mobile phone antenna

[Bodach na mara]

Anyone got any ideas on where to get a more effective antenna for a mobile phone? I would like to put one on top of the mast to "see" over the hills.

I have collected a lot of data on coverage as no two members of the family are on the same network. A lot of achorages have no coverage for my Orange phone. My wife's Vodafone is better but still not covered everywhere. The other networks are next to useless away from the larger towns.

Ken Johnson

 

[Aja]

Ken

I use the Vodaphone network on the Clyde and the west coast and find it is by far the best 'performer'. There will always be places that you wont get a signal - I'm thinking of Loch Gair - or anywhere further up Loch Fyne. I dont think sticking an attenae up the mast will help one bit.

Donald

 

[RTB]

I don't think an arial high up the mast to see over the hills will make any difference - You can sometimes get a signal from a far distant "cell" no matter where you are. Going higher up simply changes the transmitting cell.

Ssgoodthis....intit?

 

[steve_cronin]

Shakespeare make \'em....

see:-

http://www.shakespeare-marine.com/antennas/galaxy/galaxycell.htm

and the connecting accessories ae on:-

http://www.shakespeare-marine.com/electronics/accessories/cellaccessories.htm

of look at their main site:-

http://www.shakespeare-marine.com from which you can go to "Export Sales" via "How to contact us"


The 5410 XT or XTM models cover the bands we use in this country as well as the USA, Europe & Carribean.

Steve Cronin

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by steve_cronin on 11/12/2002 14:57 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[extravert]

However high up you put an antenna, you will never get more than about 30km range when at sea with GSM, even if you can see a base station on the land. This is because of the signal slot timing constraint. It is the width of the time slot allowed by the GSM standard while scanning for phones for the signal to travel from the mast to your phone, & back to the mast, before it's time to move on & negotiate with next phone customer. Maximum distance is limited by the speed of radio transmissions (which is roughly the speed of light): that's high, but not infinite. The slot time is very short, so you're limited in range.

Australia, having much bigger distances and fewer people, double their slot time. Why not sail there instead?

 

[sailbadthesinner]

if the antennae can see via LOS at the top of the mast the base station that you cannot 'see' from deck it will be better.

vodafone had the highlands and islands project in conjunction with BTcellnet (O2 now) so coverage should be better there.
imho orange better quality network and coverage they have just overtaken vodafone on no of sites causing big panic in vodafone apparently to release more sites.

This isn't an office, its hell with strip lighting

 

[sailbadthesinner]

quite correct
but the companies are turning down their big tall sites in many areras so they can recycle frequncy over a shorter distance and have more cells and capacity
so there are fewer big boomer sites these days.

This isn't an office, its hell with strip lighting

 

[Gordonmc]

Some good replies here that I can't better.
What I can add is that when I had a hands-free kit installed in the car the firm provided both a window mounted aerial and a tax-disc aerial. The tax disc one went on the car... the window-mount went onto the coachroof of the boat. Putting it on the mast wouldn't be worth the bother.

 

[Bodach na mara]

Thanks all. The reason for wanting the high mount is as suggested by sailbad, that the base station is often not that far away but with land in the way. Some ports in the Clyde are awful on Orange. In Tighnabruaich you get nothing unless you climb 200 metres (vertically) up the hill. Tarbert gets no reception at the yacht pontoons or the fish quay, but there is a bit at the Columba Hotel that is O.K. You get great reception offshore!

I remember someone posting to the effect that a "rubber duck" aerial on the mast gave good results, but I don't think I will follow up Steve's advice. Shakespeare's prices reveal that it is not only on this side of the pond that boaters get ripped off.

Ken Johnson

 

[Gordonmc]

For what it's worth, Vodaphone is OK up the hill from Tarbert pontoons, just past the fire station. I think the repeater is up Loch Fyne a-ways. I agree, once on the water there's no prob.

 

[VMALLOWS]

Thanks for the info on the time slot factor...had not realised that one. (am a telecoms engineer, but not in mobile). Any references would be appreciated. PM if you don't think relevant to the forum.

Thanks, Vic

 

[ccscott49]

I have a specific masthead antenna, the length of the cable feeding it, lost so much power it was useless, I then went to specific, low loss cable, which is very thick, stiff and horrendously expensive, even from HAM stores, the result was no better reception, so I wouldn't bother. Just as an aside, I was also using an older car phone with higher wattage output, no improvements.