External antenna. Can it help?

I live on a hillside and barely get coverage in certain parts of my
yard, not in the house. Haven't tried using the cell phone on the
roof yet. Can an external antenna pick up signals where a cell
phone's internal antenna won't?If my living room was literally 25 feet
straight above where it is I may not have the problem.

The goal is to be able to put up an external antenna and set up some
kind of base station at my desk. The cell phone currently transfers
forward to my home phone but my cell is my business phone and I'd kind
of like to know how to answer the phone when I'm called.

Thanks for any help,

Steve

friscuba@hawaii.rr.com (friscuba) wrote:

>I live on a hillside and barely get coverage in certain parts of my
>yard, not in the house. Haven't tried using the cell phone on the
>roof yet. Can an external antenna pick up signals where a cell
>phone's internal antenna won't?If my living room was literally 25 feet
>straight above where it is I may not have the problem.
>
>The goal is to be able to put up an external antenna and set up some
>kind of base station at my desk. The cell phone currently transfers
>forward to my home phone but my cell is my business phone and I'd kind
>of like to know how to answer the phone when I'm called.
>
> Thanks for any help,
>
> Steve

I have a car kit installed on my desk with the
antenna outside the window of the office. I use
the hands-free to make/receive calls.

--

Mike @ www.lefkada-homes.com

External antenna beats internals' hands down..

"Mike @ www.lefkada-homes.com" <mike@sivros.net> wrote in message
news:i0jvnv4ni4mr8hpf8jvghdpaje44gkinql@4ax.com...
| friscuba@hawaii.rr.com (friscuba) wrote:
|
| >I live on a hillside and barely get coverage in certain parts of my
| >yard, not in the house. Haven't tried using the cell phone on the
| >roof yet. Can an external antenna pick up signals where a cell
| >phone's internal antenna won't?If my living room was literally 25 feet
| >straight above where it is I may not have the problem.
| >
| >The goal is to be able to put up an external antenna and set up some
| >kind of base station at my desk. The cell phone currently transfers
| >forward to my home phone but my cell is my business phone and I'd kind
| >of like to know how to answer the phone when I'm called.
| >
| > Thanks for any help,
| >
| > Steve
|
| I have a car kit installed on my desk with the
| antenna outside the window of the office. I use
| the hands-free to make/receive calls.
|
| --
|
| Mike @ www.lefkada-homes.com

"friscuba" <friscuba@hawaii.rr.com> wrote in message
news:a52836e5.0310041719.4d509add@posting.google.c om...
> Can an external antenna pick up signals where a cell
> phone's internal antenna won't?

Yes, but most of what is gained by the antenna can be lost in the poor
quality co-ax cable that comes with it. Try and keep the antenna cable as
short as possible and try not to put very sharp bends in it as this results
in loss (I can't remember from my Amateur Radio stuff why this was, sorry).
Also, go for an antenna which looks like an antenna - not one of these "tax
disk holder" ones or anything else. In my experience, a co-linear gives the
best gain in the commercially available ones.

Adam