Seeking cellphone forum site. Why no antennas?

[Robert_Gift]

New cell phones have internal antennas.
In weak signal strength areas I want to extend my antenna. Our Motorola E815 has an extendable antenna but new cell phones do not.
What does one do when in weak signal areas?
Thank you

 

[moribundman]

Duct-tape a fork or wire coat hanger to your ear.

 

[JHZR2]

Ive found that the cheapo nokia brick style phones, without extendable antennae have some of the best reception of all. Ditto with my ericsson phone (pre sony days), which had a fixed bump on the outside for the 'antenna'.

Work has provided me with a phone that has the extendable antenna. Ive yet to be in a situation where when signal is low with the anenna in, having it out helps whatsoever.

JMH

 

[Robert_Gift]

Go fork yourself, morbid
Of course the FCC allows no modification.
Any non-engineered modification is likely to degrade performance, anyway.

We rush medical items to hospitals in emergencies.
In some hospitals, I pull out the E815 antenna to get a better signal.
But if we "up grade" to a newer cell phone, they have no extendable antenna.
What's a boy to do?
Would be nice to have the antenna hidden flush in the cell phone housing and pull it out only when needed.
But these new phones won't even allow that.

 

[JeepZJ4.0]

You honestly don't need it. My Samsung A740 had one but my new Motorola Q doesn't and gets signal in places where the Samsung could only dream.

 

[97f150]

As far as the cell phone forum goes, try www.howardforums.com

 

[The Critic]

My Motorola RAZR V3xx gets great reception despite having an integrated antenna.

Even with only 1-2 bar on the 3G network, my calls still sound clear and are not choppy, at all.

 

[rpn453]

When working on drilling rigs away from civilization, I used an external roof-mount antenna. These are about 12 inches high with a magnetic base that you can attach to the roof of a vehicle or trailer. They have a standard connection, which then plugs into an adapter that will work with your phone, provided it has a jack for an external antenna. This setup, or a bag phone, are the only options for cell service out there.

If you're looking for something that you can conveniently walk around with, I can't help you.

 

[alreadygone]

If it would make their product "better" than the competetion, wouldn't you suppose one of the mfgrs. would introduce a new phone with external antenna?(not trying to get "forked" here!!!)

Bob

 

[Robert_Gift]

Apparently they value saving the small additional cost of an extendable antenna over the rare need to pull it out.
When making emergency medical deliveries inside some hospitals, I must fully extend the Motorola E815 antenna to get enough signal.
Can't they make an extendable antenna which can be fully pushed in and only the little "button" end of the antenna end shows?
They say the E815 has the best signal efficiency but is no longer made.

 

[The Critic]

Quote:

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Apparently they value saving the small additional cost of an extendable antenna over the rare need to pull it out.
When making emergency medical deliveries inside some hospitals, I must fully extend the Motorola E815 antenna to get enough signal.
Can't they make an extendable antenna which can be fully pushed in and only the little "button" end of the antenna end shows?
They say the E815 has the best signal efficiency but is no longer made.

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I think you missed the point. The newer phones are capable of obtaining the SAME or BETTER signal without needing to have an extendable antenna.

 

[brianl703]

You can get a cradle for most phones with internal antennas that allows you to connect an external antenna...but this is really only good in the car.

 

[moribundman]

Quote:

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The newer phones are capable of obtaining the SAME or BETTER signal without needing to have an extendable antenna.

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I though the point was to have an external antenna because it's farther away from the ear canal (most people's "brain vent"

) compared to an internal antenna. Radiation decreases in intensity as 1/distance squared. For those of you who spend days per month jabbering this might make a difference when it comes to possible long term health effects of cell phone radiation.

 

[GMGuy]

The wavelength of todays GSM phones is small enough that you can fit a usuable antenna inside the handset. One less thing to break. (850Mhz, 35.3cm wavelength, so a 1/8th wave antenna will fit a regular handset).
Thats my answer based on antenna theory I took 18 years ago. =-)

Alex.

 

[brianl703]

Cellphones in the USA have operated on the 800MHz band since 1984, when they first came out. The 1900MHz band came later and is known as the PCS (personal communications service) band.

So:

800MHz = cellular
1900MHz = PCS

(These are FCC terms, not marketing terms. "Sprint PCS" was a marketing term; other carriers chose not to make a big deal about their use of the PCS band)

 

[javacontour]

I read some where years ago that the "antennas" on my cell phones were there because those phones were more often chosen by customers.

It wasn't about signal strength, or reception, but PERCEPTION that a phone with an antenna was better than one without.

I don't know how true this is, and a quick visit to snopes.com turned up nothing that I could tell when I looked for cell phone antenna.

 

[surfstar]

Just buy the cell phone antenna booster...

 

[moribundman]

I have a stick-on antenna booster for my gps that definitely works.

 

[ThirdeYe]

My old phone had the extendable antenna and it never seemed to make a difference. I get kind of poor reception at my house (0-2 bars) and it wouldn't matter if I had the antenna up or down. My new Razr has an internal antenna and it's the same as the other phone in terms of reception..

 

[JeepZJ4.0]

Quote:

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I think you missed the point. The newer phones are capable of obtaining the SAME or BETTER signal without needing to have an extendable antenna.

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I agree. That is the point we have been trying to get across. Technology has eliminated the need for an external antenna.