phone numbers

When hurricanes Francis and Jeanne hit where I lived in 2004 (Stuart, FL), cell towers were wiped out for weeks but land-lines/pay phones in many cases remained viable. Although pay phones seem quite rare now, if you google your town and the word pay phone, you will be able to find a map of where they still are. Even if you do not personally need help or assistance of any kind, it's often nice to let your parents/children in other states know that you are OK. In light of most of us likely not knowing every relatives phone number from memory due to keeping all of that info logged in our cell phones, keeping a list of important numbers, and a $10 roll of quarters for the pay phone in the "just in case" bag is not such a bad idea.

Merely my $.02 for the day :)

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Originally Posted by hatidua

...$10 roll of quarters in the "just in case" bag is not such a bad idea.

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I have the 90% silver kind and a quarter eagle or two for barter purposes as well, except it is part of my EDC.

Last pay phone I ran across accepted CCs....... And it was over a $1.00 for a call using the coin slot.

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Originally Posted by SideShow Bob

Last pay phone I ran across accepted CCs....... And it was over a $1.00 for a call using the coin slot.

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That's ten calls in one roll of quarters then.

It was merely a suggestion, and potentially of no use to some people, as has been posted above. However, I've found pay phones to be fairly useful during some past events and while there may not be any phones where some members live, there are 17 pages of pay phone locations in Boulder alone which is not nearly as big as some of the other cities that members live in. I suspect that most members here do in fact have pay phones within 1,000 yards, or less. Not everyone, but then again, not all of us are fortunate to live as far out of town as we may like.

I have my Baofeng with me at all times with two hi-cap batteries, and all the repeaters within 50 miles from my home programmed in it. Many of them are on emergency or eco power. I'll be able to get a hold of somebody. :-D

Need to learn how to use the autopatch on the ones that have it, that would be handy.

Very cool search site to know though as any of the above options could be unavailable or more inconvenient than a quick payphone that accepts CCs or even some change. I find myself these days not even carrying cash on me let alone change. There might be some in the seats of the car.

I need to join a ham club or two, and get access to some phone patches. With the terrain here, if you use it to your advantage, you can reach over 100 miles if need be with a mobile ham radio. I also can send data and messages via radio as well. Once I get an HF rig, as long as someone has a working radio, I'll be heard.