Bad Karma: you go off the road, are badly injured, can't leave, can't contact anyone, and your only shelter is right next to a smashed car with a stinking dead man in it.

About cell phones: first off, everyone knows that a cell phone doesn't need active service, it only needs a charged battery to call 911, right?

I am very vague on how cell phones work. From what I understand (perhaps mistakenly), a signal is transmitted from a satellite to a cell tower, and then to a cell phone. If you're not in line-of-sight with a tower, you don't get a signal. Right? So why is it that I can stand in my yard and not get a signal, and a few minutes later, I can be still in the same spot and get 3 bars? Is it the movement of a satellite that has that effect?

Sue