Cell Phone Signal DX'ing

A few nights ago, I was listening to DX FM radio signals mostly from the Columbia area,
about 100 miles away to my south.

I decided to make a call, but only noticed 1 bar signal strength when it's usually 3 or 4.

So I checked the SID and it said 182 (Columbia SC Alltel).
I live about 75 miles from the nearest SID 182 tower.

I checked it again and it said 1640 (for Laurens SC) and the closest 1640 signal is 35 miles away.

I was surprised to see what was on my phone.

I guess the atmosphere was right and my phone was idle, so my phone was somehow communicating with these signals far away.

The Alltel tower serving my house (on SID 114) is 3 miles to my north. Nothing really south for about 10 miles.

The calls wouldn't go through on these far away SIDs,
so I had to go to the north end of my house to pick up the 114 tower 3 miles north.

 

No it was digital. I didn't get the AMPS-B signal.
Channel 384 is for the 800 mhz digital B-Carrier serving the area.
Alltel uses channels 384, 426 & 468 in Upstate SC
Other B-Carrier channels include 466 & 507.

 

Well the night began a bit foggy, but by the early morning it was a clear sky.
I was receiving these signals around 3am that night. By then, the sky was clearing up.

Lots of times the FM radio DX signals will come from a particular direction on a certain night.

Some nights I'll get Atlanta,
others include Greensboro (Triad), Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Charleston & Savannah.

On these nights, I would only get any one or two of these cities.

I just didn't think that digital cellular signals would be affected like this as well.
Or at least you wouldn't notice it if you already have a strong signal.

 

It's fun, just go somewhere into a low signal area.

That same night, I was force roaming on Sprint, and getting NID 00068 on SID 4376 (field test mode).
That Sprint NID covers Columbia as well.

The Sprint signal at my house is the only low signal available of them all.

Verizon has a strong signal at my house, so I couldn't do any DXing on Verizon.
But I would've got SID 189.

 

Here is a map of the Alltel SIDs in the Carolinas.
The red dot west of Charlotte is my location.
As you could see, the other SID signals had to skip over the 114 & 116 signals to my south to get to me.

There are some errors though, SID 350 is for the Florence, SC area
and SID 114 does not cover any part of Western NC (any area above SID 116)

I got the map from another post on WirelessAdvisor (although the map is gone now, but I saved it):

 

DX'ing is usually easier atop mountain peaks, so I always bring my cell phone and do those field tests,
and I look at every 800 & 1900 mhz block in use (*22800 - *22807 codes) and I find some unusual stuff on those freqs as well.

 

The Grundig S350 is most definetly the best AM/FM/SW for the money.
It's newer version, the S350DL (Deluxe) is at radio shack for $100, but it performs like a $500 car radio.
It's also found cheap on ebay.



Anyway, DX'ing is pretty cool, because you never know what your gonna get.

My cell phone is just a normal, standard LG AX4270, and I never expected that performance.
But I guess that just means it's a very good phone

 

DX'ing on each the AM & FM bands work differently.
Your desribing DXing on the AM radio band. This is somewhat easy on most clear nights.
Nightly AM signals at my location come from as far north as Boston/NYC and as west as St Louis.

For FM DXing, you need a good radio, like the one I described above.
FM DXing on the east coast is easiest on humid summer evenings, and on clear nights after 1 AM.
For the west coast, I believe it's best in the springtime on some evenings.
FM DXing works best away from major cities and other strong stations.

A few months ago, with my Grundig S350, I was getting FM DX signals from San Antonio (KAJA)
and Houston (KRBE) as well as some others along the Gulf Coast.

 

I really think the S350 or the S350 Deluxe will make you happy.
I just looked on ebay, and there aren't alot on there, but other times there are.
I sold one and bought another one on ebay a few months back.