Mobile phone range

[clouty]

When strolling on the hills above Anvil Point, near Swanage in Dorset, I received a text message to let me know I had logged on to a French mobile service (forget which). It is about 50 miles to Cherbourg.

If there is room up there, would it be an idea to put a mobile phone arial up the mast?

 

[Evadne]

Based on trying to use them from ships off the UK coast, it will be of limited use. Digital phones have a 20 mile "limit" whereby the phone interrogates the base station (or possibly the other way around) and if the round trip is too long it looks for the next nearest cell. Unfortunately when offshore this means you are simply out of range. mobile phone masts are so far above sea level that even in the cockpit of a yacht you'll get maximum range: most phones are, after all, used at 2m or less above ground level.
The phone will often lock on, briefly, at ranges of 30 miles with quite a strong signal, though I've never managed 50 miles, then chuck you off again. I can only think you got a stray message from France before the phone realised that you were too far away and settled back into Dorset.

 

[Talbot]

There are places on the UK south coast near dover where the mobiles operate from a french station cause it is stronger than the UK one. I suspect that the french use a higher powered transmitter and stick the masts up higher than we do to get longer range coverage. Therefore if your within 20 miles of the French coast it is probably worth seeing if you can lock on. But would suspect tha the higher aerial is not necessary. I believe you can get a phone signal booster for the outgoing signal, which may be the problem for initial lock then loss of signal.

 

[gjeffery]

I cannot see how the cell phone system could discriminate on the basis of range, rather than signal strength. If the system chooses to route your call via France, when a UK connection is possible, but at a slightly lower strength, then that would be more expensive for the user.


I have locked to a UK cell from a couple of miles of Cherbourg , and I suspect antenna in the UK is directional, to cover the ferry route.

 

[quaelgeist2]

Signal strength is important to log on to a network.

However, for actual use, the range is important as there is a certain time window for the signal transmission. If the phone does not react to signals from the base station within a given time span, the base station cannot maintain the communication.

Translating the time window into distance (by using typical travel times of the signals) you come to the 20 miles quoted above.

chris

 

[Evadne]

If you were going to use an output amplifier then I'd want a higher ariel. Normal phones have been shown to warm the brain up, and the only source of radiation that can directly affect you comes from the phone ariel itself so a more powerful signal is not something I'd want next to my brain (assuming it is between my ears /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif).

 

[Elza_Skip]

There are special mobile phone base stations used by some operators for long range (typically marine areas) which overcome the timing issue that give the 20m approx limit- suspect that this is what you have locked onto!

 

[quaelgeist2]

... special base stations ?
Do you have more info ?

I ask because the problem is not the technology of the base station, but the GSM 900 standard. It is there that the time window is defined in which the signal has to be replied to...

NB Different in maritime Canada, where the GSM 450 allows for greater range/distance).

 

[danielbroad]

The mobile operators can configure the base station to allow a handset more than one timeslot, this reduces capacity but allows for longer range.

Daniel.

 

[andrewbarker]

That's exactly what happens around Dover/St Margarets Bay/Walmer. Mobile phones default to France Telecom & it costs a fortune to make a call to someone down the road in the UK. Yes - it is signal strength.

 

[clouty]

Just a normal 2 band GSM phone, but the hill behind me blocked the UK signal, so I guess my phone went searching and found Cherbourg.

 

[kds]

Sounds fine to me - but what about those of us who don't speak French ?
Ken

 

[andy_wilson]

Multiple time slots...

are used for data transmission. They multiply the amount of data carried on the multi time slot call, but reduce the networks capacity to carry other calls.

It offers no change in range, and would probably reduce it as such calls demand additional network resource for the time slot allocation and control. Hence such calls will readily drop back to one time slot in the event of poor coverage, as well as increased network congestion.

 

[mirabriani]

Me to, though I nearer to Alderney.

Regards Briani

 

[bruce]

if you have the space for it, truckers in US have added the antennas made by HiGaine to their trucks, if you can and want to. would hate to drown and my last words were 'if only i....'

 

[pappaecho]

I have several times asked if it is possible to fit an external aerial to my Ericson telephone, and the answer is yes, as it has an extrenal aerial socket but never managed to find an external aerial. I would have thought that this would more than double both ingoing and outgoing signals, but have never managed to find an aerial - what do they look like?

 

[bruce]

they look like little cb antennas with 6 inch radiators and loading coil the size of a golf ball in can shape. mouint on a mast and look like a center loaded cb antenna with short rads under the coil. once you do this, there are amps for increased output available, check with local ham/cb shop.