CDMA antenna issue

I have a car kit for my Nokia CDMA phone and I am positive that it gives far greater reception than without it.

I find it great travelling along most highways and even if just passing through a town the range tells me I am approaching town and gives time to organise and send calls.

SMS seems to work well as it seems it doesn't need much of signal to work.

The external antenna seems to increase range. No difference if in the middle of town except it makes it legal to answer the phone.

Had mine for a while now so I might be fooling myself as coverage is getting better I hope. (CDMA works in Boulia)

I have the same set up except that the aerial is on my bull bar . Even though often I cannot see a difference in the bars showing on the phone when it is in or out of the cradle , I have noticed that in really marginal areas ( one or no bars ) the phone will often work in the cradle , but not out of it .
I don't think I am imagining it and yet it is not something that I can quantify .
Cheers ,
Willie .

trolute,

You haven't said how the external aerial connects to the phone.

Unless you have an aerial connector on the phone/cradle you need a phone coupler that sits behind the phone cradle and re-radiates the signal from the phone's internal aerial.

Although Nokia doesn't list a coupler for the CDMA phone, they definitely work.
Just buy one suitable for a GSM phone and it will work with the CDMA one.

Nokia calims that no Nokia CDMA device currently supports an external aerial. If you reckon you have one connected - it probably isn't doing anything for you at all...

http://www.nokia.com.au/nokia/0,,58334,00.html

(look near the bottom of the page)

If it is a 6225 you can buy a patch lead to connect the RFI to the phone for $19. I bought mine from the Telstra shop when I got the phone, plugs straight into the service port on the back of the phone.

Difference very noticeable

Regards

Rolande

mine makes bugger all difference in town- go out bush into a fringe area and test it. It had "Searching for network" when out of the cradle, plug it in the cradle and leave it for 20 sec and its up to 50% signal and you can SMS and call people fine.
Actually its a pain in the ass sometimes- I forgot to take it out of the cradle over new years break and was woken up by work calls in the middle of D'entrecasteaux NP.

I am on the road all the time state to state and when I looked into a new phone I found that Kyocera is the only phone that benifits from a car kit. It has better range than nokia. Telstra will tell you apart from hands free there is no benifit in having car kit for nokia. IF you look at the coverage maps no gain in nokia. Kyocera are the company that developed CDMA.

Slightly off topic, but here's another question about the 6225 car kit. I have this set-up too and don't think the car kit makes a huge difference, but it does make a bit.

However, my question relates more to the battery charging facet of these kits. I don't think my phone is charging when it's sitting in it's car-kit's cradle. Quite the contrary in fact; I can put the fully charged phone into the cradle and if I leave it there for 24 hours or so, I have noticed that the battery will be low when I take the phone out. I did have the settings arranged in such a way that the light stays on all the time and the screen saver doesn't cut-out for 60 minutes....but I wouldn't have thought that should have made any difference.

Has anybody else experienced this lack of charging with this car kit? Note; I installed it myself, so that could be half the problem...haha

Cheers

Roachie

I have the same set up except I use GSM. Obviously I have the GSM antenna as well. I was a bit sceptical of the proximity/coupler arangement but it is often the difference between being able to make a call and not so it does work.

Leroy

Thankyou everyone for your feedback, hearing that some other people also find the external antenna to be ineffective or mediocre makes me feel better.

And yes Sandman, mine connects to the antenna via the pickup block just behind the phones antenna, not via any hardwired interface, although I will look into that now.

Rolande, the hardwire interface plug that you bought, where does it plug in? When my phone is in its cradle, the only free connection point is the microphone port on the RHS of the phone. Surely that can't be used for an antenna?

Andrew

Apology acepted Rolande.

Leroy

hi everyone,talking about nokia's and car kits...can i ask a Q?? i have a nokia 6235 and want a car kit, does anyone have this phone with the car kit and if so do you have any problems or anymore accessories that you needed to get afterwards?? i have no idea about antenna's - amplified/not amped??huh!!

my friend swears by car kits and has never had a prob.....laura