<![CDATA[Anyone know what this box is?]]>Anyone know what this box is? I saw it on a telephone pole along a bike trail recently. It has a long antenna with two spiral sections sticking out the bottom.

https://cdn2.miau.pub/media_attachments/files/115/250/317/503/045/456/original/5ad5ab193a09fe3b.jpg

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/topic/8f0fc250-0fc6-4158-86be-edc2c6e4c541/anyone-know-what-this-box-isRSS for NodeMon, 09 Nov 2026 22:57:30 GMTMon, 22 Sep 2025 22:35:28 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Anyone know what this box is? on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:41:17 GMT]]>@sasutina13 @alice I will never forget how cool I felt (but almost certainly didn't look) with my modem velcroed to the lid of my laptop, reading my email in a cafe. The future!

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250592321659194https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250592321659194Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:41:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Anyone know what this box is? on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:38:25 GMT]]>@sasutina13 @alice Ah, I didn't realize they had a cardbus version, too. I had the original and the later grey bricks (which are still around here in some box somewhere).

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250581063539129https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250581063539129Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:38:25 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Anyone know what this box is? on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:34:18 GMT]]>@mattblaze I still have a couple cardbus modems. While the USB and serial modems can talk directly to each other without a cell master, the cardbus models need a bit of coaxing constantly. So, just a bit less useful. @alice

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/sasutina13/statuses/115250564863918518https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://lgbtqia.space/users/sasutina13/statuses/115250564863918518Mon, 22 Sep 2025 23:34:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Anyone know what this box is? on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 22:42:45 GMT]]>@alice They leased space on lampposts in the service areas. Customers accessed the service via a brick that hooked up to the USB or serial port on your laptop. It was much slower than we're used to now, but really great at the time.

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250362150717671https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250362150717671Mon, 22 Sep 2025 22:42:45 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Anyone know what this box is? on Mon, 22 Sep 2025 22:40:32 GMT]]>@alice Based on the label and the form factor, I'd say it's a (vestigial) Metricom "Ricochet" repeater. This was a low-speed 900 MHz wireless ISP that served various metropolitan areas until 2001.

Looks like the power cable has been removed.

]]>https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250353449149749https://bbs.spacc.eu.org/new/post/https://federate.social/users/mattblaze/statuses/115250353449149749Mon, 22 Sep 2025 22:40:32 GMT