# Old timey tech: Brick phones vs bag phones **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2020, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663 "2020-11-28T12:32:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/1 "2020-11-28T12:32:47Z")
By the time I got a cell phone, those were already passe, so the question: What was the advantage of the bag phone, or did it predate the brick? I know the bricks were expensive, but they wouldn’t have been quite so heavy as schlepping a car battery around for the bag phone. Were the bag phones less expensive? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/2 "2020-11-28T12:42:46Z")
Bag Phones were more powerful than the Bricks and very durable. Their biggest customer base was Truckers & Construction Site managers & Boaters. They had excellent range, my FIL would take my MIL’s bag phone when he went for long sails. That exhausts my knowledge on it. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/3 "2020-11-28T13:58:48Z")
I had a bag phone in my car when that was the most practical option available. The handset was like any ordinary phone, meaning, like a desk phone of 25 years ago. The antenna was on the metal roof of the car, which meant as a functioning piece of radio technology it worked great (and, yes, this is a radio). There was a bag hanging on the back of the passenger seat, but it wasn’t much in the way. This phone was a very nice thing to have. It was a ‘car phone’ at a time when carrying a phone around in my pocket wasn’t even in my imagination. Compared to my iPhone today, it was pathetic. But at the time, the competing option was to keep coins on hand and look for a phone booth someplace. And the only comparisons we can make are with things that already exist at the time! ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/4 "2020-11-28T14:44:44Z")
Before bag and brick phones, there were Mobile Phones. A two way radio on commercial frequencies, like a police radio today, mounted in the trunk. Handset in the passenger compartment as described above for the bag phone. You’d contact the mobile operator and tell her the number you wanted. She’d connect the call through a patch to the landlines. When done she’d disconnect you. No texting, no emojis. The Mobile Phone [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone) doesn’t even mention them, though the History of Mobile Phones [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones) does. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/5 "2020-11-28T15:34:08Z")
The earliest cell phone my parents had was one permanently mounted in the used Volvo they bought, perhaps around 1990. They had it activated for a very low-cost account and we used it mostly for the novelty of doing something like ordering a takeout pizza from the car. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/6 "2020-11-28T15:50:00Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > The earliest cell phone my parents had was one permanently mounted in the used Volvo they bought, perhaps around 1990. That’s what my dad had as well, an actual ‘car phone’. Very similar, if not identical, to [this](https://motorolaus.vteximg.com.br/arquivos/ids/155844/cr-main-story-minerals-d.jpg), but owning two businesses, clear across town from each other, he used it _a lot_. What a lot of people don’t realize about those phones is that these phones were just as bulky as a bag or brick phone. The difference being that all the extra ‘stuff’ (part of the brick or hidden in the bag), was mounted in the car, usually under the seat. That meant getting a new car required paying someone (assuming you couldn’t do it yourself) to move the car phone over as well. His next phone, which looked similar to [this](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/55/d0/4e/55d04eebc14a4cbdd3eaf249f2977d79.jpg), was more like a cell phone we know today, but it had a mount in the car. When you attached it to the mount, it would charge, it could utilize the speaker phone system and it would be connected to a roof mounted antenna. I remember on his first one, it was attached to his horn. If he got a voicemail, it would honk the horn, though I don’t remember him using that feature for very long. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/7 "2020-11-28T16:20:08Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I remember on his first one, it was attached to his horn. If he got a voicemail, it would honk the horn, though I don’t remember him using that feature for very long. That’s right up there with “play the first song on your playlist at max volume as soon as you start the car” as bad ideas go. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/8 "2020-11-28T16:24:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That’s right up there with “play the first song on your playlist at max volume as soon as you start the car” as bad ideas go. FWIW, I recall it being a very short double beep. Almost like it just ‘chirped’ a few times. But I don’t think he used it for very long. Probably a combination of not wanting to bug the neighbors and not really caring if he got a voicemail at 9pm. He can deal with it in the morning. Besides, this was back in the 90’s. Anyone who really needed to get a hold of him had our landline number. Also, just so we’re on the same page. This only happened if the car was off. It’s not that it would randomly honk while he was in traffic. It was meant specifically so the car could alert you to a voicemail while you were in the house. ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/9 "2020-11-28T16:49:09Z")
In the 80s and 90s it was commonly understood that people who could afford it might have a “car phone” and many people saw and used them well before the term “cell phone” or “mobile phone” was in common usage. I never saw anyone with a non-car-mounted mobile phone until the MicroTAC started becoming available to non-wealthy people in 1994 or so. Maybe those who were older and worked in certain lines of business where mobile phones were a practical benefit actually had experience with “brick phones” and the like but I think that for most of us it’s something we never saw in person and are familiar with only through articles about the history of the technology. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/10 "2020-11-28T18:00:49Z")
This. Bag phones predated the handheld phones and operated at the max 3 watts transmission power for cell phones combined with a bigger, taller antenna, giving a greater range. Same with built in car phones. [https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/EbruBek.shtml](https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2006/EbruBek.shtml) Most references say handheld phones can transmit at up to 2 watts variable, but I recall 1 watt in the pre smartphone era as the max. The brick phones, Motorola Dynatac transmitted at the max power (I think 1 watt) and this, combined with the larger stiff antenna give them greater range away from the cell towers. I sold cell phones in the early 90’s and fishermen would tell me they loved their Dynatacs because they worked farther offshore on the analog system. Unlike digital systems (e.g. ATSC digital TV), which is generally a you get it or don’t signal, analog cell systems allows a far greater transmission/receive range with various levels of quality. Shortwave radio is a prime example of this. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/11 "2020-11-28T18:13:07Z")
There are two types of _car phone_. The original relied on radio transmission technology and didn’t directly connect to the landline phone of the caller on the other end. " In [West Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Germany), car phone service was first released in 1958 as A-Netz service. In 1971, it reached its capacity limit of almost 11,000 subscribers and was succeeded by [B-Netz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-Netz) in 1972, which featured direct dialing, not requiring a human operator to connect calls. However, in order to reach a subscriber, one would still need to know their location since handset would assume the local area code of the base station serving it. It was succeeded in 1985 by the [C-Netz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Netz) 1G system." Source: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car\_phone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_phone) When cellular technology became available, the _car phone_, actually a cellular phone physically installed into the car replaced the original _car phone_ system. Some _car phones_ were bag phones either permanently installed in the car or portable with the ability to connect to an external antenna on the roof. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/12 "2020-11-28T18:22:00Z")
In 1989 I bought my own cell phone. A Panasonic that was the just slightly smaller than the Dynatac Classic? which was about half the size of the original “brick” Dynatac 8000X. I worked for the City and County of Honolulu and was on call to the Mayor’s office, and was given a Dynatac so his office could get in contact with me during my workday. I was allowed to use this phone for personal off-duty calls, but I preferred to use my personal phone. While it wasn’t ubiquitous, even before 1989, I’d see business people using 'The brick" in the business district. Just depends on where you worked. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/13 "2020-11-28T18:34:33Z")
I’ve never even heard of a “bag phone”. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/14 "2020-11-28T18:44:35Z")
> **[Motorola bag phone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Bag_Phone)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Motorola bag phone is the colloquial name for a line of personal transportable cellular telephones manufactured by Motorola, inc. from 1988 to 2000. > Motorola introduced the Bag Phone line in 1988. These phones offered more durability and higher power output (up to 3 watts) than more conventional cell phones of the time, such as Motorola's own DynaTAC and MicroTAC handheld phones, making them popular for truckers, boaters, and people in rural ... My grandpa had a bag camcorder, a cousin to the bag phone, not unlike the one shown here: [1984 camcorder](https://www.memoriesonvideo.co.uk/advice/the-history-of-video-camera-and-camcorder-recording/) The camera part was familiar for the next 10 years but all of the recording and playback parts were worn over the shoulder. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/15 "2020-11-28T18:58:08Z")
Were you around in 1989 when _Saved By the Bell_ originally aired? Zack was high tech with his brick! [https://www.google.com/search?q=saved+by+the+bell+zack+brick&rlz=1C1CHBF\_enUS769US769&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiiy4XG9aXtAhX6IzQIHQSVAEsQ\_AUoAXoECAgQAw&biw=1600&bih=1083](https://www.google.com/search?q=saved+by+the+bell+zack+brick&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS769US769&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiiy4XG9aXtAhX6IzQIHQSVAEsQ_AUoAXoECAgQAw&biw=1600&bih=1083) Edit: As a general rule, don’t assume (we all know what that makes us) that everyone is in your age group and experienced the same things. Especially here where we have a good number of members who were born in the 50’s and 60’s. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/16 "2020-11-28T19:29:06Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > There are two types of _car phone_ . The original relied on radio transmission technology… As opposed to the technology used by modern cell phones? It’s all radio. The only differences between the original “radio phones” and modern systems are that, first, the modern systems have the connection to the rest of the phone system automated, instead of relying on an operator, and second, they figured out how to hand off calls from one base station to another, allowing for smaller cells (so you don’t need enough bandwidth to handle all of the callers in the entire city). ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/17 "2020-11-28T19:31:18Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > Unlike digital systems (e.g. ATSC digital TV), which is generally a you get it or don’t signal, analog cell systems allows a far greater transmission/receive range with various levels of quality. Shortwave radio is a prime example of this. I think shortwave isn’t a good example. It gets far greater transmission range by having wavelengths that reflect off layers in the atmosphere. And shortwave is often digital, for example “packet radio” and some of the old Telex messages we sent in business up through the 80s. Perhaps Citizens Band is a better example, including walkie talkies. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/18 "2020-11-28T20:42:05Z")
> [@Didi44](#): > > There are two types of _car phone_ . The original relied on radio transmission technology and didn’t directly connect to the landline phone of the caller on the other end Nitpik, but all non landline wired phones use radio technology. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/19 "2020-11-28T20:46:34Z")
My late husband had a bag phone that he took with him to dialysis in 1991-ish (4 hours a pop, 3 X per week). Later I had a brick. Back then not everyone had a mobile phone-- not saying they were _rare_, but everybody and their dog (including the dog) didn’t have one. It was cool to stand the brick up in the middle of the table when you were business lunching. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2020, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663/20 "2020-11-28T21:36:29Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > I’ve never even heard of a “bag phone”. Me neither. Wikipedia says that it was a " colloquial name" for a Motorola product. Australia had Motorola phones for the AMPS service, but they weren’t called “bag phones” here. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > I remember on his first one, it was attached to his horn. If he got a voicemail, it would honk the horn, though I don’t remember him using that feature for very long. In 1981, cheap digital watches had become available, and a lot of first year university students evidently got one for Christmas before starting university. (Southern Hemisphere academic year). A “chime” feature was standard for that generation of watches: they would give a single chime on the hour. University lectures at RMIT ran for 50 minutes, from 40 minutes to the hour to 10 past. On the first day in the new year, in a class of 200 engineering students, chimes started going off randomly around the lecture theater at about 1 minute to the hour, and continued for about 2 minutes. That was a feature everybody had turned off by day 2. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-timey-tech-brick-phones-vs-bag-phones/926663.md?page=2)