Next G Aerials

[Rosco]

I'm considering fitting an external aerial to improve the range of my phone.

2 Q's

1. Has anyone done it and noticed a significant dillerence??
2. I have been lead to believe I can mount it beside (within about 300mm) of the UHF aerial with no issues due to the different operating frequencies .. true/false??

[The ho har's]

We have an Next G aerial on the top of our camper for our remote trips, and yes a huge difference, recently on our outback NSW trip plug the aerial in and some form of reception usually:)

Not sure about Q2, we have always been told to keep all aerials well spaced apart but that may not apply to a phone aerial;)

Mrs hh:angel:

[Ean Austral]

I'm considering fitting an external aerial to improve the range of my phone.

2 Q's

1. Has anyone done it and noticed a significant dillerence??
2. I have been lead to believe I can mount it beside (within about 300mm) of the UHF aerial with no issues due to the different operating frequencies .. true/false??


You will notice a big difference, you will need a patch lead to connect from your phone to the external aerial..make sure you get one that fits your phone as they are different..

I use 1 on our car and 1 on the trawler and they are very impressive with the range, and I got them from dick smith, about $130... Dont get suckered into buying the little 1 that is about 10inches long.

As for interference, I did have mine mounted on the front bar of the D2 and would get the distance apart about 500mm max..The 1 on the trawler is mounted within 1 foot of a VHF and UHF antenna..

Cheers Ean

[Kelly928]

Hi,

I am currently travelling West OZ (Esperance) and have a Next G antenna mounted about 15cm from a 6db UHF antenna on bull bar.

I have found in areas where I have no reception the antenna can give 1 to 2 bars of reception which is enough to make calls or access internet when connected to internet USB stick.

I have a 80cm Next G antenna but would probably get a longer one if I was buying again.

Kelly

[THE BOOGER]

If you are using a standard UHF there should be no interference its only 5 watts just to be safe try to keep at least 30cm between antennae its only on tx that you may get interference so unless you can talk on the radio and phone at the same time no problems:D

[Hobbes]

Can confirm it works well.
I run an event in a fairly remote location. There's no broadband by fixed phone lines and Telstra 3g coverage is marginal. So we use a Yagi +9db directional antenna ($160 worth) into a telstra wi-fi router. This gets us 8/1.5meg line speeds which enables us to set up VOIP links to the city office.
We use the same arial for the mobile phone so they work in a site shed. we get our gear from Comnet in Sydney (Comnet Solutions (http://www.comnet.com.au))

Hobbes

[weeds]

i'm guessing only certain phone have the ability for an external antenna??

[THE BOOGER]

Yep some still have a socket for the antenna they are better than the induction ones vist your local t shop to see whats around the phones with sockets tend to be a bit basic:)

[The ho har's]

i'm guessing only certain phone have the ability for an external antenna??

Yes, when we bought ours our daughter (who worked for telstra at the time) made sure we had the phone and aerial to match. Some Next G phones can not take an aerial..

Mrs hh:angel:

[Ranga]

Any idea if an old (but still new) CDMA antenna would work with NextG?

Sorry for the thread hijack :angel:

[Ean Austral]

Any idea if an old (but still new) CDMA antenna would work with NextG?

Sorry for the thread hijack :angel:

Mine Did..

Cheers Ean

[THE BOOGER]

Yep the antenna will work as both the cdma and nextg use the same freq :D thats why telstra closed the cdma network so they could use the freq one of telstra big mistake if you ask me other than for internet access cdma gave better range and clarity:(

[Rosco]

i'm guessing only certain phone have the ability for an external antenna??


Cobber ... anything from Telstra with a Blue Tick has a socket for an external aerial.

[Utemad]

Not all blue tick phones have an external antenna socket. My wife just got a Motorola Defy and it doesn't have one. Got the phone on Saturday and returned it today as it resets itself every few minutes. Seems to be a common fault.
It is the only blue tick smart phone according to the Telstra catalogue.

[BigJon]

Cobber ... anything from Telstra with a Blue Tick has a socket for an external aerial.

Nope, I have a Nokia which I bought specifically because it is a "blue tick" phone. No aerial jack :mad:.

[Mellow Yellow]

Cobber ... anything from Telstra with a Blue Tick has a socket for an external aerial.

I did some research on this a month ago and discovered :-

(a) The Telstra Blue Tick indicates a phone with greater sensitivity but not necessarily an external aerial connection.
(b) None of the Nokia phones have an external aerial connection.
(c) There is no smartphone with an external aerial connection.
(d) The mobile phones from Telstra with an external aerial connection are pretty basic.

[Treads]

Back in November I was down in the Kunderang gorge with my boss. I had my iphone on the cradle in the Defender and the induction coupler in it was attached to my 6.5dB antenna mounted on the bullbar. In most areas he had no reception on his identical phone & I had 2-3 bars of service and was able to access the net.
So even though an antenna socket would be preferred, the couplers do work okay :cool:

[PhilipA]

I have had a Next G phone for several years with external aerials.
I have a ZTE basic phone with an antenna input and a hard wired Car kit.

I initially had a 6Db antenna which was initially used for CDMA.

What I found with a high gain antenna is that while you can receive signals for a long way and your bars may be much better, you cannot relaibly transmit as the high gain antenna transmits a narrow beam that may not pass over hills etc. In undulating country this can be frustrating as when you go into dips the other party loses your signal.

So after I broke the 6db , I bought a 4db gain "stubby" 4inch long antenna and fitted it in the middle of my roof to provide a good ground plane.

The performance of the "stubby" is excellent and you can talk reliably while travelling in undulating country and the reception is just about as good, bearing in mind that the higher the antenna the better.

Just as an example at Yardie Creek Station on Ningaloo, nobody with 6db antennas on their vans could get reception due to the mountains between there and Exmouth and there was a guy selling 20 foot poles to raise them.
I couldn't either but if I drove 200 metres down the entrance road , I could converse well with my little stubby. I doubt if a 6Db would do that as its beam depth would have hit the mountains.
And the stubby clears carparks on my RRC.
Regards Philip A

[Rosco]

I stand corrected ... :huh:

When I went into the Telstra shop, the bird advised that all of their phones with a blue tick had a socket for an external aerial. That's where I got the idea.

Regardless, I ended up with a Telstra Explorer, which is only a fairly basic phone, but then again that's all I wanted. Talk and text suits me fine, plus a camera. One advantage with it is that it also has a dinky little telescopic aerial which you can extend to improve reception in fringe areas. After that you need to plug in to an external jobbie.