Marine Cell Phone Antenna

T

Tortuga

New member
Hi all,

Anyone have experience with marine cell phone antennas (extension antennas for cell phones)? I'm trying to extend my range a bit offshore (from Ventura to Santa Cruz Island). Being low in the water I tend to lose my signal about 10 miles out unless I stand on the pilot house holding my phone over my head (... not advisable in weather or chop).

I've been reading up on some antenna options but I don't want to invest in something that won't make much difference.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions!

Matt (Tortuga)
 
Matt,

I asked the same questions of a buddy of mine who recently retired from the CG after 23 years. He told me that cell towers are aimed inland, not offshore, and the antennas don't give any appreciable range and to save my money.

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
Funny you should ask. Over the winter I installed an 8' combo vhf/Cellular antenna. I didn't stop there though, I also installed a cell signal amplifier (DA4000) and a cell phone port to plug my phone into. Both products are made by Digital Antenna ( http://www.digitalantenna.com/ )

I cannot give a full report yet because I have not been offshore this year. I hope to rectify that by the end of the month. I usually get cell service out as far as 15 miles but really want to at least get a 25 miles range and any further would be even better. I did plug my phone into the antenna while it was folded down while in the driveway under a tarp. When I flipped the switch for the DA4000 the 3 bars I was getting slammed to full service. I have no doubt that this setup is going to extend my range. The question is just by how much. I'll report back when I finally get offshore.
 
Thanks -- I suspect that both of these answers correctly describe the cell power available off the California south central coast. We have towers going up the 1 and 101 from Malibu to Gaviota -- and with the twists and turns of the coast line (w/ south facing coasts in Ventura and Santa Barbara) there seem to be stray cell signals abounding -- but they are weak and unreliable. I look forward to your experience with the new antenna Flapbreaker -- it would be interesting to note the reception for the phone alone, the phone w/ external antenna only, and then the phone w/ antenna and amplifier.

Matt
 
I'll try it with just the antenna and with the amplifier and post back. I'm waiting for halibut to open in two weeks and then for the weather to cooperate.
 
Jeff Siegel (Active Captain) has posted on this and other forums about the antennas and amps. Do a search for his posts, since he has studied this for a number of years with various providers (on the East coast).

I would think that if communication is critical, then the satellite phone is the best (and expensive) answer. 25 to 30 miles on the back side or side of the antennas may be marginal even in the best of circumstances. I had early "bag phones" 3 watts) with antennas 65 feet up ( sailboat mast)--and could get fairly good reception at Catalina, before repeaters were on that Island--this was in the late 70's to early 80's.
 
I used the Digital brand on my sportfisher but was not that impressed with the range. On my new Tomcat, I switched to Marine Tech amplifier from a Florida company and used the LMR240 cable instead of RG8x, because it is suppose to be more applicable the bandwidth of dual band cell phones. I get better range.
 
Well, I"m still hopefull. THe towers on the northern oregon coast are on some hills/mountains so maybe my milage will vary, or I'll find out I wasted my money.
 
My wife and I are working on an 11 part series of articles about using phones on boats. It should start coming out in another few weeks - I'll provide references when it is available. We're doing it for another boating site.

The second article is called "Got Signal?" and is about antennas and amps. The article covers a lot and gives specific infomation about how the cellular towers have changed to make it more difficult for boats. The comment above about the towers being focused toward land is exactly true today.

The bottom line is that an antenna will just about make up for the line loss you'll experience by connecting your mobile phone to the antenna. I provided a very real-life example about using an antenna in a sailboat showing that the signal is actually reduced by using the big antenna on the mast! It would be better to just stand up with the phone in your hand.

The good news is that an amp more than makes up for all of the losses and provides excellent range. I've used ours 20 nm off the coast of NC and about 5-7 nm off the coast of GA thru FL. The trick is using a wired amp (not a wireless one) and using the best cabling possible - typically LMR-400. With that you'll have the best connectivity possible.
 
flapbreaker":8swayrli said:
I'll try it with just the antenna and with the amplifier and post back. I'm waiting for halibut to open in two weeks and then for the weather to cooperate.
Click to expand...

Do you have any real-world data to report yet?

Thanks,
Warren
 
Yep. The results are mixed. I don't think the 8' antenna by itself does much of anything. THe amplifier will definately amplify any signal that your phone can already pick up but I don't think I was actually able to extend my range at all. I still need test it again because on my way out to the halibut grounds I thought I had a signal at about 28nm out but then realized my phone's signal bars were black and not the usual blue so in reality I didn't have any signal and I didn't notice when they changed. I thought they were blue at about 16 miles out but on the way in I didn't get service again until around 13 miles which was no different than without the amp other than the signal was stronger. Interstingly the weather conditions were different on the way out than on the way in (more cloud cover in the am). Hopefully I can retest this Saturday if the ocean cooperates. I want to try a different cell phone too because mine seemed to be acting a bit strange. I wonder if you can screw up your phone by connecting it to an amplifier?
 
flapbreaker":32rrp2r4 said:
...I didn't get service again until around 13 miles which was no different than without the amp other than the signal was stronger...

...I wonder if you can screw up your phone by connecting it to an amplifier?
Click to expand...
Having a stronger signal is the point of the amp. It means that your voice calls will be more reliable and your data connections will be faster. 13-16 miles offshore is about the limit of what you'll get. I've gotten 20 miles off the coast of NC and 13 off the coast of FL.

And yes, if the wrong amplifier is used with a cell phone (an amp that's too powerful for the expected RF input signal) you CAN damage the cell phone. I know that sounds wrong but it supposedly can happen. I talked to one of the amp manufacturers about it because there was a really good price on one type of amp but it only worked with a cradle/proximity connection for the phone. They said that they had to remove the ability for a direct-connect cable because it was ruining the phone connected to it. It needed the lower RF input from the proximity cradle.
 
ActiveCaptain":sqpputue said:
My wife and I are working on an 11 part series of articles about using phones on boats. It should start coming out in another few weeks - I'll provide references when it is available. We're doing it for another boating site
Click to expand...

Any idea how close you are to publication?

Warren
 
Doryman":3voovmff said:
Any idea how close you are to publication?
Click to expand...
Final editing is taking place on the first 4 articles now. It looks like they'll be put up in June. They'll all be in an online boating "magazine" with one article coming out each week. The slant is all the things you can do with your mobile phone on a boat (especially a smartphone) and the issues faced with putting a mobile phone on a boat.
 
Mad Mariner (http://www.madmariner.com) today released the first article in our series about using a mobile phone on a boat. We have 11 or 12 weeks in the series (maybe more - there's a lot to talk about!) - each week we cover a different subject giving some specific examples, web sites, technologies, etc.

When the articles are released, they are freely available. After the first week, you need to subscribe to Mad Mariner to gain access to the archived articles.

The use of mobile phones on boats, especially C-Dorys, is a widely expanding topic. It is changing very quickly and I think you'd be surprised by how much you can do today on the phone that already is in your pocket.

Enjoy!
 
Well written and informative. I look forward to the subsequent installments.

BTW I have found my subscription to Mad Mariner to be worth the cost.

Warren
 
Matt,

I don't know who your provider is---- but-- Verizon has a repeater tower on Santa Cruz Island. The only problem is they almost never turn it on.
I have talked with Verizon about this several times-- also wrote to Lois Capps.

We used to get a decent signal with AT&T on the outside of Santa Cruz.

I've looked into the antenna also-- may check into it again soon.

Seems everytime I hear a call to the USCG, on the rqdio, they ask them to call on a cell phone.
 
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