Reception in a 'No Reception' Zone

I recently witnessed a weird phenomena.

When I visit SW Wisconsin (my parents), there is no GSM service around. I've accepted that and it's no biggie. But what's weird is that when I was coming home a couple of times, my wife and I both received 5 bar reception for about 2 minutes of driving time. Then, it went out. (But enough to check messages)

Both times the weather was somewhat overcast, so I was wondering if the overhead cloud cover and wet conditions can actually 'bounce' the signal from the nearest GSM tower. Just an idea, as I think this used to happen to us with far away radio station signals.

Any thoughts?

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Depending on the carrier, some carriers have GSM partner networks. You could have pulled in a tower that was owned by another person or company other than your carrier which might have been the only one in the area that was hooked up for the partnership. 9 mile radius on all towers so if you were driving, it might have been a bit before you noticed it, or you were going really really fast....

good theory, but i've done a tower search on that area before. no gsm carriers within 9 miles. closest tower (t-mobile) is in freeport, IL (32 miles away).

it's a total freak phenomena which i'm trying to figure out.

did you activate the GSM parner tower and the Legacy ATT tower options, or just do it under current Orange GSM?

you have got me stumped. i'm just on the factory settings, and my lg doesn't have a tower selection mode like some other phones.

i know i'm roaming on t-mobile by freeport, il. i can't seem to even find another carrier in the vicinity of where i got the freak reception.

can you expand on what you're hinting at?

well, it depends if you have access to cingular's CSP Map tool. if you are an agent or employed by Cingular, you can access that. if not, I'm not really sure where you did a tower search at. the phone won't really be able to do a search other than check out avalible networks. if you want, give me the address that you got your burst of service at and i can look it up.

well, no exact address. zip code: 53587
closest address: 4844 stuart rd; south wayne, wi 53587

good luck & thanx!

well, that threw that idea out the window, there wasn't a tower around that address for at least 25 miles...
there is only one thing left to explain it then..
UFO's did it...
..
ok, not really, but i'm out of ideas then. A cloud might bounce a signal enough to flash the reading of a couple of bars for a few seconds, but 2 minutes of really using your phone with completely full reception is mind boggling...

tell me about it. and it was on 2 ocassions, both overcast nights.

Originally Posted by zender92gsr

well, that threw that idea out the window...

so is it safe to say, in your professional opinion, that you are completely stumped?

That is the case. Unless you were about 2 miles from the southern border, there should have been no towers near to pick up a signal. The address that you gave me was approx. 15 or 20 miles from the border and there was no coverage there. Do you have an unlocked phone? or an old-school TDMA phone?

nah, lg c1300. gsm all the way. it's so shocking as i sometimes get no reception in good reception areas (chicagoland). lol, i think the aliens are messin' with me.

One more thing, was the phone reading Cingular on the display, or did it have another network name?

i guess i should have checked, but it was dark, and we were scrambling to check our voicemail. plus, i was driving on the wisconsin farmland backroads, so i was focusing more on the task at hand...lol. you wondering if it was cingular, or another gsm carrier?

yeah, could have been abouther carrier's tower... Cingular's GSM partner network stuff.. I'm suprized about the phone dude, I would have thought that the moderator of the for sale/wanted forum would have a little more meat under his gsm hood. The 1300 has been notorious for no-goodness. plain and simple. Reception, call clarity, software issues and the like. That still wouldn't give crazy phantom service though. were you up in the area of the address that you gave me, or possibly south near the border a few miles?