Mobile Phone Reception Out West - Aerials, Repeaters? What works?

"a time over distance algorithm meaning you could be in direct sight of a cell but the distance to the tower is over an acceptable distance so the cell will not let you have access"

Hi olcoolone

Can you help a layman understand this a little clearer please?

I assumed that the signal strength is what determined access rather distance.......in reality they go hand in hand that is distance / strength

For example I have many times got voice from up to 70 / 80km's out with various antennae combinations..........basically from experience the internet drops out first, followed by voice and lastly SMS on the weakest signal

never used any booster.......I understand those boost up the signal and may give you access when you have a very weak signal......and I guess people may use them very briefly to get out and then shut them off....I guess in that case of very sparing intermittent use it is probably not going to alert the carrier that one was in use?..........

however I have never bothered with getting one....my antennae combinations suit me fine.

It's caller "Timing advance" for the older 1 and 2g systems and hard to find information on the 3g or Next G systems but I would say they would have some sort of timing advance to make them work.

Finding in depth technical information on how some thing work is near imposable and is supplied on a need to know basis only

Forms of timing advance is common in multi user multi base station digital radio.

Here are some links as it explains it better.....

http://telecomtraffic.com/topic171-gsm-timing-advance-ta-in-gsm.html

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/972134

Saying that I have had phone reception 90k from the nearest base.

Heres a bit more...

http://telcoantennas.com.au/site/guide-to-mobile-networks

Because modern phones are a computer and the radio communication is a high speed data stream carried on a microwave ( or near microwave) link there are limitations assocaited with time and distance.

Further, they need to limit the cell size and the reach of each base station for practical operational reasons

Remember in normal operation, the system has to locate your phone anywhere in the country or if international roaming is in operation anywhere on the face of the planet among thousands of base stations, where there is a compatable service.

Then as it goes and relativly seamless, select the best base station or cell to serve your phone from.....all faster than human perception

This is no simple matter of radio reception.

The modern mobile phone service is one of the smartest and complicated things mankind has achieved.

SO regardless of actual radio reception limitation there are intentional limits within the system limiting how far you can be from any given tower and have the service work.

From what I understand this time related distance limitation is absolute.

The next most significant limitation is line of sight.....while at short range modern digital mobile signals will seem to punch thru buildings, in medium or long distances reception is strictly line of sight.

Try as you may, you can not improve mobile phone service beyond the above two factors.

Yes external high gain aerials may help in some situations with some phones......but much of the time, particularly with phones with no external aerial socket.....nothing beats driving up a hill and standing on the roof rack.

cheers

The Samsung S2 3G has an antenna socket. You have to remove the back cover to access it. You can get a patch cord to suit off eBay.

The S2 4G has two sockets, ditto re the back cover, but I don't know which was 3G and which was 4G. Are they different frequencies, therefore requiring different antennas? My mate enlisted me as the called party when he was trying to test them but we didn't get a positive conclusion.

With my 3G S2 I use a small external magnetic base antenna. It makes a weak patchy signal useable but does not hugely extend range.

We have a sat phone for essential comms when out of coverage.

Cheers

Hi Allein/Frank

I have just down from Queensland through Tibooburra thru Broken hill to Wentworth with phone comms all the way using the older A411 Samsung and so with a small magnetic base aerial on the roof (5dbi).

Its a good low cost setup.

As luck would have it I recently picked up a brand new A411 off Ebay that has been sitting new unopened in a closet for 5 years.

The aerials with massive fat bases on them on police cars out west would be for HF radios.

Have a read of these previous posts Mobile Phone Antennas from theforum search function.

I work in the far western area of NSW and there is not many areas that I cannot get a signal with my aerial on bullbar. I have just purchased a new one and mounted it on my winegard tv aerial and get a lot better reception. The area around Wannaring is the worst.

Remember mobile phones are strictly line of sight at distance......in certain situations height is everything.

Realy the bullbar is possibly THE worst place to mount any aerial.

chers

Fair enough, so if I was getting very limited service or none, if I stood on my roof rack, tied the external aerial to a pole (within the limitations of the coaxial cable length) and poked it in the air I MAY get a bit better reception????

Cheers
Pop

Forget the expense of the Ariel, just climb a tree t

As said above height is everything BUT in a mobile situation I doubt if you would notice any real difference as the variables are so great.

If we were talking microwave thats a whole different kettle of fish.

Antennas will radiate around things as long as what it is radiating around is not to close..... you often see two antennas mounted on a bull bar a couple of inches apart, this would upset the radiating pattern greatly, move them apart greater and the other antenna starts becoming invisible.

Think of it as a human eye.... you hold a pencil 10mm in diameter 5mm from your eye and it reduces a great deal of vision..... move 100mm from your eye and you can see more around the pencil and at 1000mm and you can see a great deal more, this is how an antenna works.

We run both our Next G modem and UHF antennas on the roof rack, the sat phone antenna is on the bull bar (I hate it) and the HF is on the back away from the vehicle body.

But it is microwave.
The lowest frequencies our mobile phones run on at the moment is 900Mhz..and most will run a much higher frequencies at times....some run in much higher frequencies only.

Saying 900Mhz is not microwave may technically be true...but so close it matters little.

Very much line of sight.

the old addage is high and clear and every inch counts.

even standing on the ground in the city the line of sight thing bites at times.

The bottom line is if you want mobile phone reception in a difficult area.....find a good place and stop.

cheers