What's the deal with Stubby Antennas?

I can't say I've ever seen my CDMA signals fluctuate that much, even way back when I had Sprint, the king of dropped calls. If you are in a fringy (fringey? new word) area, with your closest site passing alot of traffic I can see fluctuation, but that is still extreme.

 

Thanks for the feedback Rich, if you are correct about the SE47 connector not being an antenna connector then it is puzzling that half a dozen companies sell antenna pigtails for the connector. When i questioned the antenna company about the problem it bacame apparent they are clueless so the equipment went back.

Verizon does not sell any external antenna equipment and won't discuss the matter, same is true of kyocera. I guess I bought the wrong phone and the accessory companies are not to be trusted.

I still need a phone that can be used with verizon that supports external antennas.

 

I can't say enough about my LG VX4400, always good RF performance. Many Samsungs appear to have antenna connectors as well.

Regarding your experience with Verizon and Kyocera: yes it seems any question other than dialing and talking on the phone is a top secret matter for most companies. A friend went through the same thing asking about a Samsung x427 connector. The attitude is "You don't need to know what that is for, we're not going to tell you what that is for, do not ask us what it is for, there is no such thing as an external antenna for your cell phone"

 

Wilson makes adapters for most Samsung models. I would assume that Wilson has checked at least some of these for functionality.

My recent Samsung phones (SGH-r220, SCH-A310, SCH-i600) have external antenna plugs. The old SCH-4400 does not.

If I remember correctly, the Nokia handsfree car adapter for the 51xx/61xx series phones uses the external antenna plug.

 

What does all that mean, obviously "SID" is system ID & "PCS Channel" is PCS Channel but what does db stand for and why does it always seem to be a negative number? Does anyone know of an online guide which would teach me how to read all this stuff (and teach me how to put my Motorola Timeport P8090 in Field Test mode?)

 

That's what I thought db stood for but I couldn't figure out how that related to signal strength. I think maybe the "-" is a dash and not a negative.

 

the "-" is indeed a negative. the RX power on wireless devices is expressed in dBm (Decibels in reference to 1 milliwatt.)

0 dBm means there is 1 milliwatt of power entering the phones receiver
-3 dBm = 1/2 milliwatt
-6 = 1/4 milliwatt
-9 = 1/8
-12=1/16

or if you prefer...
-10 = 0.1 mw
-20 = 0.01
-30 = 0.001
-40 = 0.0001

and so forth all the way down. to the standard -50 to -115 range your phone usually displays.

The highest signal I've ever recorded was -18 dBm. It was in an AT&T store at the mall with the microcell panel mounted in the ceiling (only a 7 foot ceiling or so) as I held my phone up to it within a foot.

 

I have a sprint tower on my apt complex here that is literally 20 feet above my head. When I was with Sprint, I had readings in the -20 range usually...

 

This conversation came up a few years ago. Always a good discussion.

I have found similar results like Bobolito. CDMA has always fluctuated a lot. It would bounce from -94 to -104 at my mothers house. Never dropped calls, until I got my LG 4400. All other phones are fine there. TDMA(Cingular) is terrible there, like -105 reading, which is always consistant. GSM (Cingular+ATT) is great there, however, I cannot get a -db reading. GSM and TDMA bars and -dbs do seem to stay constant, while CDMA fluctuates, much more so on Sprint PCS, which can be -80 then be -104, all on the same tower!

Pulling out the antenna always helped my reception on Verizon. About -3 to -5 decibel increase. This did help a lot in fringe areas. However, on my nokia, the external antenna never helped. The internal CDMA antenna did a fine job. That internal antenna completed calls where no 4400 or 6000 could (extendable and stub).