NEX G With aerial

LG hands free kit, and car kit are two different things, hands free has NO external aerial connection ,car kit has a pin in the back of the cradle that inters the back of the 500,550 works well up and down the east coast up to 100ks of shore in most places in my fishing boat ,still a few dead spots tho

Actually, I have the 500 with car kit and the aerial connects through the base plug, then a separate jack plugs into the side for the remote speaker and microphone. I too was expecting a pin in the back of the cradle, similar to my old Kyocera CDMA, but was not the case (at least not with mine). The aerial definitely makes a difference though.
Gerry

Nick R has two Samsungs in the family, both use a patch lead system of a simple rubber covered loop that fits over the antenna. Use a Bluetooth system and you have a good handsfree in the car with the patchlead to get greater signal.

We have one LG TU500 with the car kit and it is great but the separate jack for the speaker and microphone as Gerry says above, is a sort of a small bane.

Thanks Mick.

I "asked" when I ordered the LG 550. Initially they werent keen, but I gave them the hint that I wouldnt bother with the deal unless the latest version of the carkit came with the phone for free.

Thanks again for the tip

Col

Thanks Unc, a couple of questions.
Is it a good phone? Have always had Nokia before.
Did you get your broomstick and patch lead through a retailer or off ebay and what are specs I should search for.
Ta
Mike

Hi Mike, we have always usually had Nokia phones, however, so far I cannot complain about this phone. We have better reception in our area now, and it's been getting better since we purchased the phone.
We also had the phone in what were previously bad areas for "US " and we have not dropped out on one phone conversation yet. We mainly bought the broomstick for out of the way areas, and so far thats all its been needed for. We also have had the phone running on a "browser" package and use the net while in the Patrol. Forget what the cost was of the broomstick but it was a lot better than what the local phone shop quoted us, cheers unc.

Forgot to mention , just been talking to our friends in Cape York this week and they have the TU550 with broomstick and patchlead and not a worry.

The guy trading under the name Mikotech on ebay in the broomstick antenna section is who we purchased all our bits from .No association, just very satisfied customers.

Thanks Uncle.
All underway. Will tackle the net problem once I get my head around this.
Cheers
Mike

Hey Marq,

That's not my experience.

When we moved for the Hill to Sydney my Nokia CDMA would not work in the new house unless I was standing in the right place with the phone to my left ear my right hand holding the bedroom doorknob and my right foot on the light switch, you know what I mean.

I was not sure about this NextG thing but the Nokia keypad was having problems. At 5 years old it was past the use by date.

Anyway I swapped to the LG TU500. I got the car kit for $49.90 and found that my existing CDMA antenna worked just fine.

The LG certainly has better coverage near home and it is a difficult area, lots of steep hills and tight valleys. I generally prefer the way Nokia do things but I have got used to the LG and it does the job.

Duncs

I have the Telstra F252 with a car kit. It uses a proper plug in antenna connection when it's in the kit. Works a treat. Goes like a rocket when used as a modem too, appears just as fast as my cable internet. Just got to watch those data charges. It is quite amazing to be out in the middle of nowhere and have a fast net connection.
Incidentally, that phone also has a proper email client that can download emails without using the computer.
Cheers

Are you aware hl, that using "pay-as-you-go" rates on a NextG phobe to do data works out at something like $15 a Mb?

On Whirlpool there were examples of people going in a bit blind and getting thier first monthly bill for a Gigabyte of data and being billed in excess of $15,000!

Cheers
Muddy

Hi,
I sure am.
I purchase a 70MB datapack for $29.00 before we go on a trip, and that is enough to do all the necessaries. The per meg rate is $2.00 if you go over then.
It is still very expensive for "surfing", however, the big advantage is no lock in contract and you can just buy it as you need it.
The software that comes with the Telstra phone comes with a nice data meter, so you know how much you are using each session and real time. You would have to be pretty thick to run up a 15 grand bill.
Cheers

As I see it mate, the Nokia 6120 is that new, even Telstra would not have tested it yet. The 6120 has a micro USB port.

Allow me to expand a little.

I doubt any testing could be performed on the 6120 at present, as Nokia have not yet released the holder for it.

When you're camped in a spot you like and you get no signal without the external antenna, you do appreciate having it, believe me.
Cheers

hl
What a load of pooop , next you'll want it in the SD, It's a syndrome of ..hey look ...I got a Mobile, like the bloody clowns who when talking on a Mobile with the thing stuck to the ear has walk in circles or parade about on show, IDIOTS is what I call them , I can remember the Truckies when mobiles first came out, as big as bricks with a carry handle and they had to tote these things into a roadhouse and have it sitting on the floor beside the chair, tell you what ...... if you ever find me at a roadhouse you will find the phone in the car,that's why it has message bank.

Well Douggie,
It is quite amazing that you have a mobile phone at all.
You should have stuck to your 2 cans and a string.
Cheers

Yep....you bit back .....As sure as the Sun sets in the West....your one of them too

Yep, thought I'd oblige.
Douggie, if you think a phone without an external antenna sitting on the dash will work nearly as well as one in a proper carkit with a high gain external antenna, you are sadly mistaken.
Some people do need (or want) their phones and maximize coverage when it can be done, so, please refrain from posting uninformed drivel.
Cheers

hl
You don't get it do you, with Next G you won't need an antenna in most places, and when one is leaving an area that has service it WILL drop out eventually, what I'm saying is that an antenna will only get you an extra 12 to 20 Ks anyhow before it does drop out,it only takes 12 minutes to do 20Ks, and you can bet that call your waiting for will come at 14 minutes, IS IT WORTH THE EXTRA EXPENSE for a situation that will only arise once now and again,I say a big NO, and don't come back with... what about the worker who's ...just outside service, I say what about the worker that's working ...just outside the external antenna range, do you want to keep shifting the boundaries all the time , get real , get a life , I'm sorry if you have that " must have" syndrome, you must have been a proper * astard for your parents.

Douggie,
Apart from demonstrating that you have no idea about radio propagation what else do you not know?
It takes a lot more than 12 minutes to push your car that extra 10kms when you are broken down and trying to call for assistance.
Why wouldn't you take advantage of the FULL coverage available?
Besides, it is MUCH safer to have your mobile in a proper car kit and it is LEGAL to talk on it then while moving.
To give you an example, I have driven from Dubbo to Broken Hill and I had phone coverage for almost the whole way!
Try that with a phone wobbling about on your dash board.
There you have it.
Cheers

Seems you stuff all yourself about radio propagation , phones don't use propagation . and i did do the Amatuer Radio course in the 70s so up yours, and if you think for one minute i believe your BS story about Dubbo to Broken Hill your wrong, I have travelled that road many times , in a truck, with a Ph antenna , mate your so full of BS i a'm not wasting anymore of my time with uneducated morons .

Hi Doug,
With respect, Disapointing response. Its horses for courses, you shouldn't assume that just because one person needs something different to your requirements, means that they are a "must have". I will be getting an aerial as currently, I can only just get reception at on my farm at one point, which fades in and out. So, by getting an aerial, it will give me just that little bit more and I will be able to get reception in most areas of my farm, not just patchy in one spot. So yes, it is a must have in MY case.

Hi Doug,
With respect, Disapointing response. Its horses for courses, you shouldn't assume that just because one person needs something different to your requirements, means that they are a "must have". I will be getting an aerial as currently, I can only just get reception at on my farm at one point, which fades in and out. So, by getting an aerial, it will give me just that little bit more and I will be able to get reception in most areas of my farm, not just patchy in one spot. So yes, it is a must have in MY case.

Doug

Mobile phones do use radio propagation to connect to the system. Mobile phones are just two way radios that connect with base stations that are connected to telephone network. We have had mobile and portable radios that will directly dial into the PSTN for nearly 40 years. Back in those days you had to add the extra bits to them to do the dialing, we now buy these with the dialers built in and call them "mobile phones."

In your original message (Reply 12) you hit the nail on the head with the extra performance available with the phone on the dash. My introduction to UHF portable radios was with the Pye (UK) PF2UB & PF2UH 1/2W portables used by the police in the early 70s. The UB model was a body worn radio with a remote speaker/mike and the UH model was a hand held model with inbuilt speaker/mike - otherwise they were identical. Pye (UK) did some comparative tests with these radios and found that there was a very large difference in performance between the ways you used them.

They found that there was 10 dB difference between the radio worn on the belt and the hand held use. This is equivalent to increasing the transmitter in the body worn unit from 1/2 to 5W and increasing the base station transmitter from 5 to 50W. In any ones terms this is a big difference in performance. In like manner the body worn one held held at arms length and above the head level performed 10 dB better than the hand held one, again a 10 fold increase in power difference. It is all tied up in where you place the antenna.

If the phone/portable is worn on the belt the antenna is very close to the body and down low. When the phone is at head level the antenna is not so close to the body and it is higher. When the phone is away from the body (in your case on the dash and standing up against the windscreen) and operated via Bluetooth or a cable, the antenna is operating in its most efficient condition. The closer the antenna is to the body the higher the capacitance between it and the body. The higher the capacitance the more power you absorb and the less that is radiated. Hence your observation of the better propagation performance.

If your phone has a loud speaker option you can increase your connection strength by switching to it and holding the phone up when in marginal conditions. Doing this may also may mean that you can hold the phone in a more stable position so it will not stray out of the signal during the call.

PeterD

Peter, what you are saying is not strictly true with modern flip phones. For instance, the patch antenna used in the Telstra NextG phone is actually located under the keyboard, and the mere fact of holding it in your hand will attenuate the signal. Some of the CDMA phones were much better in that regard as the had a pull-out antenna and therefore the best chance to get a good signal. In many cases they could outperform an external car antenna when held up simply because there was no coax loss.
cheers

Sorry Doug but I have to side with hl on the Dubbo to Broken Hill thing.

When I lived in Broken Hill I did about 4 trips a year to Sydney and more than that to Dubbo. I have not done the trip since I got the NextG but I have done it with the CDMA in my car kit and hand held on a bus many times.

In the bus I turned the phone off once I got east of Little Topar Roadhouse and don't turn it on again until I got to Cobar because there was so little coverage. With the phone in the car kit, coupled to an 8db gain antenna I had coverage all the way apart from about 15km on the east side of Scopes Range and an area about 50km west of Cobar.

Cobar

Oh whan an Intelligent answer from above, about as much as one could expect

Quote: "Amongst other things, he stated that Telstra now only recommend two phones for the Next G service and they are":

Not quite. These are the only ones that receive the blue tick. The blue tick just means that these models are the preferred models for remote area use. All the models on sale are recommended for Next-G. The others are perfectly suitable if you desire the features on these phones and do not insist on operation right out to the limits achieved by the blue tick models.

PeterD

Good post David , thanks .
Willie .

Thanks for that David, much appreciated
Mike

Interesting what you say so positively about Jasjam systems David. I have heard from others disspointed about the stability about them. Another friend who found the tiny USB connection to recharge broke while away last month. That of course makes it difficult to get your emails and messages :-((

Hi John,

I can understand completely and agree that there are some unique faults with these devices that you wont see on the run of the mill mobile phone. However the things that can be done with these devices is truely amazing and of great benifit to the 4wd community. I have 2Gig worth of maps on my phone and with a bluetooth GPS that is only slightly larger than a matchbox, can run any sort of navigation program as well as real time GPS tracking back to home. I use it as a Next G modem, play tricks on my wife by changing TV channels with it and record ideas and things to remember whilst on the road.

My background before my current place of employment was manager of a repair centre that repaired PDA's - approximately 500 a week covering manufacturers such as O2, Imate, Qtek, and HP. I can honestly say I am glad to be out of the business as the rigours of dealing with PDA owners was causing extreme pain in the end (no-one on here though ;-) ), however, I suppose you can say that I am a veteran of these devices now and know their quirks and faults.

Of the 10 we have now, I had one fail about 6 weeks ago when it would not go past the boot up screen. Ended up being the mainboard (could not force flash the software) so sent back for repair. I sometimes get mine to freeze or do wierd things only because I like installing all sorts of software onto it to try different things (infra red remote control, cocktail making software, even tried a Karma Sutra application - but thats another story...).

I have used approximately 15 different models from various manufacturers over the years and have a good run with most but there are some that are dogs and I would touch with a 10 foot pole.

I would consider the Jasjam pretty reliable so far (6 months) and considering we are out at the coal mines for most of our work, has handled the dust and being dropped (numerous time) pretty well.

Poor stability is usually due to beta firmware on new models (remember the manufacturers get the phone on the market as soon as possible and worry about bugs latter on) or installing software that is not supported by the OS or processor type of the phone.

As for the IO/Charge connectors, yes they are weak but no more so than any other manufacturer. Things such as yanking the lead sideways whilst connected or some aftermarket accessories that are tight or poorly made would have to be the main reasons for damage. It has to be remembered that these devices can weigh twice as much as a normal mobile phone so if dropped whilst connected, will have twice as much force acting on the connector as a candy bar or flip style mobile phone.

My view is based on my experience but I have met people that have had a terrible run with genuine faults that would put Murphy to shame. However there are many success stories out there - its just that we only hear about the problem ones morso than the good one.

Regards
David

A person standing on top of a prime mover would get a better signal than a person sitting in a 300z, same goes with antennas for UHF radios,
A 5watt handheld will never get out as far or good as a 5watt radio using an external antenna.
Or am I wrong

My thoughts exactly...... however having three nokia car kits in various toys I do believe/hope Nokia will get their act together soon to save me the expense of changing all over to another brand - or is that me being a tad optimistic...

Buy the LG500 as a prepaid - use up the credit then ask to get it put on a plan - you might have to change numbers but you get an LG on whatever plan you want.......


I'm a JasJam/Bury convert - its great!
And the way the JJ fits into the cradle on the Bury means that if the phone gets knocked out of the cradle your probably on ur 9th barrel roll right about then and have bigger issues to deal with!

Hi,
I also got confused with the "pro-rata", however, I found the ZTE software quite accurate. The data meter on the accounts tab is quite useless, I agree.
If you run applications on the phone that access the net, like google maps, the data used often does not show up for days, so, beware.
I guess in time these gremlins will be sorted.
Cheers