If you have registered your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry you can protect your number from most telemarketers, with the exception of charities, survey researchers, and political organizations. Although for the most part this may seem reasonable, it can become a problem when certain individuals/organizations take advantage of being exempt from the Registry and call cell phones or use pre-recorded messages. These are practices often used by certain political groups during elections.

Due to the fact that many American voters have been subject to political automated messages, push-poll calls, and even political endorsement calls made to their cell phones, a non-profit group decided to create The National Political Do Not Contact Registry; a registry that fights on behalf of American voters.

The National Political Do Not Contact Registry is based on the same principles as the Do Not Call Registry, and is a program that has been developed by Citizens for Civil Discourse (CCD), a group of ordinary citizens dedicated to improving the level of political discourse in America. CCD believes that U.S. citizens are tired of negative campaigning and want a country with leaders who will actually deal with the many difficult issues that face the American nation and the world.

Like the Federal Do Not Call Registry, you can register your phone numbers (both landline and cell phone) with the National Political Do Not Contact Registry for free. By registering, you can not only put an end to unwanted political calls that can be annoying (and costly if your cell phone is called), but you also let your representative know that you have no intention of voting for them if they have no intention of listening to you.

Unified communications (UC) is an empty slogan - or at least, a sector that is a shadow of what it can be - until it has a strong mobile element. The two endeavors overlap and share the goal of making employees more accessible when they are away from their desks.

Mobile devices' inability to support those applications presented a hurdle to the true marriage of mobility and UC. Recent announcements, however, clearly say those limitations have been surmounted. At the VoiceCon Show this week in Orlando, Nortel introduced a number of mobile UC products. The company said mobility has been embedded in the Communication Server 1000 IP PBX 5.5 (available next month) and Mobile Communication 3100 for fixed/mobile convergence. The vendor also introduced the IP Softphone 2050 3.0 laptop for PCs and a DECT system for international markets.

The commentary in the story says that adding mobility to unified communications not only makes people more accessible, but it cuts costs - to the tune of 30 percent - by enabling them to use corporate calling plans. Call-completion rates, the story says, improve from 30 percent to 50 percent.

The age of mobile UC is upon us. In January, Datamonitor released a report entitled "Trends to Watch: Unified Communications 2008," which found that many organizations use technologies - such as presence, mobility and Web conferencing - that benefit traveling workers. To date, however, the overall concept of mobilized UC has not taken off. Recent cellular advances and the higher profile of mobile e-mail will make mobility a more central feature of UC.

The online post, which for some reason omits Datamonitor's name, lists the section names in the report. They clearly suggest the mobilization of UC. Some of the titles: "Mobility Will Play a Greater Role in the Unified Communications Market," "Mobility Will Help Drive Investments in Unified Communications" and "FMC and 'One Number' Solutions Will Become a Reality."

Mobility is a theme that runs through Avaya's VoiceCon announcement of its Unified Communications Services initiative to lead companies gracefully into the world of UC. Avaya UC Services will assess the company's needs and desires, create a plan and deploy the system. While the idea is to address the entire UC landscape, the company clearly sees mobility as a key element. Indeed, the example given in the release describes how Avaya helped the Black & Decker tool company create a mobile UC strategy.

Smaller vendors are mobilizing their UC products as well. Last month, CommuniGate Systems added features to itsPronto! UC system. Pronto!, which uses Adobe Flash, now supports Web-based VoIP. This eases remote access to the corporate PBX and offers features such as click-to-call from the address book, programmable function keys and speed dial.

Network World also positions mobility as an important piece of the overall UC strategy. A Verizon Business director positions mobile UC as the ability to use enterprise applications and services while not being plugged into the network. This requires VoIP, secure access, auto-forwarding of voice and text-to-voice and voice-to-text services. Security, in a mobile UC context, is about risk management - not locking down applications so that they cannot be used outside of the enterprise.

If so, then you're not the only one! You can be sure that all around the world, people are receiving telephone calls from numbers they don't recognise. This is the reason why so many reverse phone number lookup systems are available on the internet these days. OK, you say, so now I know I'm not alone, I don't feel so bad. But I still don't know who the telephone number belongs to, that I keep finding on my phone!

Don't worry, there are a few things you can do, and some of them don't cost anything.

The easiest one, and the one that some people don't even think about, is to simply call the number and ask who it is. Now, this is fine if it's, say, a work or business number that you're getting called on. Go ahead, make that call! It's probably either a wrong number, or somebody trying to call the person who used to work where you do. Things get a bit more complicated if it's your home or mobile number. The trouble is, quite often, there's potentially some sort of problem attached to the number.

What do I mean by "problem"? Well, maybe the phone being called isn't your phone, but it's your partner's. You suspect they're getting calls and not telling you about it, and you're getting suspicious, and a little worried too. That's perfectly natural. Trouble is, you don't want to call the telephone number and start a whole load of trouble. It might be perfectly innocent, and if it gets back to your partner that you're checking up on them, then suddenly, you're the bad guy! Also, it's possible that there's a good reason why your partner doesn't want you to know who he or she is calling - maybe they're planning a surprise party, or a trip somewhere!

The other reason why most people, especially single girls, may not want to call a number to find out who it belongs to, is that it may be a nuisance call, or prank call, and they don't want to give the person calling the satisfaction of knowing that they're getting worried.

There's a simple way to get round this. Just get a good friend to make the call for you. If it's innocent, then they should be able to find out enough to put your mind at rest, and if the person at the other end of the telephone line doesn't play ball, then you know you need to take it to the next level, and use a specialist service.

When dealing with emergency communications there is one simple item that you really must have and that is a good communications antenna. Many survivalists have asked if there is such a thing as a simple antenna made specifically for shortwave listening. The main concern here is one, which could be transported in a backpack and rigged up in only a couple of minutes. The basic principle here is the option of stringing it up quickly between several trees.

In general, there are usually instructions enclosed with radio receivers, which cover these details, however sometimes the manufacturer fails to include them in the operator's manual or you may have purchased the receiver used and not obtained the operators manual with it or even worse you may have constructed your own radio receiver from scratch. Either way you have no way to know how to setup an antenna. The short answer to this question is that you can do it either as simply or as complicated as you would like. Several questions that you may initially have to ask yourself are does the unit have an external antenna input or merely a telescopic antenna. Can you locate a suitable ground connection on the back of the radio receiver? This connection is generally located near the external antenna terminals should it be there.

A quick solution to create an antenna that will work fairly well is to run approximately 50 to 100 feet of number 22 through number 30 gauge insulated hook up wire out into the woods. You may possibly suspend it above ground by means of monofilament fishing line. To complete the installation simply tie the far end to the monofilament line, then run it 50 foot away and place a weight on the end and finally toss it over a nearby convenient tree. Next, proceed to pull the monofilament line until the antenna wire is elevated and tight, and then tie it off securely.

Another trick you can try should you be located on a ridge and you are unable to drive a proper ground rod into the soil, is to duplicate the 50 to 100 feet of antenna wire, however this time connect it to the ground connection. Run these wires in opposite directions with the radio receiver located at the mid-point of the wires. This is an effective method if setup properly. If you wanted to get really fancy you could progress from these simple antenna versions to one a bit more complicated and having its own antenna tuner or matcher, but to setup and use a radio receiver under emergency conditions requires something that is very quick and easy to setup. The antenna tuner could perhaps be considered for another article where your communications is centered upon your home, as this would make the tuner more feasible.

Should your radio not have an antenna connection in the rear you can still improve your radio reception with the use of an alligator clip and attach the antenna wire to this clip and then the clip in turn to the antenna.

If you are receiving annoying phone calls from pranksters or when your phone keeps ringing yet from an unknown number, a cell phone lookup is essential. If you are not familiar with the phone numbers, you may also do a reverse phone lookup to trace and verify whoever is calling you.

Jot down the area code and the 7-digit number to find out details on the number that keeps calling you and find a good phone lookup directory. However, it is a bit hard to find a good directory for cell phone lookup. Free reverse phone number lookups are phone numbers which were gathered in the public domain. Mostly, these are landline numbers that include the name and address of the owner. But the information does not include unpublished numbers or mobile phone numbers. When doing a cell phone look up you are most likely to end up with nothing.

The search for free reverse phone search may likely to end up the same when doing a cell phone lookup because they share one database. It simply means that if you cannot get results from one site, you will have slim chances in finding it in other websites. However, I suggest you try Sherlock Records' phone search service. They will be able to give you complete details of the phone number you are looking for like Sherlock Records. Websites like Cell-PhoneLookup.info have a wide range of list of phone numbers including unlisted numbers. Their databases are updated regularly to make sure you find the correct details that you need. With Cell-PhoneLookup.info you can also freely access or do background checks, criminal background checks, people search, marriage records and a lot more.