*** Copyright c 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1995 by Nicholas
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and the King Features Syndicate. ***

Portable Communication is for All

     Suppose you were going to tie 45 weather balloons to a lawn chair
and ascend 16,000 feet. What's the first thing you'd take with you?
     Ridiculous question? For you, perhaps. But for Larry Walters of
North Hollywood, Calif., it was a real concern.
     Did you see the story? It had everything: Walter's girlfriend and
neighbors, officials looking for a law violation, pilots reporting a lawn
chair in the flight path, Walter's boyhood dream, his descent into power
lines, his living through it.
     But what caught my eye, given my focus on communications, was
his CB radio.
     That's all he took with him: a BB gun (to shoot out balloons), a
parachute, and a CB radio.
     It was a dramatic reminder that portable communication is for you
and me as well as astronauts and taxi drivers.
     When I was a boy the two-way, wrist-watch radio was a fantasy
found only in the pages of Dick Tracy comic books. Now it's much closer
to reality.
     My digital watch only has time, date, stopwatch, calculator and
video game. The latest model includes a radio receiver. Can the
transmitter be far behind?
     A recent issue of the amateur radio magazine, QST, tells readers
how to build a one cubic inch transmitter. That's getting close.
     Does it need to be that small? I have visions of people on hands
and knees, examining a shaggy carpet.
     "Lost a contact lens?" they'll be asked.
     "No, I just dropped my transmitter here somewhere."
     Many businesses use personal and mobile radio fleets.
     But citizens band radio is the most common portable
communications today. The craze of 10 years ago is over, but there are
still more than 15 million FCC licenses, and more issued daily. Walter
may have been the first to take one to 16,000 feet in a lawn chair, but
they're everywhere else -- cars, farms, motorcycles, hunting trips.
     You may not be able to wear one on your wrist, but you can strap it
on your belt. It may only cover a three-mile range, but that's adequate for
flying lawn chairs.
     Radio amateurs' hand-held units not only talk directly, they use
"repeater" stations to amplify signals over large areas. With "touchtone"
pads on the units, and repeaters with a "phone patch," they have a
"portable telephone" to any phone in the world.
     Appeal to you? The phone company thought it might. Today's
portable telephones are exceedingly popular -- but impractical. There
simply aren't enough frequencies.
     Now the FCC has authorized "cellular" systems for public portable
telephone service. Low power units, plus lots of "repeater stations," and
you, too, can carry a phone with you.
     You can already do that over short distance -- around the house,
into the yard. Detachable, portable phones have been on the market for
some time.
     And there are "beepers." The size of a pack of cigarettes, these
miniature receivers simply "beep" when you have a call. You call your
answering service, get the information, and return the call.
     As with most new telecommunications developments, the best first
response is more likely to be, "So what?" than either "Wow, I want one"
or "Let's outlaw 'em." Portability gives us options, not orders.
     You may like no phone. Portable communications means intrusion.
You're less in touch with your immediate environment.
     Doctors, police, or salespersons may want to stay in touch. They
can, if you don't leave the equipment behind.
     But at 16,000 feet in a lawn chair, I'll tell you there's nothing like
having a CB.
                                                  [ICPC July 26, 1982]
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