Phone reception - is there any reliable information?

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

On Wed, 01 Jun 2005 14:51:49 GMT, "swingman" <sbt@silcom.com> wrote:

>I changed to Verizon and got a VX4500 phone last year. This was a real
>improvement over the phone and service I had previously, but my phone
>reception is still not as good as I'd like in my home. It may be a coverage
>issue, but phones make a difference. There are many subjective phone
>reviews on the web, but is anyone doing more scientific testing to determine
>which phones have the best RF, etc?
>

You can find a lot of useful information here.

http://www.howardforums.com/

The present consenus for the best Verizon phones seems to be the
Motorla V265, Motorola V710, and the Nokia 6015.

I have found the V710 to have excellent reception. It is much better
than my previous LG VX 6000. The LG4500 was noted as a good phone in
high signal areas but has poor reception in marginal areas.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Often the best answers is an external antenna. My house has metal siding
and I'm in a weak signal area. I can barely get a call through upstairs
(50/50 dropped) and almost never from downstairs in the basement where my
hobby room is. So... an external antenna works well for me. 100 percent
success... although tethered to an antenna wire. Total cost around $60 for
phone antenna adapter cord and antenna. For ~$500 you can do the same thing
with a wireless repeater amplifier and you wont be tethered. This is all
assuming you have at least a small signal outside your house to
boost/amplify with an external antenna.

-Frank

"swingman" <sbt@silcom.com> wrote in message
news:9Yjne.1767$4u.1257@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com...
>I changed to Verizon and got a VX4500 phone last year. This was a real
>improvement over the phone and service I had previously, but my phone
>reception is still not as good as I'd like in my home. It may be a
>coverage issue, but phones make a difference. There are many subjective
>phone reviews on the web, but is anyone doing more scientific testing to
>determine which phones have the best RF, etc?
>

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Guess that's a valid question since many users claim their phone get's
great reception.

Best source reliable info IMO, is from users or cell dealers who have
used many phones and made many calls from the same fringe area.
Basically, those that have tested several phones by making lots of
calls. Signal measurements from reading the debug screen may give some
clue as to phone reception.

But there's nothing like lots of real life empirical data by testing
multiple handsets from the same fringe location, making many calls and
comparing call completion rates.

There's a large number of "best reception" or "best fringe reception"
phone threads on many newsgroups or the Howardforums site, that
repeatedly state many users have good results with several top
performing phones. The Nokia 3589i and Motorola v710 are often
mentioned as top performers. An external antenna, provided the handset
is capable of accepting that kind of connection, can improve fringe
perfomance quite a bit.

There's several antenna types and sizes with different amounts of
signal gain within each type. A very long, multi element, directional
Yagi(paging beam) would a top performer, but might be overkill or an
impractical design, say for car use. An omni-directional 3db magmount
car antenna works well for many users, needing just a little more gain,
by moving the antenna outside a automobile's or home's construction
materials, which can reduce the signal to the handset's built in
antenna.

Keep in mind when reading revues that not all great performing handsets
work equally well in digital AND analog modes, like the Nokia 3589i.
Great digital but so-so analog.

Phones without an extendable antenna (stub) are consistantly poor
fringe analog area performers and usually poor fringe digital
performers as well.

criterioncelluar.com has a nice antenna tutorial. Checkout the
cellantenna.com (or is it cellularantenna.com?) Q/A forum too.

-
David

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

In article <9Yjne.1767$4u.1257@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com>,
sbt@silcom.com says...
> I changed to Verizon and got a VX4500 phone last year. This was a real
> improvement over the phone and service I had previously, but my phone
> reception is still not as good as I'd like in my home. It may be a coverage
> issue, but phones make a difference. There are many subjective phone
> reviews on the web, but is anyone doing more scientific testing to determine
> which phones have the best RF, etc?
>
>
>
I had the LG4400 and it was constantly dropping signals or cutting in
and out in poor signal areas, although it was fine with good signals.

I finally replaced it with the moto V710. The difference is unmistable.
I've not dropped one call, or had it cut in and out once, in several
weeks. AND, although not quite scientific, I've used it and compared
it, in all the same locations that I know to have weak signals.

Louise

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

swingman,
I am a Verizon user and recently moved to a rural area that basically
had no service. Both my wife's phone and my phone would show analog
most of the time and every once in a while show a 1x signal, but this
was rare. I purchased two Wilson Trucker external antennas and
adapters off of EBay and that cured the problem. I mounted one at each
end of the house and now I get a solid 1x signal on both phones. No
dropped calls! You can purchase one by going to EBay and searching for
this EBay item:
5743043467
The BuyItNow price is $45.95 which includes the Wilson adapter. 2 day
USPS Priority shipping is $8.95. I ordered mine on a Monday morning
and it arrived on Wednesday morning, coming from 1200 miles away! By
the way, I have no affiliation with this EBay seller other than as a
very satisfied customer.
Hope this helps.
Ted/

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Swingman,
I don't understand your question. My wife has a LG-VX3200 phone
connected to a Wilson Trucker outdoor antenna mounted just outside our
living room. I have a LG-VX6100 phone connected to a Wilson Trucker
outdoor antenna mounted just outside our kitchen. After 43 years of
wired phone service and outrageous long distance charges, we finally
cut the cord and now are strictly wireless; no roaming, no long
distance charges and, as a bonus, high speed internet access.
The finest cell phone antennas are made by Wilson Electronics in St.
George, Utah. You can check them out here:
http://wilsonelectronics.com/
Ted/

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

"Ted" <tedsaselli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117936237.813364.61550@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> swingman,
> I am a Verizon user and recently moved to a rural area
> that basically
> had no service. Both my wife's phone and my phone would
> show analog
> most of the time and every once in a while show a 1x
> signal, but this
> was rare. I purchased two Wilson Trucker external
> antennas and
> adapters off of EBay and that cured the problem. I
> mounted one at each
> end of the house and now I get a solid 1x signal on both
> phones. No
> dropped calls! You can purchase one by going to EBay and
> searching for
> this EBay item:
> 5743043467
> The BuyItNow price is $45.95 which includes the Wilson
> adapter. 2 day
> USPS Priority shipping is $8.95. I ordered mine on a
> Monday morning
> and it arrived on Wednesday morning, coming from 1200
> miles away! By
> the way, I have no affiliation with this EBay seller other
> than as a
> very satisfied customer.
> Hope this helps.
> Ted/

I was intrigued and checked this out. I don't doubt this
works, but you no longer have a wireless phone, yes?

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

"Ted" <tedsaselli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117972359.868743.36750@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Swingman,
> I don't understand your question. My wife has a LG-VX3200
> phone
> connected to a Wilson Trucker outdoor antenna mounted just
> outside our
> living room. I have a LG-VX6100 phone connected to a
> Wilson Trucker
> outdoor antenna mounted just outside our kitchen. After
> 43 years of
> wired phone service and outrageous long distance charges,
> we finally
> cut the cord and now are strictly wireless; no roaming, no
> long
> distance charges and, as a bonus, high speed internet
> access.
> The finest cell phone antennas are made by Wilson
> Electronics in St.
> George, Utah. You can check them out here:
> http://wilsonelectronics.com/
> Ted/

Sorry I wasn't clear. When I said "you no longer have a
wireless phone" I meant you are tethered to the antenna
wire.

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Ted, hats off to wilson antennas, but you have two phones and two antennas.
And I'm sure they work as long as you have the antenna plugged into the
phone. While it would be more expensive, you'd still have mobile phones if
you had added the wilson amplifier instead of the 2nd antenna. About $400
or so as a package. Wilson is the good stuff for sure; but your great
reception requires you to be plugged in. And if that works for you,
excellent. dr.
--
dr.news Better Price? (not better than you deserve, just more than you are
used to)
If I can help: dr.news@better-price.biz.nospam or thru this notes forum.

"Ted" <tedsaselli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117936237.813364.61550@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> swingman,
> I am a Verizon user and recently moved to a rural area that basically
> had no service. Both my wife's phone and my phone would show analog
> most of the time and every once in a while show a 1x signal, but this
> was rare. I purchased two Wilson Trucker external antennas and
> adapters off of EBay and that cured the problem. I mounted one at each
> end of the house and now I get a solid 1x signal on both phones. No
> dropped calls! You can purchase one by going to EBay and searching for
> this EBay item:
> 5743043467
> The BuyItNow price is $45.95 which includes the Wilson adapter. 2 day
> USPS Priority shipping is $8.95. I ordered mine on a Monday morning
> and it arrived on Wednesday morning, coming from 1200 miles away! By
> the way, I have no affiliation with this EBay seller other than as a
> very satisfied customer.
> Hope this helps.
> Ted/
>

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

I get a great signal in the inside corner of my garage by the house is
questionable in most locations. These antennas would solve my problems but
I would still have to be plugged into the cable. Have you had any luck with
a connection of the 3200 to the house wiring? Neither the phone scoop or
Dock n talk will work with the 3200. Are there any other manufactures with
similar systems?

"Ted" <tedsaselli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1117972359.868743.36750@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Swingman,
> I don't understand your question. My wife has a LG-VX3200 phone
> connected to a Wilson Trucker outdoor antenna mounted just outside our
> living room. I have a LG-VX6100 phone connected to a Wilson Trucker
> outdoor antenna mounted just outside our kitchen. After 43 years of
> wired phone service and outrageous long distance charges, we finally
> cut the cord and now are strictly wireless; no roaming, no long
> distance charges and, as a bonus, high speed internet access.
> The finest cell phone antennas are made by Wilson Electronics in St.
> George, Utah. You can check them out here:
> http://wilsonelectronics.com/
> Ted/
>

Archived from groups: alt.cellular.verizon (More info?)

Phone reception indoors? Aside from using an antenna, it depends. This was
just on CNET, although some jerk will consider this cnet spam. It is good
reading about phone reception indoors. dr

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3504_7-6232656-1.html?tag=...

Building penetration depends on many more factors than just whether you're
using GSM or CDMA. First off, the material that the building in question is
made of plays the biggest role. In short, metal is your enemy. As a general
rule, a metal structure will disrupt cell signals more than buildings
constructed of wood or concrete. That's why cell service is so hard to get
in an elevator; essentially, it's a big metal box. Concrete buildings
disrupt signals to a lesser degree, but then you have to worry about the
density of the concrete (more prevalent in older stone homes) and whether
there is any metal embedded in the walls--remember, metal is bad. Generally
speaking, wood will cause the least disruption.

The number of windows in a structure also affects reception. For example, a
metal building with many windows admits more signals than a concrete
building with only a few windows. Lastly, the height of a building also is a
concern. Since cellular towers as a rule aren't designed to point signals
upward, the higher you go the in a skyscraper, the less signal power you'll
get.


--
dr.news Better Price? (not better than you deserve, just more than you are
used to)
If I can help: dr.news@better-price.biz.nospam or thru this notes forum.

"RichC" <rcacace{REMOVE_TO_REPLY}@swfla.rr.com> wrote in message
news:ZU3pe.69505$VH2.40576@tornado.tampabay.rr.com...
>I get a great signal in the inside corner of my garage by the house is
> questionable in most locations. These antennas would solve my problems
> but
> I would still have to be plugged into the cable. Have you had any luck
> with
> a connection of the 3200 to the house wiring? Neither the phone scoop or
> Dock n talk will work with the 3200. Are there any other manufactures
> with
> similar systems?
>
> "Ted" <tedsaselli@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1117972359.868743.36750@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>> Swingman,
>> I don't understand your question. My wife has a LG-VX3200 phone
>> connected to a Wilson Trucker outdoor antenna mounted just outside our
>> living room. I have a LG-VX6100 phone connected to a Wilson Trucker
>> outdoor antenna mounted just outside our kitchen. After 43 years of
>> wired phone service and outrageous long distance charges, we finally
>> cut the cord and now are strictly wireless; no roaming, no long
>> distance charges and, as a bonus, high speed internet access.
>> The finest cell phone antennas are made by Wilson Electronics in St.
>> George, Utah. You can check them out here:
>> http://wilsonelectronics.com/
>> Ted/
>>
>
>