Another useful thing to know is that the radiation drops off rapidly the 
further you are from the phone. Holding the phone one inch away from you 
reduces your radiation exposure to about 1/16th of what it would be held 
up against your ear. (See potentially scaremongering article at 
http://labrat4sar.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/whats-sar/ )

/*3 - Other ways to keep the radiation down?*/

Here are some simple tips:

  - use the Speakerphone button when possible. (Most phones have a Spk. 
or Loudsp. button that appears during a call.) You can then hold the 
phone a few inches away from you.

  - use Bluetooth ear pieces, etc. You can then have the phone away from 
your head, and body if you like, up to 10 metres.

  - at home, use something like the Bluetooth phones mentioned in my 
first story in this post.

*Amaysim reminder:*

Last newsletter I mentioned a mobile phone plan $39.90 a month for 
unlimited calls and texts within Australia. With brand new mobile phones 
available from $49, and those Bluetooth cordless phones with big buttons 
as above, it's cheaper than ever to get rid of the Landline.  Oh, and 
for those people who complain that calling a mobile phone is too 
expensive? That's their fault, not yours! You can just call them back :)

**
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*Oh CommonDoore*

Well, now that my other half's taken up a new job complete with company 
car, I have commandeered her LPG Commodore. 11 litres/100km - about $9. 
That's about half the running cost of the Bluebird. Assuming nothing 
goes wrong with it, it's a handy saving!

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Well, that's it for this rather short newsletter. I've been a bit busier 
than usual! I'll probably get another one out before Christmas - which 
ain't far away now. Hope you've all had fun buying eBay gifts, etc. Note 
that if you want to have them delivered directly to your friends, you 
can change the address in eBay. This applies to overseas eBay sites too 
- which all use your same eBay login details.

Other popular sites for wasting money include:

http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/
http://www.dealsdirect.com.au/

... but both of those sites can occasionally be slow to send stuff, so 
get to it soon! (My helium-filled R/C Flying Fish arrived in three days 
however!)

Cheers, Mike.

*Old Editions*
You can find old editions of this newsletter on  the CCC Blog. 
http://auzzie.net/cccblog/I

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Michael Kean
*Proprietor, Cool Country Consulting.*
Trading Hours: 10am to 8pm weekdays.
http://coolhelp.com.au/
Tel: 02 6775 0239 <tel:02%206775%200239> Fax: 02 8212 9582 
<tel:02%208212%209582> Mob: 0427 644 825 <tel:0427%20644%20825>
Chat contacts: WLM: michael at auzzie.net <mailto:michael at auzzie.net> 
Skype: cccons

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