Cell Phone Questions - Signal Problems & Audio Quality

For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking the
question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you might
be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book about
antenna theory.

I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to a
new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of the
yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and came
away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service and
try another provider

1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?

2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
signal. Likely or not?

3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone, even
though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've made an
observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers have
gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to also
kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow (turning
away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort of
special effects in a B-movie.

Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio quality
for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone who
has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys. If
I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
novel if they could understand me.

---

› See More: Cell Phone Questions - Signal Problems & Audio Quality

"Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking the
> question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you
might
> be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book about
> antenna theory.
>
> I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to a
> new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of
the
> yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
> service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and came
> away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service and
> try another provider
>
> 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
> able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from
my
> home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
>
> 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> signal. Likely or not?
>
> 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone, even
> though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
> pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've made
an
> observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
> when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers
have
> gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
> arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to also
> kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
> useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
> tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow
(turning
> away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort
of
> special effects in a B-movie.
>
> Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio
quality
> for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
> equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone
who
> has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys.
If
> I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
> novel if they could understand me.

The problem could very well be with your old phone. Do you have any family,
friends or co-horts @ work who use SPCS? If you do, invite them over and she
whether their new phones show improved coverage to make and receive calls
throughout the house.

In saying that, with you just moving, you could have moved into fringe
coverage as well.

Maybe you can post a reply, listing out when you live, within a couple of
near intersections. Someone in the SPCS newsgroup might be close to you and
provide some information.

Bob

"Bob Smith" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking
the
> > question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you
> might
> > be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book
about
> > antenna theory.
> >
> > I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to
a
> > new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of
> the
> > yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
> > service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and
came
> > away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service
and
> > try another provider
> >
> > 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was
actually
> > able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from
> my
> > home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> > hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> > nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
> >
> > 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> > uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> > signal. Likely or not?
> >
> > 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone,
even
> > though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
> > pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've
made
> an
> > observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
> > when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers
> have
> > gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
> > arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to
also
> > kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
> > useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
> > tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow
> (turning
> > away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort
> of
> > special effects in a B-movie.
> >
> > Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio
> quality
> > for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
> > equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone
> who
> > has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys.
> If
> > I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
> > novel if they could understand me.
>
> The problem could very well be with your old phone. Do you have any
family,
> friends or co-horts @ work who use SPCS? If you do, invite them over and
she
> whether their new phones show improved coverage to make and receive calls
> throughout the house.
>
> In saying that, with you just moving, you could have moved into fringe
> coverage as well.
>
> Maybe you can post a reply, listing out when you live, within a couple of
> near intersections. Someone in the SPCS newsgroup might be close to you
and
> provide some information.
>
> Bob
>
>

3 blocks from the junction of route 590 and Empire Blvd in Rochester NY. As
far as "fringe", I mentioned that the nearest antenna is a mile away over
flat land.

"Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
> able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
> home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?

Probably true. I am an RF engineer (retired) and it makes sense to me
that the tower antenna would be designed to have maximum response
in the direction of the highway that they're trying to cover.
There are solutions to your home location reception problem (external
Yagi antenna hooked to an in-house repeater) but it's quite expensive.

--
John Richards

John Richards wrote:

> "Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
> > able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
> > home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> > hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> > nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
>
> Probably true. I am an RF engineer (retired) and it makes sense to me
> that the tower antenna would be designed to have maximum response
> in the direction of the highway that they're trying to cover.
> There are solutions to your home location reception problem (external
> Yagi antenna hooked to an in-house repeater) but it's quite expensive.

I've seen some setups that only use two yagi's, one in the home (or business), and the other outside,
connected only by cable. No repeater involved.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

"dxAce" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> John Richards wrote:
>
> > "Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > > 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was
actually
> > > able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile
from my
> > > home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind.
No
> > > hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> > > nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
> >
> > Probably true. I am an RF engineer (retired) and it makes sense to me
> > that the tower antenna would be designed to have maximum response
> > in the direction of the highway that they're trying to cover.
> > There are solutions to your home location reception problem (external
> > Yagi antenna hooked to an in-house repeater) but it's quite expensive.
>
> I've seen some setups that only use two yagi's, one in the home (or
business), and the other outside,
> connected only by cable. No repeater involved.
>
> dxAce
> Michigan
> USA
>
>

And this does what? Somehow redirects the cellular signal into the home???

On Mon 11 Oct 2004 11:57:29a, "Doug Kanter" <[email protected]>
wrote in message news:[email protected]:

> For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking
> the question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of
> you might be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound
> book about antenna theory.
>
> I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to
> a new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle
> of the yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of
> customer service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store
> today and came away with some questions I need answered before I
> terminate my service and try another provider
>
> 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was
> actually able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a
> mile from my home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of
> any kind. No hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says
> this explains nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or
> false?
>
> 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> signal. Likely or not?
>
> 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone,
> even though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games,
> digital pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But,
> I've made an observation over the past few years while listening to the
> sound quality when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some
> manufacturers have gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise
> cancelling arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the
> phone to also kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course,
> makes the phone useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high
> winds, and people tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the
> wind somehow (turning away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone
> as opposed to some sort of special effects in a B-movie.
>
> Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio
> quality for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider
> upgrading equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input
> from anyone who has been through this and can recommend brands/models
> which aren't toys. If I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell
> phone, it would be really novel if they could understand me.
>
>

Doug,

Look at the amps available from Wilson. It's a solution that won't have you
tethered to an antenna cable. That *may* be one answer to your situation:

http://www.wilsonelectronics.com

You can find these on eBay fairly regularly.

-=jd=-
--
My Current Disposable Email:
[email protected]
(Remove YOUR HAT to reply directly)

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 15:57:29 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking the
>question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you might
>be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book about
>antenna theory.
>
>I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to a
>new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of the
>yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
>service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and came
>away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service and
>try another provider
>
>1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
>able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
>home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
>hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
>nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
Maybe. Look at the towers and see what is up their. Typical antenna
has about a 120 degree beam width, but if one of those beams isn't
pointing in your general direction, no signal.

As for improved sensitivity with new technology? BS. Receiver
technology has changed remarkably little in the past 40 years. The RF
performance of the handset is mostly related to the antenna design in
the headset. Some are much better than other. For example some
relatively Ericsson GSM handsets like the R520M have outstanding RF
peformance, some newer onces like the T68 were legenady for poor RF
performance. Has little to do with new or old, everything to do with
that particular design. Another headset might well give you much
better performance, but that probably has little to do with whether it
was a design from 5 years ago or 5 months ago.
>
>2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
>uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
>signal. Likely or not?
>
>3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone, even
>though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
>pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've made an
>observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
>when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers have
>gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
>arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to also
>kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
>useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
>tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow (turning
>away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort of
>special effects in a B-movie.
>
>Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio quality
>for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
>equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone who
>has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys. If
>I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
>novel if they could understand me.
>
The design of the CDMA Codec allows the exchange of voice quality for
network capacity. if you want reliable high quality voice, get rid of
the CDMA phone. GSM Codec's don't have that feature (it isn't useful
on a GSM network). You probably should see what sort of GSM signal you
can get at home. Coverage does vary between carriers.

"dxAce" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
>
> Doug Kanter wrote:
>
> > "dxAce" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > >
> > >
> > > John Richards wrote:
> > >
> > > > "Doug Kanter" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:[email protected]...
> > > > > 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was
> > actually
> > > > > able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a
mile
> > from my
> > > > > home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any
kind.
> > No
> > > > > hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this
explains
> > > > > nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
> > > >
> > > > Probably true. I am an RF engineer (retired) and it makes sense to
me
> > > > that the tower antenna would be designed to have maximum response
> > > > in the direction of the highway that they're trying to cover.
> > > > There are solutions to your home location reception problem
(external
> > > > Yagi antenna hooked to an in-house repeater) but it's quite
expensive.
> > >
> > > I've seen some setups that only use two yagi's, one in the home (or
> > business), and the other outside,
> > > connected only by cable. No repeater involved.
> > >
> > > dxAce
> > > Michigan
> > > USA
> > >
> > >
> >
> > And this does what? Somehow redirects the cellular signal into the
home???
>
> What would be your best guess??? ;-)
>
> I have no idea whether it works or not.

Well, not being knowledgable about that kind of antenna, the best guess I
could make is that it's sort of like wearing aluminum foil inside your hat.
:-)

Trying a different model at home yourself or having friends try their
phones at your home is a good idea. For calling the Coast Guard,
perhaps getting a marine radio would be better.


Doug Kanter wrote:

> For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking the
> question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you might
> be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book about
> antenna theory.
>
> I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to a
> new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of the
> yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
> service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and came
> away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service and
> try another provider
>
> 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
> able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
> home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
>
> 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> signal. Likely or not?
>
> 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone, even
> though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
> pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've made an
> observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
> when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers have
> gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
> arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to also
> kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
> useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
> tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow (turning
> away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort of
> special effects in a B-movie.
>
> Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio quality
> for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
> equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone who
> has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys. If
> I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
> novel if they could understand me.
>
>

I have a marine radio, but I'm obsessive about duplicate safety measures in
my boat. The yacht is only 14', though, so a permanently mounted radio is
out of the question. I have a handheld. I keep about two dozen AA batteries
on board in case the unit's rechargeables go dead, but still....I like
having the cell phone too.

"Jerome Zelinske" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Trying a different model at home yourself or having friends try their
> phones at your home is a good idea. For calling the Coast Guard,
> perhaps getting a marine radio would be better.
>
>
> Doug Kanter wrote:
>
> > For those of you reading this in rec.radio.shortwave who are thinking
the
> > question doesn't belong here: Take it as a compliment, OK? Some of you
might
> > be the type whose idea of great bathroom reading is a 17 pound book
about
> > antenna theory.
> >
> > I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to
a
> > new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of
the
> > yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
> > service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and
came
> > away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service
and
> > try another provider
> >
> > 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was
actually
> > able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from
my
> > home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> > hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> > nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?
> >
> > 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> > uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> > signal. Likely or not?
> >
> > 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone,
even
> > though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
> > pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've
made an
> > observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
> > when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers
have
> > gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
> > arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to
also
> > kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
> > useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
> > tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow
(turning
> > away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort
of
> > special effects in a B-movie.
> >
> > Cell phone salesmen (and 98% of customers) seem to take crummy audio
quality
> > for granted, or know nothing about it. So, before I consider upgrading
> > equipment, I'm hoping for the unlikely: Some specific input from anyone
who
> > has been through this and can recommend brands/models which aren't toys.
If
> > I ever have to call the Coast Guard on my cell phone, it would be really
> > novel if they could understand me.
> >
> >

I used to have crappy coverage (non-existant at home) until I switched
to Verizon (800 mHz CDMA G3). It works flawlessly.

You can switch providers and keep your existing number. It's called
''porting''. Radio Shack are the experts.

"David" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>I used to have crappy coverage (non-existant at home) until I switched
> to Verizon (800 mHz CDMA G3). It works flawlessly.
>
> You can switch providers and keep your existing number. It's called
> ''porting''. Radio Shack are the experts.

Porting is old news by now. But I would not trust what a Radio Shack
rep says. Time after time I discovered that I knew more about a
product than the RS sales clerk.

--
John Richards

"David" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I used to have crappy coverage (non-existant at home) until I switched
> to Verizon (800 mHz CDMA G3). It works flawlessly.
>
> You can switch providers and keep your existing number. It's called
> ''porting''. Radio Shack are the experts.

I'm aware of the porting issue. And, Verizon is known around here for having
great coverage in rural areas, which Sprint does not.

This leaves me with evaluating the audio quality of the phones themselves
(not the network, but the individual phone models).

Doug Kanter wrote:

> I use SprintPCS with a 4 year old Motorola StarTac ST7867. Just moved to a
> new house and I can barely get a signal unless I stand in the middle of the
> yard. That's problematic in winter. After grilling a couple of customer
> service reps on the phone, I stopped into the Sprint store today and came
> away with some questions I need answered before I terminate my service and
> try another provider
>
> 1) The salesman was the first Sprint employee I've found who was actually
> able to show me the actual location of antennas. There's one a mile from my
> home, and 2 others within 5 miles, with no obstructions of any kind. No
> hills, no tall buildings, just trees and homes. He says this explains
> nothing because he signal is highly directional. True or false?

Resoundly True. Cell sites use directional antennae... in fact in an
area where buildout is mature, they sort of have to. Cell sites, even
those that operate on CDMA as Sprint does, are sectorized to reduce
interference with neighboring cells on different pilot signals.


> 2) His next suggestion was (of course) to try a newer phone because mine
> uses "older technology" which might not be able to pick up such a great
> signal. Likely or not?

Actually, very likely. The 7867 is a 5 year old design at least, and
the network has changed quite a bit since then. The carriers have
worked to squeeze more capacity out of the network, and in CDMA that
means a generally higher signal to noise ratio (in CDMA, all other
conversations happening on the same channel are "noise" to your
particular handset), and thus greater tolerance requirements for a
higher noise floor. This has forced chipmakers (mainly Qualcomm) to
come up with better, more sensitive RF stages for newer handsets.

The result is your old phone will still work with the present network,
but not as well as it did four years ago even in the best of
circumstances. If you put a current-model Sanyo side by side with your
StarTAC, the Sanyo will probably receive a better signal nearly all of
the time.

> 3) Here's the tricky part: I'm not totally adverse to a newer phone, even
> though I have absolutely NO need for color, email, songs, games, digital
> pictures, or any other crap. I just need a friggin' phone. But, I've made an
> observation over the past few years while listening to the sound quality
> when people call me from THEIR phones. It seems that some manufacturers have
> gone WAY off the deep end when designing their noise cancelling
> arrangements. In many instances, background noise causes the phone to also
> kill or scramble the voice of the user. This, of course, makes the phone
> useless. I make quite a few calls from my boat in high winds, and people
> tell me that as long as I'm manually dealing with the wind somehow (turning
> away, etc), the phone sounds like a normal phone as opposed to some sort of
> special effects in a B-movie.

Yeah, a casualty of the need to squeeze capacity is sound quality.
Vocoder ("VOice enCODER") bitrates have gone down, and that means your
StarTAC which uses a 13kbps vocoder will sound better than the
8kpbs/variable-rate vocoder on today's phones. However, some phone
manufacturers are still better than others. A lot of people (including
myself) swear by the Sanyo models. Samsungs aren't all that great, and
the jury is still out on LG.

Of course nothing, not even a StarTAC, beats the sound quality on the
original Qualcom QCP-2700s that Sprint first started out with back in
1996. I had one and could swear that phone sounded as good, and
sometimes even better, than a landline. It was small and light, and it
was solidly built... if you smashed the 2700 against a brick, my bet
would be that the phone would win and the brick would lose.

Sadly, none of that is true with current phones from any wireless
carrier these days.

Before jumping ship, I would give the Sanyo 4920 a try. It's the
descendant of the 4900, which Sprint users have been raving about for a
while as being the best phone (of current models, anyway) for call
quality and for holding a signal.

--
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