Cell phone antenna

[Free Spirit]

JD5652,
A friend has that setup and it works well. How far you reach really depends on what the cell traffic is like at that time. We have used it out to 23 miles but 12 is more like it off the SJ coast. My setup is a whole lot cheaper.

[frank daleo]

JD5652,
A friend has that setup and it works well. How far you reach really depends on what the cell traffic is like at that time. We have used it out to 23 miles but 12 is more like it off the SJ coast. My setup is a whole lot cheaper.

cell traffic wont really play a role on this. when you get a busy tone or cant initiate a call, that generally means cell traffic is causing a "blocking situation" meaning there are too many carriers on the traffic channels for the equipment. The range will be entirely dependent on the location of the cell tower and how much penetration it actually has through the air waves. the product claims 50 plus miles. that is good if thats the case, but it the signal is weak 3 miles out, chances are you wouldnt get much more distance.

[reelfishin]

This site looks interesting. I wonder about the price though. I will tell my son but I bet we buy one from boatersworld. They can tell us what all we need and get it. Atleast we will check them out and see.


http://www.unwiredsignal.com/?p=986&...stem+-+801201M

[frank daleo]

This site looks interesting. I wonder about the price though. I will tell my son but I bet we buy one from boatersworld. They can tell us what all we need and get it. Atleast we will check them out and see.


http://www.unwiredsignal.com/?p=986&...stem+-+801201M

reel-remember it works when there is signal. if you do not have signal you will not see much gain. what these things to do is basically what they are called...repeaters. If it does not have a signal, it cannot repeat it. wouldnt want to see you spend money and have a mere extra 3 mile range. not sure why the use of cellular, spend the money and go satellite phone. much more dependable in case of outages on the cellular front...especially on the water

[Mackey]

Mounting a cell phone antenna without also installing a amplifier is not worth the effort. Also remember the height of the antenna will also effect the increase in it's effective range. Need to put that antenna as high as possible on the boat and well over the top of your head.

[reelfishin]

Frank, you do have a good point. I will let my son know that and let him decide.
If we get the cell phone one then we wil match the height of our vhf antenna. Which is 18 feet. I still have a lot to research on it. You all have given me a lot of ideas that I must follow up on. Thanks.

[bunngalo]

Gang - I spent $600 for a top of line Digital Antenna brand antenna and amplifier set up for our center console about a year ago. At the time, my phone would still toggle over to an analog signal mode, allowing this set to work great up to 50+ miles offshore of the Morehead City, NC area.

Now, the combination of most phones not having an analog mode anymore and cell phone phone providers starting to only broadcast in digital mode makes this project dicey at best.

As mentioned in other posts on this thread, unless you have a very clean digital signal to amplify (basically one that is good enough to initiate a call without the aid of an amplifier / external antenna), then this set up proves to be worthless. Even though it "appears" that I have 5+ bars when I hook up my digital phone to our setup, the quality of the amplified signal is insufficient to initiate a call.

I think the next "gadget" we need is some sort of signal interpolation / cleanup software embedded within the phone to help out in fringe areas...basically filling in the gaps in the degraded signal to make the phone think it has a clean signal. Sure would be nice if Verizon reads this and does something with their Gzone waterproof phone product line to fit the bill here.

My two cents for what it's worth. I'd love to hear about anything others have found that actually works.

Bunngalo

[captadamnj]

Step one before you do anything else is to confirm that your cell phone has a port to which to hook up an external antenna, many do not even have it.

Capt. Adam
Karen Ann II

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

Brilliant observation!

[starrfish]

yep !! goin through that now woth the new g zone.. 2nd generation had the patch cord to go to my cell amp and antenna.. the new g zone 'boulder' does not have the patch cable....
but with the digital cell amp.. it worked to about (truthfully)15/18 miles offshore..need it as to not miss a charter call..
now i`m looking to move to the wireless amp..
so i might have one for sale if your interested.
basically you put 12v to the amp, the antenna goes to the amp, and the patchcord goes to the phone.. pretty simple.