No ring in remote area - Motorola 3watt bag phone.

Well I was able to sneak up north a week early to get in my last
little bit of snowmobiling before the snow melts. I contacted the
cell phone company to see if they could help out at all and as
expected they were pretty much no help at all. I went through three
separate "Customer Service Representatives" (CSR) before I got
anywhere at all. None of them could tell me anything technical about
my call to them using the cell. They had no idea what cell I was
using or what path my call was taking. All they could do was to "put
in a trouble ticket" and call me back. So I'm back to square one.
Two of the CSRs did agree that my elevation could be a problem, but I
already know that from reading about why you shouldn't use a cell
phone from a plane.

My call was placed about 5km closer to the working zone than my usual
spot and I used the OEM flex antenna. The last CSR called my phone
and to my surprise it actually rung. I asked him what he did and he
said "nothing". The only differences between this time and the last
time I called from that location is there is less foliage on the trees
and it's colder. I asked him if he could force which ever cell the
system was using to ring my phone to always be the cell that tries to
ring the phone and he said he couldn't do that - but he could put in a
"trouble ticket". So he put in a trouble ticket.

I took the phone back to its regular remote site and had my daughter
call it from home - no ring. The antenna mast is frozen right now so
I can't adjust it to try another tower. One CSR went through all the
local areas that have service and I found out that there is an area
that is physically closer but the signal is actually weaker (from my
test last summer). I am going to try pointing to that area next
(after the mast thaws). I'll post back when I get more details.

Regards,
pjwlk

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› See More: No ring in remote area - Motorola 3watt bag phone.

Well I was able to sneak up north a week early to get in my last
little bit of snowmobiling before the snow melts. I contacted the
cell phone company to see if they could help out at all and as
expected they were pretty much no help at all. I went through three
separate "Customer Service Representatives" (CSR) before I got
anywhere at all. None of them could tell me anything technical about
my call to them using the cell. They had no idea what cell I was
using or what path my call was taking. All they could do was to "put
in a trouble ticket" and call me back. So I'm back to square one.
Two of the CSRs did agree that my elevation could be a problem, but I
already know that from reading about why you shouldn't use a cell
phone from a plane.

My call was placed about 5km closer to the working zone than my usual
spot and I used the OEM flex antenna. The last CSR called my phone
and to my surprise it actually rung. I asked him what he did and he
said "nothing". The only differences between this time and the last
time I called from that location is there is less foliage on the trees
and it's colder. I asked him if he could force which ever cell the
system was using to ring my phone to always be the cell that tries to
ring the phone and he said he couldn't do that - but he could put in a
"trouble ticket". So he put in a trouble ticket.

I took the phone back to its regular remote site and had my daughter
call it from home - no ring. The antenna mast is frozen right now so
I can't adjust it to try another tower. One CSR went through all the
local areas that have service and I found out that there is an area
that is physically closer but the signal is actually weaker (from my
test last summer). I am going to try pointing to that area next
(after the mast thaws). I'll post back when I get more details.

Regards,
pjwlk