|
Cellular forums Home > Archive > Cell Phones in Great Britain > September 2005 > Beatles lyrics originally written on 1966 mobile phone bill!
You are viewing an archived Text-only version of the thread.
To view this thread in it's original format and/or if you want to reply to
this thread please [click here]
| Author |
Beatles lyrics originally written on 1966 mobile phone bill!
|
|
|
|
Cross posted to uk.telecom as this is pre-modern mobiles and may be of
relevance.
There's was a news report on BBC London news this evening about a
phone bill on which John Lennon wrote the original lyrics for "I'm
Only Sleeping". What was interesting is that they showed a brief close
up and it was clearly a "GPO Radiophone" bill with what looked like a
6 digit number. The following link has a report that quotes it as
being for his car phone:
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/...-name_page.html
What's interesting about this is I didn't think automatic carphones
came in till the 1970s, let alone ones with 6 digit numbers. Can
anyone shed some light on what kind of phone and service this may have
been?
Rgds
Jonathan
| |
| R. Mark Clayton 2005-09-28, 5:48 pm |
|
"JC" <nospam@nospam.comm> wrote in message
news:r4mlj1tapj3skvb
87qh06umu2r1r3s99io@
4ax.com...
>
> Cross posted to uk.telecom as this is pre-modern mobiles and may be of
> relevance.
>
> There's was a news report on BBC London news this evening about a
> phone bill on which John Lennon wrote the original lyrics for "I'm
> Only Sleeping". What was interesting is that they showed a brief close
> up and it was clearly a "GPO Radiophone" bill with what looked like a
> 6 digit number. The following link has a report that quotes it as
> being for his car phone:
>
> http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/...-name_page.html
>
> What's interesting about this is I didn't think automatic carphones
> came in till the 1970s, let alone ones with 6 digit numbers. Can
> anyone shed some light on what kind of phone and service this may have
> been?
>
> Rgds
> Jonathan
>
This was the south lancs radio phone service introduced in 1959. You had to
go through an operator, but then so did many land lines in the early
sixties - I remember my parents phone gong STD and them coming to take away
the batteries! Call charges were HIGH.
AFAIK the first auto car phones in the UK were the Storno System 4 ones in
~1980.
| |
|
| On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:21:53 +0000 (UTC), "R. Mark Clayton"
< nospamclayton@btinte
rnet.com> wrote:
>This was the south lancs radio phone service introduced in 1959. You had to
>go through an operator, but then so did many land lines in the early
>sixties - I remember my parents phone gong STD and them coming to take away
>the batteries! Call charges were HIGH.
Ahh, that would make sense as:
http://www.storno.co.uk/radiophone.htm
.... shows System 1 as launching in London in 1965, approximately a
year after these lyrics should have been written. I hadn't realised
that South Lancs had service 6 years before London!
>AFAIK the first auto car phones in the UK were the Storno System 4 ones in
>~1980.
The earliest mobile phone I remember was a System 4 in the mid '80s.
Unfortunately I never had the chance to use it as it was being
replaced by a cellular phone.
It would be interesting to hear peoples experience of the phone
network (fixed and radio) from those times as there is little, other
than technical descriptions, written on the internet. For example I
vividly remember in the mid '80s when making a long distance call,
after dialing the number (with a real dial), there'd be a short delay
while more dial pulses or strange beeps would be echoed down the line
before the distant phone started ringing. Thinking back to the network
just 20 years ago seems like another world compared to the consistent
tones, interface and quality of the network today and is something I
suspect the younger and future generations may not appreciate from the
written technical descriptions.
Rgds
Jonathan
| |
| Andrew Woodvine 2005-09-28, 5:49 pm |
| JC wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 18:21:53 +0000 (UTC), "R. Mark Clayton"
> < nospamclayton@btinte
rnet.com> wrote:
>
>
> Ahh, that would make sense as:
>
> http://www.storno.co.uk/radiophone.htm
Thanks for that link - really interesting. I never knew there was so
much history to mobile phones. I thought they had only been around
since the 80s, how very wrong I was!
Andrew Woodvine
| |
| Jonathan 2005-09-28, 5:49 pm |
| Andrew Woodvine wrote:
> JC wrote:
>
>
>
> Thanks for that link - really interesting. I never knew there was so
> much history to mobile phones. I thought they had only been around
> since the 80s, how very wrong I was!
>
> Andrew Woodvine
>
Well, if you count mobile transceiving as as part of that history, then
it goes back to about 1930. My grandfather was one of the first "amateur
radio" enthusiasts in the UK and he used to "go mobile" in his car on
summer weekends from about 1950.
| |
| Ivor Jones 2005-09-28, 5:49 pm |
|
"Jonathan" <sorry@this_is_fake.com> wrote in message
news:433afcb0$1@news
1.homechoice.co.uk
> Andrew Woodvine wrote:
[snip]
>
> Well, if you count mobile transceiving as as part of that
> history, then it goes back to about 1930. My grandfather
> was one of the first "amateur radio" enthusiasts in the
> UK and he used to "go mobile" in his car on summer
> weekends from about 1950.
Although if you only count mobile access to the public telephone network
then the South Lancs system was IIRC the first in the UK. I believe a
system was up & running in the US before that though.
Ivor
| |
|
|
| hairydog@despammed.com 2005-09-28, 11:48 pm |
| On 28 Sep 2005 13:17:31 -0700, "Andrew Woodvine" <awoodvine@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>I thought they had only been around
>since the 80s, how very wrong I was!
I had a Rover P5B saloon about 20 years ago. When I bought it, the
wiring for (and some of the remains of) a carphone were fitted in the
corner of the boot, with the mount for the antenna on the rear offside
wing.
That car had been new in 1971, and I'm pretty sure the phone had been
fitted then. But it was still something that only the rich would have
had.
--
Iain
the out-of-date hairydog guide to mobile phones
http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html
Browse now while stocks last!
| |
| Ivor Jones 2005-09-28, 11:48 pm |
|
<hairydog@despammed.com> wrote in message
news:533mj1lbv23ueo0
df7pfs33vdu08lu752m@
4ax.com
> On 28 Sep 2005 13:17:31 -0700, "Andrew Woodvine"
> <awoodvine@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> I had a Rover P5B saloon about 20 years ago. When I
> bought it, the wiring for (and some of the remains of) a
> carphone were fitted in the corner of the boot, with the
> mount for the antenna on the rear offside wing.
>
> That car had been new in 1971, and I'm pretty sure the
> phone had been fitted then. But it was still something
> that only the rich would have had.
Are you sure it was a phone and not just a PMR or amateur radio..?
I know of several amateurs who used boot mounted Pye Westminsters around
that time. I had a couple myself in the early 80's.
Ivor
| |
| tony sayer 2005-09-28, 11:48 pm |
| In article < dhen00$t0g$1@nwrdmz0
1.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>, R. Mark
Clayton < nospamclayton@btinte
rnet.com> writes
>
>"JC" <nospam@nospam.comm> wrote in message
> news:r4mlj1tapj3skvb
87qh06umu2r1r3s99io@
4ax.com...
>623&method=full&siteid=50061&headline=lennon-s-scrawled-lyrics-may-fetch--pound-
>200-000-name_page.html
>
>This was the south lancs radio phone service introduced in 1959. You had to
>go through an operator, but then so did many land lines in the early
>sixties - I remember my parents phone gong STD and them coming to take away
>the batteries! Call charges were HIGH.
>
>AFAIK the first auto car phones in the UK were the Storno System 4 ones in
>~1980.
>
>
Yes I had one. Quite a lot of kit to get into the motah!. Dunno how
lucky you are with today's gear:)
Aerial was about 5 foot long!...
--
Tony Sayer
| |
| hairydog@despammed.com 2005-09-28, 11:48 pm |
| On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 22:46:05 +0100, "Ivor Jones"
<ivor@despammed.invalid> wrote:
>Are you sure it was a phone and not just a PMR or amateur radio..?
>
>I know of several amateurs who used boot mounted Pye Westminsters around
>that time. I had a couple myself in the early 80's.
I can't be certain. I'd be amazed if it was an amateur rig, but it
could have been PMR. The car had been chauffeur driven till not many
owners before me.
--
Iain
the out-of-date hairydog guide to mobile phones
http://www.hairydog.co.uk/cell1.html
Browse now while stocks last!
| |
| Ivor Jones 2005-09-28, 11:48 pm |
|
"tony sayer" <tony@bancom.co.uk> wrote in message
news:oO$Z9kC8+wODFwC
i@bancom.co.uk
> In article
> < dhen00$t0g$1@nwrdmz0
1.dmz.ncs.ea.ibs-infra.bt.com>, R.
> Mark Clayton < nospamclayton@btinte
rnet.com> writes
[snip]
>
> Yes I had one. Quite a lot of kit to get into the motah!.
> Dunno how lucky you are with today's gear:)
>
> Aerial was about 5 foot long!...
System 4 was high band VHF, around 160-170 MHz. A quarter-wave would have
been around 16" or so (from memory, don't pounce on me if I've got the
calculation wrong..!) so the aerial you had was probably a 5/8 wave.
You should have seen my car when I had three boot mounted Pye Westminsters
in it..! One on 4m, one on 2m and one on 70cm, all with separate remote
control heads and microphones/speakers..! In actual fact I think one of
them did have a telephone handset..!
There wasn't much room in the boot for luggage, I know that much <g>
Ivor
| |
| tony sayer 2005-09-29, 5:48 am |
| In article < 3q0l59Fcn4d6U1@indiv
idual.net>, Ivor Jones
<ivor@despammed.invalid> writes
>
>
>"tony sayer" <tony@bancom.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:oO$Z9kC8+wODFwC
i@bancom.co.uk
>
>[snip]
>
>
>System 4 was high band VHF, around 160-170 MHz. A quarter-wave would have
>been around 16" or so (from memory, don't pounce on me if I've got the
>calculation wrong..!) so the aerial you had was probably a 5/8 wave.
Yes it was. They used Base TX around the 163-164 MHz band which was
later freed up for PMR users....
>
>You should have seen my car when I had three boot mounted Pye Westminsters
>in it..! One on 4m, one on 2m and one on 70cm, all with separate remote
>control heads and microphones/speakers..! In actual fact I think one of
>them did have a telephone handset..!
Now there is a piccy on the web with someone who has a couple of multi
element Yagi's on the roof somewhere;)....
>
>There wasn't much room in the boot for luggage, I know that much <g>
>
>Ivor
>
>
--
Tony Sayer
Bancom Communications Ltd U.K. Tel+44 1223 566577 Fax+44 1223 566588
P.O. Box 280, Cambridge, England, CB2 2DY E-Mail tony@bancom.co.uk
|
|
|
|
|