External GSM Mobile phone antennas

I had a Nokia GSM phone and a full in-car kit with white broomstick antenna.
About 12 months ago I decided to update to CDMA and was extremely, pleaseantly surprised when the friendly people at the phone shop advised that there was a CDMA model available which utilised the same in-car kit that I already had. It fits straight in. Great. They said to get the absolute best reception I should change the broomstick I had over to a proper CDMA unit. I haven't bothered doing that at all and still get great reception. A mate of mine here recently installed the exact same in-car kit, but used a windscreen mounted short whip aerial. Recently, while we were on a trip the other side of Burra (probably about 20klm from the nearest tower), we compared our "bars"....both the same (3 each).

Sorry,
Should have added that once outside the truck with phone out of it's cradle there was no signal.

From memory the big difference with digital and CDMA is (in regards to reception and antennas) is that with digital if you are any more than 32km(?) from the base station then you will get no signal. Even if you have line of site and the best antenna etc. This is due to the time lag between you and the base station. However with CDMA it operates more like a radio as in if you have a good antenna and get up on top of a hill etc then you have a good chance of getting a signal.

It also only takes a very small amount of signal for just a brief second to get a SMS sent. Handy in those fringe areas.

Utemad

35 Km is the max GSM distance.