We are looking to spend more time in rural/remote areas moving forward than we have done in the past. We are now seem to be more often in
places where there is little or no phone reception for where we are camped.
I started looking for a car kit with a decent
antenna to help improve our current reception limitations. After a fair bit of reading it seems that a car kit and
antenna may be of marginal benefit and maybe NOT worth doing. While driving I can see there could be more value to having a hands free kit/
antenna but this is not so important to us as we use the phone and internet more when stopped. The reasons for this seem to be:
- phone and data reception is predominantly about line of site and the distance to the tower and the arial on the roof of the
Ranger is only a bit higher than a person standing. If it is all about line of site, if I walk or drive up a nearby
hill or climb a tree or sit on the roof rack I am more likely to get better or just as good reception than using that car kit/
antenna
- for email, web browsing etc with laptop/ipad we use Bluetooth to the mobile phone and use the mobile as a hotspot and its data plan to connect to the internet. A car kit/
antenna may help this but it seems that if I connected the mobile to a telescopic device such as a GoPro stick and attached it to the roof rack as we needed it we would be better off (except when it raining). We have at least 5 metre bluetooth range from the handset when doing this.
- for phone conversations I have a bluetooth headset so again we do not need the handset within about 5 metres of where I am standing. i can make and answer a call from the headset.
In short I am struggling to find reasons to get an external car kit/
antenna, this was not the conclusion I was expecting to reach. Am I barking up the wrong tree or is it not really worth doing in our situation? Thanks for any advice.
Other considerations that are as or more important than the car kit/
antenna:
- be on the Telstra network (we are)
- get a handset that has a 'blue tick' or is rated good reception. I am in the market for a new phone so this is doable
- use the Telstra coverage maps to work out where we are likely to spend time and if there will any reception at all in these areas in the first place