Update – 1/14/2018

I’m happily back…

I’ve returned to my room in the University. The T42 and T420 are happily co-existing there, with the T42 not fussing too much about the WiFi. (I’m actually using the T42 to write this post.)

Cell Phone Update

I was going to make a separate post regarding the cell phone saga, but I decided against it as there isn’t much to talk about currently. I’m reserving a part 2 for when I get the phone, and possibly a part 3 for a review of the phone after a month or so of use.

Cricket was a bust. In essence, there was an issue between me and how their system, and technical support was not helpful. My last resort was trying to buy the phone at my local Walmart (while we have a Cricket Store in our town, I was told they would charge an activation fee if I went there) and quickly learned they did not carry Cricket.

After exploring my options, I’m going with the AT&T Prepaid service – formerly “GoPhone.” Since AT&T owns Cricket, the same basic service will be provided. Although AT&T’s prepaid is somewhat more expensive, they offer the same phone and can actually be bought at our local Walmart.

Upcoming Posts

Speaking of AT&T, I discovered something interesting that I may write a post regarding in the future. Without going into much detail – when I was a kid, we had a couple of these gigantic towers around us with huge horn antennas on them. We drove by one frequently, but it looked abandoned and had no light (which I thought was strange.) I was always fascinated by the size of the horn antennas, as I was interested in RF systems at that age and thought they were cool. I always wondered what the antenna did, as there were no radio stations or TV stations, and it looked very different from any cell phone tower I’ve seen.

Years later, I found another (nearly identical) antenna in a nearby town. This antenna was much bigger and had more horn antennas. The red/white colors, horns, and the base station buildings looked identical.

Now the purpose and history behind those towers have come to light: they were part of the AT&T Long Lines system of the 1950s through the early 1990s. I will write more about those specific towers and the history/purpose of the Long Lines system in a upcoming post.

TBT

I also recently did another Throwback Thursday (TBT) post regarding my usage of dial-up internet as a child. I may write another TBT post – though if I do the Long Lines post I may write a much shorter TBT entry because the Long Lines may take a while to compile and write.