I had a rural paper route and that was the only one powerful enough to get through anywhere out in the sticks since it had a 5 watt Xmitter instead of the standard 3W.

I got rid of it, though, after a while, and got a cool new Motorola flip-phone. Much cooler phone, at the time. A guy looked pretty silly carrying that bag over his shoulder, along with a briefcase bag over the other shoulder. The poor road warriors of that time...

I had one of these, too:



A Radio Shack Model 100. I took it to trade shows, and filed stories with the magazine I was writing for, using its speedy 300-baud modem. I had to carry a tool kit so I could open the phone cord covers in motel rooms, and used to clip wires from the modem cord to the things so I could dial in. Good times, though.

I used to do that also. When the 1200 baud modems (really 600 baud and 1200 bps) came out I thought that was really great!

I had a bag phone, Radio Shack Model I in 1977 and a Model III in 1982 (I think). I remember dialing into Compuserve and the Dow Jones News Service with the 300 baud acoustic modem. Those were the days!

the one I had plumbed into my Supra back in 1988 , which was similar to the one you posted , has always been my all time favorite.

Truly excellent on hands free and easy to dial with big numbers. I've still got the same 'phone I had in those days too other than the addition of a digit when we went from analogue to digital.

on the road at that time that it was more than worth the hassle. I drove old cars, and the two trips to Vegas for Comdex and CIS meant that I needed to be able to call if my car broke down. It never actually happened, but I made a lot of calls on that old bag phone, anyhow, and let other press people use it to make calls.

The bag phone phase didn't last long at all, and soon, everyone in the Comdex press room had a cell phone and was talking on it, instead of talking about other things with people who were there. Early adopters get to have the best experiences trying out new technologies. Once things are common, the excitement is gone.

ETA: I just shared that on Facebook.

My wife just got her new Droid cell phone. She's on some sort of "New Phone Every Two Years" plan. Oddly, though, she never seems to call anyone or get any calls on it. It's really a camera, web browser, and notepad. I got rid of my TrakPhone a few months ago. Now, I'm phoneless when I'm not at home. I like it.