BenSpoon replied:

RFI and ZCG Scalar make excellent units. The stick on glass ones are weak- Just have a look at their gain. The only real benefit to the glass mounted ones is that you get reception better than your car phone when it is inside the car.

For country work, and to make your aerial of any benefit, you need a high gain. Expect to pay around $140 for the GSM and CDMA band aerials. Buy a decent 9db with spring base, mount it high up and you will be sweet.

If you are running a nokia kit, they come with mini FME-101 couplers. Get an RFI aerial and they come with the same- it saves you the $5 and running around for another connector if you're a tight arse like me.

Sand Man (SA) replied:

Sam,

I agree with Benspoon.

I have just had an external aerial installed on the roof of the Jack.

The aerial purchased was a Laser CDMA UC9SF-800-259.
This has a frequency of 825-890MHz and a gain of 7dBi.
It has a flexible fibreglass element, 880mm long.

Now, this is a bit too long for around town use, so I also purchased a $25 flexible stubby bizzo, which I am assured will cover 70-80% of use with little loss in reception. When going bush, unscrew the stubby and screw on the Laser.

The Installer I used (Electric Bug in S.A.) also assured me that this configuration will work just as well for GSM as well as the CDMA phone I use in the Country.

The small amount of "loss" on GSM due to the slight out of frequency imbalance is very slight, especially when compared to the high loss of "through the glass" aerials.

Another misconception clarified by Electric Bug was with the Nokia Couplers working/not working with CDMA phones.
Although Nokia does not provide a part number for a coupler to be used with their CDMA phones, the same coupler as used for the GSM phones will work and work well.

I have a 2112 CDMA phone and a 6610i GSM phone which share the same cradle connections, etc. I have gone out to the remote country area until the CDMA phone was starting to lose signal (unconnected). Was only showing 2 bars.
Connected the phone into the cradle and the signal indicator rose to full strength.

So, a Nokia coupler WILL pick up the internal aerial of the Nokia phones be they GSM or CDMA jobbies and provide the interface to an external aerial.

Member - Sam (NSW) replied:

Thanks for the feedback folks. Ended up getting a dual band GSM and CDMA antenna from ZCG. So will hopefully have this install finished this weekend finally!!!

Thanks again

cheers,
Sam.