Safety Driving Without Losing Communication
Fast forward a few years, mobile phones were replaced by cellular phones. These were phones were permanently installed in your car. The handset was placed somewhere near the driver. The working parts of the phone were usually placed in the trunk. The antenna was usually attached to the back window. Even if you couldn‘t take it home with you, al least those phones allowed you to dial your own number. Almost no one still has one installed in their car, but nearly everyone has been known to use their cellular in a car. (Interestingly, even though Motorola still makes car phones for use on their iDen networks, finding one on the Nextel Web site can take forever.) Those phones transmitted 3 watts of signal. With a good antenna installed, mobile car phones were good at making and receiving calls.
The problem is they’re also underpowered and not very efficient for automotive use. Little cellular handsets are limited in their output to less than one watt. The signal-output numbers are actually 600 milliwatts for older analog phones down to as little as 125 milliwatts for newer digital handsets. That’s because no one in their right mind would want to hold 3 watts of broadcast power next to their head for any period of time. Rather than going back to using a built-in mobile phone, plan on getting the most from your modern call portable handset. That means installing a car cradle.
Cradles, mounts and car kits as they’re sometimes called, provide you with a holder for your phone, a speakerphone that allows you to talk and drive without holding something up to your ear, an always-connected power source/battery charger and a way to attach an external cell phone antenna.
The biggest advantage of using a phone cradle is the safety factor. A number of states will give you a ticket if they catch you using a cell phone held next to your ear. And the list of states requiring hands-free phones is growing. If your state isn’t cracking down yet — they probably will be very soon. If you must use your cell phone without a cradle, make sure it has a built-in speakerphone or get yourself a headset to use. Many phone manufacturers are building speakerphones into handsets. Nearly all handsets have a way to plug in a headset and many new phones come Bluetooth wireless built-in, so that you can talk on your phone with no wires attached.