Which phone for best reception

I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
four bars.
I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?

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› See More: Which phone for best reception

Kenster <[email protected]> wrote:
> I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> four bars.

You should have checked both the model and the carrier.
My next door neighbor insists that Verizon has made a big improvement
signal in her house, compared to USCellular.

Six months ago, a Verizon visitor in my house had no visible bars, but
received a call.

If you call customer service, they may be able to provide you with a
detailed signal map, not available online. AT&T-WS did that for me a long
time ago, when I was considering GSM.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

"Kenster" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> four bars.
> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?
>

We just dumped 3 V180's for 2 SLVR's and a RAZR.
V180's to put it simply sucked where reception was concerned and had
constant problems (and warranty replacements) due to the well known screen
blank issue.
Our reception at home has gone from 1 bar to a steady 3-4 and not a dropped
call yet.

I neglected to mention in my original post that the man had Cingular
also, which made the fact all the more interesting when his reception
was so much better with his Motorola 6xx compared to my 180 and 220.
I'd like to keep Cingular. Just want to find a phone with better
reception.
[email protected] wrote:
> Kenster <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> > home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> > the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> > guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> > something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> > four bars.

>
> You should have checked both the model and the carrier.
>

"Kenster" <[email protected]> wrote in news:1151527637.929664.145600
@d56g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

> I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> four bars.
> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?
>

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=247

It looks like Cingular has discontinued this model. You might be able to
find one from a 3rd party vendor.

Kenster wrote:
> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?

In general, the larger phones with an antenna sticking out have better
reception. And the ultra compact, no external antenna designs have
poorer reception.

Kenster wrote:
> I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> four bars.
> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?

"http://www.sparkfun.com/shop/index.php?keywords=rotary&match_criteria=all&shop=1&x=0&y=0"

"Kenster" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
> four bars.
> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?

If you like your phones, look into a repeater (roughly $300-$400). You
place an antenna outside, probably on the roof, run a cable into the house
to the receiver, then another antenna inside the house. Although it sounds
like a lot of work, and is fairly expensive, you'll be able to use any phone
your carrier offers that suits your fancy, without worrying about reception
(at least inside your house). These things have just very recently become a
consumer item (as opposed to hugely expensive industrial units), so the
prices will most likely be dropping in short order.

You can also look for phones that have an external antenna option.
www.wilsonelectronics.com offers several adapters for phones with a plug
(sorry, I checked, and neither of yours has one). Although this can be
cumbersome in the home, they work great in the car. I've had one for a
couple years for my Samsung s307, and it's saved my bacon more than once.

As for what phones have the best reception, it's a tough call. My VOQ has
better reception than my Samsung, which already had good reception (even
without the external antenna). I've never liked Motorola, as their quality
control is pathetic in the best of times. My work has us carrying Nextel
Motorola phones. I'll be standing next to a coworker, and he'll have four
bars, while I'll have two. Same brand new phones, same model, same service,
different reception. This leaves us all scratching our heads. Even
stranger, the old phones they replaced were beat up pretty badly, and had
fairly good reception.

CS

On Wed, 5 Jul 2006 10:32:36 -0700, "Cavity Search" <[email protected]>
wrote in <[email protected]>:

>"Kenster" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> I have a Motorola V220 and my wife has a V180. We recently moved to a
>> home in the country with a metal roof. Our reception through most of
>> the house is very poor, mostly only one bar. A air conditioning repair
>> guy was in the house last week and made a call. He had a Motorola
>> something 600 series?? and had great reception inside the house with
>> four bars.
>> I'm thinking of upgrading. Does anyone else have similar experience or
>> suggestions for a phone with very strong reception?

>[SNIP]
>You can also look for phones that have an external antenna option.
>www.wilsonelectronics.com offers several adapters for phones with a plug
>(sorry, I checked, and neither of yours has one). Although this can be
>cumbersome in the home, they work great in the car. I've had one for a
>couple years for my Samsung s307, and it's saved my bacon more than once.

External antennas can be effective and reasonably convenient even in the
house. The ARC Freedom antenna (link in the FAQ below) has been a
godsend to a friend of mine that formerly couldn't get any reception
inside her home.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>