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External antenna use with newer phones?

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Posted by: coyotefred

Hello!

I have an odd question hopefully someone can shed some light on. I live in the boonies and use Alltel. Around the towns reception is fine, but out in the sticks (a hunting cabin and in my truck) I’ve used makeshift external antenna to improve the reception on my older LG phone. It has one of those little pull-out antennas that you can easily unscrew from the phone, which allows me to screw in a makeshift adapter connected to my external antennas. For the cabin I simply insert the stripped end of coax so it is touching the threads of the antenna input on the phone. ‘Obviously not mobile, but at least you can get reception inside the building when necessary.

The problem: I need to upgrade phones, and few if any seem to have easily-removable antennas. In fact the phones I like most (e.g. Samsung SCH-U520) has only an internal antenna.

I guess my question is what my options might be at this point. I suspect that simply having the stripped end of coax near that internal antenna area of the phone would improve reception, but perhaps not (I note that the phone has a warning on it for users not to touch it while using the phone). Perhaps there are other decent Alltel models out there with removable antennas I haven’t seen. I guess keeping the old phone and simply adding a phone/line is a possibility, but since I would only be using the old phone infrequently this doesn’t seem ideal.

Any thoughts appreciated…thanks!
Coyotefred


Posted by: blendingnoise

look on the back of the phone and find a small rubber plug (circular in most cases) and take it off. You will see a connector for an external antenna that you can buy (like http://www.alternativewireless.com/...nnas/index.html) and plug right in. You can also look into repeaters.

See this search result list ttp://www.howardforums.com/search.php?searchid=2410159


Posted by: WPSMATT

On the link below there is a listing of all the current model Alltel phones that have RF adapter ports for use with external antennas.

http://www.howardforums.com/Alltel.html


This is updated often but may not include the very latest phones.

I would recommend cross referencing the phones that you are interested in with this list or by doing an advanced search on the model number.


Posted by: coyotefred

Thanks for the helpful info here. I'm particularly interested in the Samsung SCH-u520, which I don't see on the list. So if anyone has any idea whether this particular model has the ext antenna jack (and presumably there would be an adapter out there for it) that would be particularly helpful. Thanks!


Posted by: krott5333

after looking at the manual for the sch-u520, I'm pretty sure there is NOT an external antenna jack.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Mob...ll_u520_man.pdf


Posted by: WPSMATT

Quote:
Originally Posted by krott5333
after looking at the manual for the sch-u520, I'm pretty sure there is NOT an external antenna jack.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Mob...ll_u520_man.pdf



The RF adapter will rarely be listed in the manual. The 420 does have a port so I would look for a round plug on the back or under the battery door.


Posted by: coyotefred

I see that Wilson (and perhaps others) make a "passive" antenna that attaches over the internal antenna area of a phone without an external antenna jack, although it says (as one would guess) that this approach does not work as well as a direct connection.

http://www.howardforums.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=144

I'd be curious to know whether anyone else has tried one of these "passive" antennas...?

'Seems as though I would like a feature set that is tougher to find in phones today (at least with current Alltel phones; perhaps need to find an unlocked one from elsewhere to get switched over):

-above-average reception
-external antenna jack (or effective substitute)
-analog/analog roaming (I live in a rural area where this is still useful from time to time)
-bluetooth (more convenience than anything)
-small/compact size

Seems like the LG phones (e.g. AX490) have this feature set, but I'd like to find something smaller than my current LG (which the AX490 isn't).


Posted by: WPSMATT

Quote:
Originally Posted by coyotefred
I see that Wilson (and perhaps others) make a "passive" antenna that attaches over the internal antenna area of a phone without an external antenna jack, although it says (as one would guess) that this approach does not work as well as a direct connection.

http://www.howardforums.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=144

I'd be curious to know whether anyone else has tried one of these "passive" antennas...?

'Seems as though I would like a feature set that is tougher to find in phones today (at least with current Alltel phones; perhaps need to find an unlocked one from elsewhere to get switched over):

-above-average reception
-external antenna jack (or effective substitute)
-analog/analog roaming (I live in a rural area where this is still useful from time to time)
-bluetooth (more convenience than anything)
-small/compact size

Seems like the LG phones (e.g. AX490) have this feature set, but I'd like to find something smaller than my current LG (which the AX490 isn't).



The passive RF adapters do work however they are not as functional as the direct wire to wire connection of a dedicated RF port.

When used in conjunction with an amplifier the sleeve or patch adapters function very well.


Posted by: nokiaman76

motorola e815 has the antenna your talking about so does the w315.




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