Does any one carry a phone card in their urban PSK?I know many carry cell phones.But what if it becomes broke, missing(stolen)or dead batteries.It would give you a back up method of communication.We like redundency don't we?They do fit in our favorite tins but should be kept away from any thing magnetic,like compasses.Just a thought,so tell me what you think.
Boatman
John

I believe that most of the major carriers in america will provide you with an 800# and a pin that will allow you to bill a call from a pay-phone to your home account. I have one from MCI that I got a decade ago. I memorized it. I carry it with me at all times (in my head) and if I can make a call (have fingeres and a phone with a dial-tone) I can call on that number. I have occasionally run into a payphone that won't give a dial-tone without a coin but IIRC they didn't have a slot for a card either. Most pay-phones will allow collect calls and 800# calls so I've been good with this memorized 10 digit number + pin.

well most people carry them, i don't because it's rather expensive for me with mine budget. Dont have a cell phone for the same reason. i NEVER call, i always make sure people know were i am and wenn im back. I only use the phone to change apointments ( which i rarly do. ). So buying a phone which i proberbly won't use, is not affordable. I will buy one wenn i got enough €€€€€ to buy one to call in emergency's.

I carry a few 20p pieces in my PSK and urban PSK. However if you have no money, you can always do a reverse charge call and phoning 999 (911 to US) is free.

I think that a prepaid card is a tremendous idea. It would allow you make a call whether it's local or long distance.

The magnetism from the compass may not be sufficient to damage the card. You could probably check with the phone company about that, or experiment with a card with just a minute or two left on it.

The only concern I'd have would be whether the card expires after a certain amount of time. It would not be a showstopper, though, you'd just need to be aware of that when storing the card.

Boatman,

Affirmative. Initially, I got one and put in the kit (thinking that one per kit would be a good idea) then upon further reflection, removed it from the kit.

Figured that the card took up room that might be better used to hold a contact paper list (printed one side, other side open for note taking).

Just took the phone # and PIN # from it, copied them down in each of my kits. The card can be "recharged" if I wish to do so. Also noted that there is an expiration date on it (24 months after first use) so a little note in each kit to let me know if one of the family members uses it. From reading some of the other posts, it appears that there may be some cards with mag strips on them which might be used in phones with "swipe" slot card readers. Figured in our case that most phones have buttons to push, so the mag strip is not crucial.

Bottom line, the kits have a little adhesive label inside them with the requisite #'s. Also duplicated the numbers on the family "contact" lists which are also included in each of the kits.

Regards,
Comanche7

As I understand it you can call 911 from any phone without any cards or change. If you are truly in a life threatening situation who are you planning to call besides the biggest emergency response team's phone number?

Second Question, if you are in the .1 percent of the country where they have working phones but no emergency services then can't you just dial 0 and get the operator?

Ever hear of 1 800 COLLECT?

In most cases, if I can't find a phone <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> then I am truly alone and have to resort to rudimentry signaling and HAM Radio.

Tanx guys,I just wanted to get this idea out there to get people thinking.Comanche,I do the same thing by copying the numbers on emergency contact list.Great minds think alike <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.I was remembering during 09/11/01 cell phone traffic over whelmed the systems.I was just thinking of redundent communication back ups.

I recently heard a phone company bigwig on TV saying that text messaging was the only system getting through consistently on 9/11 in DC after the Pentagon was hit. Apparently it uses much less bandwidth and wasn't clobbered the way the voice freqs were. I know that when there's a major traffic disruption here and I can't get a signal on my cell phone, my text messages always go through.

Not having my cell phone is a no-go item for me.

Also, most of the big phone company cards (AT&T in particular) have no expiration dates on them. At least mine never do. There's no magnetic strip either -- it's just the 1-800 number plus a PIN.

Also, in a PSK, you can type your phone contacts on a sheet of paper and tape it to the front of the phone card, then wrap your fishing line around the notched card <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

JMHO --

In an emergency, i think it's really important to contact my family as well as the emergency services. I carry a phone-card in my wallet (which is a rather understocked urban PSK), so space isn't a problem. I have a cell phone with a very tempermental battery life, so that is yet another reason for carrying a phone card.

We aslo have a 'reverse-charge call' service in S.A., but it can take quite a long time to get connected to an operater, and the music that they play is SO depressing:(