Wireless Call Boxes

The just opening Mason-Dixon leg of the Mon-Fayette Expressway has wireless call-boxes. “Now everyone has a cellular telephone,” says the promotional flyer of Comarco Wireless Technologies, Irvine CA (949 450 8010 www.comarco.com) They’ll let you stick a call box anywhere you can bolt it down. No need for the telephone company’s wired connection because it is wireless – mobile phone technology but designed to be stuck on a post for emergency calls. For power it can take a charge from a nearby lighting mast, 110V or 220V, or they’ll supply a solar panel. At a pinch it might work on batteries. The whole unit comes in tough lexan housing and the handset is protected from the weather by a front cover door. The unit reports its status regularly, so you know if someone broke it open, tore off the handset and a dozen other different problems. Neat idea.