I -ust Cal--d to S-y I L-ve -ou

Maybe the word you lost was ciao; maybe it was therapist or artichoke or treadmill. Or maybe a whole sentence fell unheard into your lap after your cellular phone connection sputtered.

With more than 2 million cell phone customers in Southern California, calls sometimes evaporate into the ether simply because of maxed-out transmitters. But there are chronic trouble spots around the basin where topography, tall buildings or even powerful home alarm systems foil reception. L.A. Cellular and Airtouch do what they can, installing equipment to boost the signal in places like Laurel Canyon, where a daisy chain of transmitters was installed at a cost of more than $1 million. Nevertheless, depending on your carrier, you may lose your scintillating conversation when you wander through these cell phone “dead zones.”

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Los Angeles County

1. Smaller canyons near Malibu, such as Decker, Corral and Ramirez.

2. Pacific Avenue between Brooks Avenue and Pico Boulevard in Venice and Santa Monica.

3. Beverly Glen Boulevard from Sunset Boulevard to Mulholland Drive.

4. Benedict Canyon.

5. Sunset Boulevard near the Beverly Hills Hotel and at Whittier Drive.

6. Corner of Hawthorne Boulvard and Palos Verdes Drive North.

7. Rolling Hills Road between Crenshaw and Hawthorne boulevards near the Torrance-Rolling Hills Estates border.

8. Pasadena Freeway tunnels.

9. Soto Street between Alcazar Street and Huntington Drive; Monterey Road between Huntington Drive and Avenue 60 in El Sereno-Monterey Hills.