Retro Mobile Phones

Another update: today I finally received the large USB power bank from Amazon, and I rewired the BTS setup in my car to take 5V power from this unit, instead of the car starter battery via the “cigarette lighter” jack and a power converter. Preliminary result is that it works great! Further tests to see how long this power bank will last between recharges remain to be done.

Dear Mr/Ms/Mx Onomatopoeia - your comment above violates newly promulgated Rule 1 (see community rules update in the sidebar), and I am formally asking you to delete this offensive comment. If you do not delete it within 30 days, I will have to remove it via moderator powers and ban you from the community.

I realize that the rule which your comment violates did not officially exist at the time when you made the comment, hence it would be improper for me to enforce it retroactively without a grace period process to bring about compliance. Therefore, I am giving you a 30 day notice to either bring yourself into compliance with updated community rules or be banned.

Do you know how to operate your own GSM network with Osmocom? If not, I recommend that you get started on the learning curve now, so you can generate your own GSM signal. You will need an SDR of the right type; I am not an expert on SDRs myself as I use sysmoBTS, but MCDiamond9 on Reddit should know what type of SDR you should buy out of today’s repertoire of low-cost models. Once you have the right SDR and a Raspberry Pi to drive it, you will be able to join A2GC as a member and connect your home cell to our Core Network (specifically, to our first real MSC) - this way your home cell will be connected to the real phone network and you’ll be able to have SIM lines with real phone numbers that can make calls to and receive calls from the outside world.

Oh, and are you anywhere near San Diego perchance? I find teaching a million times easier if I can meet the student in person. :)

Update: yesterday I got the first version of this idea actually working. The hardware set laid out on the back seat of my car is exactly like I planned in my original post: a sysmoBTS 1002, a Raspberry Pi model 3B+, an LTE modem in USB stick form factor plugged into the RPi, and an Ethernet cable connecting the RPi to the sysmoBTS. The RPi needs 5V power and takes it in via a micro-USB power input connector; sysmoBTS 1002 needs the same 5V, but has a barrel-type power input connector. I got a cable that goes from USB-A plug to the right barrel connector for the sysmoBTS, plus a regular USB A to micro-B cable to power the RPi - so now I only need two USB-A power ports for the whole assembly. For my initial tests I used an adapter that provides USB-A 5V from the car’s “cigarette lighter” power port - in my car this port remains powered even when the engine is off, so I could lock my car and walk away with the setup still powered. This method works, but is quite dangerous in that I could run down the car starter battery and leave myself stranded if I run it for too long.

In terms of software and logical functionality, the RPi connects to the Internet via LTE, establishes a WireGuard tunnel with one of my servers acting as the MSC, and then acts as the BSC between this distant MSC and the sysmoBTS next to it. The Linux distro I run on this RPi is Devuan - the moral principle of not using systemd is important to me! Devuan still comes with NetworkManager and ModemManager though, with nmcli and nmtui configuration tools, so I used those tools to configure automatic bring-up of LTE mobile Internet connection and a static IP assignment on the local Ethernet that connects to the sysmoBTS and also allows management access for me. My own custom rc.local script then configures WireGuard and starts osmo-bsc and osmo-mgw processes. Those Osmocom components were built from source: Osmocom provides prebuilt binaries for systemd-based distros, but not for more principled Devuan. OsmoBSC running on the car-resident RPi connects to OsmoSTP on my MSC server, with SCTP connection running inside the WireGuard tunnel over public Internet accessed via LTE. RTP streams for voice calls also run inside the same WireGuard tunnel.

Aside from the danger of running down the car starter battery if I leave this setup on for too long with the car engine off, system performance is mostly OK in the initial round of tests: I can walk a little bit away from my parked car and still have usable signal, and voice quality was mostly OK in my limited tests so far. Going forward, I plan to buy a high-capacity USB power bank (60 Ah is the biggest I found) and use it as the power source for this back seat BTS instead of the car starter battery - then I will be able to exercise this system a little more thoroughly without risk of stranding myself. To be continued…

(I am posting this part as a follow-up comment, rather than a “proper” post of its own, to make it clear that the “drama” part is strictly subordinate to, and holds a lower importance than the technical project part.)

I became aware of this post on Reddit, where some hapless member of r/vintagemobilephones community (someone named u/smartiphone7_) was looking for me (or more precisely, looking for updates on the work of American 2G Cooperative) and discovered that I am wrongfully banned from Reddit for reasons that had nothing to do with my participation in the VMP community or any other technical subs. I made an earlier post here on Lemmy in which I explained what happened, and this u/smartiphone7_ person also links (in the referenced Reddit post) to a version of my “What happened on Reddit” Lemmy post, linked via some search app that picked up my post via another instance.

I am making the present comment because some of the comments under the linked Reddit post contain some misconceptions that need to be rebutted. Since I am obviously unable to comment on Reddit, and since platform-neutral people who care about the actual topic of Retro (or vintage) Mobile Phones may come across that Reddit post and its tree of comments, I am making my rebuttal here.

u/smartiphone7_ wrote that I was banned from Reddit for inappropriate comments regarding my “anti vaxx views”. That statement is inaccurate: while I do indeed hold views that can be described as anti-vaxx (more precisely, I believe that there is nothing more horrible than remaining alive in a body that has been irreparably defiled by injections of something you did not want), I am also very strongly pro-choice on the thorny question of suicide. In some instances my pro-suicide views are directly linked to my anti-vaxx views: in particular, I highly honor and revere those beautiful souls who ended their Earthly lives in order to avoid forced vaccination, and whenever I encounter a vaxxed person who wishes to Exit because they are vaxxed and do not wish to go on living in such defiled body, my duty as a Goddess priestess compels me to give them the necessary spiritual support - and sometimes also technical support with the means of CTB, if they ask for such. However, the comment that got me banned had absolutely nothing to do with vaccines or my stance on them: instead it was a fellow trans woman posting in r/honesttransgender, a sub mostly populated by those living on the darker side of the rainbow, and she was posting about her sincere desire to die. Why did she wish to die? Just read it in her own words, please. She asked some very specific questions, and I replied with specific, on-point answers - nothing more and nothing less. Yet as soon as I clicked Post on that comment, Reddit’s site-wide AI perma-banned my account.

Also note that the fateful comment that got me banned is now visible, as opposed to the usual reading of “[ Removed by Reddit ]” - why do you think it is? Answer: because I appealed that ban as soon as it was issued, and after some time got this response:

Hi MotherMychaela,

Thanks for submitting an appeal. We reviewed your request and gave the following a second look:

Content shared from MotherMychaela on 05/30/2026 UTC

After reviewing, the Reddit admin team found that the content wasn’t in violation of Reddit’s rules. As a result, the content has been restored and your ban or warning has been lifted.

Reddit and its communities are only what we make of them together, and while trying to keep redditors and communities safe, we don’t always get it right. We apologize for our mistake and appreciate your understanding.

Thanks again for your appeal, and for bringing the mistake to our attention. We’ll use this feedback to improve the systems and processes we use to keep redditors and communities safe.

We hope you continue enjoying Reddit and have a great rest of your day.

– Reddit Admin Team

Note: This decision was made without the assistance of automation.

Given the above development, why is my account still banned? I wonder if it has something to do with this “notification”, which I received about 10 hours after the initial ban:

Your account has been permanently banned for breaking the rules.

This account has been permanently banned due to multiple, repeated violations of Reddit’s Content Policy on your other account(s). For more information about what rules you broke and how to appeal, check your account inboxes.

If you feel like this account was banned in error, visit our Help Center to learn more how to file an appeal.

This is an automated message; responses will not be received by Reddit admins.

Note the reference to “your other account(s)”. I did some web searches, and it looks like when someone has multiple accounts which Reddit’s zealous fingerprinting system has concluded are controlled by the same human, the one account that made the transgression gets the “regular” ban message, while all other accounts also receive bans - and those alt-account bans receive ban messages just like the second one I got. The problem in my case, however, is that I never had a second account! I only had that one MotherMychaela account, I never created an alt prior to the ban, and I made no attempts to create any new account(s) after the ban either. Yet Reddit must have applied a “double” ban to my MotherMychaela account, first as primary and then as a hallucinated alt. Then the “primary” cause for the ban has been successfully appealed, but my account is still blocked due to their AI hallucinating about me having an alt - and they don’t provide any mechanism anywhere to appeal this vector!

Back to the Reddit VMP post I am replying to, u/yaky-dev made this comment:

They did not separate their “project” and “opinion” accounts, clearly.

This person’s “helpful suggestion” that I should have used separate Reddit accounts to post “project” vs “opinion” content would not have helped in the slightest. Reddit employs extremely zealous fingerprinting to detect multiple accounts controlled by the same human, and if any one of those accounts draws the ire of their soulless, AI-driven corporate admins, all accounts traced to the same human get banned!

Dear user - it looks like you created a Lemmy account just to participate in this little community! If so, here is my warmest welcome, my fellow human!

Your chosen username: is your dislike of AT&T based on them shutting down their GSM network in 2017, or their ongoing push to kill all traditional copper land lines? Or something else altogether? Also, are you someone whom I might know from either Reddit or Discord vintagemobilephones communities?

Are you aware that TMO are now saying that they plan to shut down what is left of their GSM/2G network on August 3? As a short-term (immediate) fix for my own personal use, I am about to start working on the interim solutuon described in this other post - but longer term, the original mission of A2GC continues unchanged. Once I finish the little detour that is the subject of the other linked post, I will get back to working on the new MSC for A2GC, and then get back to some further improvements in OsmoBSC for driving large macrocell BTS - both of which are needed for new above-ground [*] GSM network deployment.

[*] Here I use the term “above ground” to mean the opposite of the non-literal, figurative meaning of “underground”.

2G is dead, stop beating a dead horse.

It will only be dead when I am dead, and no sooner. If you really wish to see the end of 2G, perhaps you can come to one of our in-person public outreach events, point a gun at my head and pull the trigger. I will be dead, you will probably have to serve a life sentence for murder, but it would be a fair price for you to pay to ensure that 2G is truly dead, wouldn’t it?