vB Easy Archive - Audiovox 8150 Digital to Analog switching

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Audiovox 8150 Digital to Analog switching
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Posted by: HighTech

I noticed that my 8150 phone had no bars and no "D" symbol in some spots and when I switched to analog mode, I was getting a few bars signal.

I thought the purpose of dual mode phones was for it to scan to see where the stronger signal is and switch automatically.

Is my phone defective or is this how this phone works?

I am using Telus Mobility

Posted by: Evil Ernie

^ are you forcing Analog or are you in an area that you just expect it 2 switch ...???

How dual/tri mode phones work is that it will NOT go into AMPS unless forced.... or if there is ABSOLUTLY NO Digital around... even the slightest whisp of digital will be picked up b4 the AMPS...

Posted by: HighTech

The whole idea of a user selecting Digital or Analog is really stupid. I used to have the Qualcomm 2760 with Bell Mobility a few years ago and the phone would switch automatically from Digital to Analog.

I am surprised that people accept this switching mechanism as the norm.

Posted by: Vindicator

Quote:

Originally posted by HighTech
The whole idea of a user selecting Digital or Analog is really stupid. I used to have the Qualcomm 2760 with Bell Mobility a few years ago and the phone would switch automatically from Digital to Analog.

I am surprised that people accept this switching mechanism as the norm.

No one is ever happy with this setting....

All new CDMA phones will hang on until just before there is no digital signal. If they didn't you would end up with problems like the V120 and V60 on Bell and Telus. These phones go to analog too soon, just like old school Bell phones did and people complained about it. (2760, 2700, 3530 etc)

The reality is, 0 bars of digital can sound just as good as 1-2 bars analog. Thats why they put the force analog though. If you really wanted to go to analog you still can.

Otherwise, people would ***** about how there phone goes to analog all the time and the battery sucks, and the reception is staticy etc etc etc.

For 99.9% of the time, the way current CDMA phones are set works fine. It's not intended to give you better reception in the city, just analog in rural areas. Now that pretty much everywhere is 1900/800 CDMA, analog has become a non issue.

Also, on the 2670 there is only two bands/networks to choose from, Bell 1900 digital or analog. The 8150 has Telus 1.9, Bell 1.9, Bell 800 and analog. In the city a phone will spend almost all of it's time either on Telus 1.9 or Bell 1.9. It may never scan for analog because there are 2 digital networks to choose from. The phone does this behind the scenes so you may never even know what network you are on unless you are in test mode. If the 2 biggest providers out of 4 networks don't have coverage in a given area then more then likely there is a problem in that area, (geographic etc) that prevents good coverage.

Posted by: HighTech

I recall using the Qualcomm 2760 a few years back and I agree about the frequent analog switching. I recall driving from Toronto to Ottawa on the 401 (Trans-Canada Highway) and the phone switched a good 20 x along the trip. I had set an alert on so every time the phone switches modes, it beeps.

I believe I had a car charger for that phone so battery was not concern.

Going back to the Audiovox 8150, if I try to dial a number when there is only 1 bar or no bars in digital mode, the call cannot be completed. I'd rather have a phone switch to digital and route a call then to have 1 or no bars in digital mode and no call completion.

Posted by: sid pearlman

Think I got the answer!
I've spent a great deal of time this summer in fringe digital areas and noticed the same behavoir...
0 bars digital and then the handset switches to analog to make a call.

In fringe areas, especially digital, the weakest link is the phones power to reach BACK to the tower. With the phone holding on to digital as long as possible, there is MUCH greater battery life, alert and notifications can still be sent and the phone can stay in digital contact with the network using very little bandwith.

What seemed like a D/A switching problem is a clever design to use the transmitting towers higher power, preserving bandwidth and handset battery power for outgoing calls.

Hopefully, the internal handset programming allows a clean and quick switch when digital has degraded for outgoing calling. At the least an easy "Force Analog" capability should be available.

If the handset is using the same received signal level, as observed in debug mode, it would explain why D/A switching seems so buggy, since it trying to hit a constantly moving target. The incomming signal fluctuates quite a bit, especially in fringe areas. I'm surprised it works as well as it does.

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Sid

Posted by: sid pearlman

One more thing...
Here out west in the US there has been a vast conversion upgrade of old analog towers. Problem is, many of those rural towers were built for 3 watt or at least a full .6 watt analog coverage.

The PRL lists in current handsets prefer digital, but in many real world fringe or rural circumstances, analog has the better signal, do to the existing tower spacing, which may provide inadequate coverage for lower power, digital handsets.

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Sid

Posted by: canrocks

Usually when you place a call, if the digital signal is to weak, it will use analog. I've never had any problems with mine.