Do any mobile phones today have provision for external aerial?

Sterlingtimes

Whatever happened to the aerial socket?

bod1467

The aerial got built into the frame of the phone.

Are you Dom Jolly in disguise?

agrinnall

I'm on the phone...I said I'm on the phone

Collabora

bod1467 wrote: »

The aerial got built into the frame of the phone.

I am pleased they did ( called Progression) as with my old Nokia i had to keep a few spare Arials as i keep breaking them

Mr_Toad

I think the OP is referring to the small socket where an external aerial could be mounted.

I know several narrowboat owners who use older phones with such a socket so they can have a mag mount roof aerial connected to the phone as mobiles don't work well inside a big metal box.

My Samsung S4 doesn't but I count that as a distinct advantage, on the boat and unreachable, bliss.

Mr_Toad

I forgot to add that for modern phone that don't have an external aerial socket you need to use a signal booster, basically an external aerial connected to a box, the box then provides a signal for the phone.

There are other proximity type external aerials but I don't know how good they are.

forgotmyname

Just fitted a handsfree kit to a car and it uses separate cradles for different phones and the base unit has an antenna. But i connect using bluetooth and dont actually use the cradle to hols and charge the phone.

I thought so i really need to fit the antenna? Phones not in the cradle and do modern phones have the option to extend the antenna as mentioned by the OP?

I wont be spending £80 on a cradle to check either

Fitting without the antenna.

gjchester

Sterlingtimes wrote: »

Whatever happened to the aerial socket?

The Aerial length is a function of the wavelength used. In the UK we use frequencies between 850 and 2100 Mhz. That means to get a signal you need an aerial that is in the region of 1.5 to 4 CM. Using electronics we can get a 4cm aerial to act like a 1.5cm one so there's usually one aerial in a phone not a few to cover the various bands/


Often these are now printed onto a circuit board or affixed to the case, and its reported in some phones the pull up aerial was a fake so people though they would perform better - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_MicroTAC

There's two reasons to use an external aerial, to get the signal out od a metal box (a faraday cage effect) such as a car, and the other where you have an external aerial that picks up faint signals, amplifies them and re-broadcasts them.

However in most cases now the combination of what people want aesthetically in a phone, better circuit design and better sensitivity in the radio receivers in both phones and towers means most phone s just don't need an external aerial.

forgotmyname wrote: »

I thought so i really need to fit the antenna? Phones not in the cradle and do modern phones have the option to extend the antenna as mentioned by the OP?

Some cars have metal coated front screens , or embedded heating elements that may mean the phone (or more often the GPS) does not receive signals through the windscreen, but most phones now are good enough for it not to matter too much.

esuhl

My Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone has an aerial socket on the back... Are there other phones that don't have this...?

Mr_Toad

esuhl wrote: »

My Samsung Galaxy SII smartphone has an aerial socket on the back... Are there other phones that don't have this...?

Well I'll be.............

They've hidden it away under the back cover, I never knew that. Just had the back off my S4 and it's just the same.

Every day's a school day, thanks.