Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ukma!rutgers!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: lloyd!sunfs3!kent@husc6.harvard.edu (Kent Borg) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Cellular Phone Antenna Question Message-ID: Date: 20 Oct 89 18:52:40 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Reply-To: Kent Borg Organization: Camex, Inc., Boston, Mass USA Lines: 39 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 468, message 5 of 8 In article Brian Kantor writes: >X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 458, message 7 of 10 >In article folta@tove.umd.edu.UUCP >(Wayne Folta) writes: >>X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 456, message 4 of 7 >>Can anyone tell me about cellular phone antennas? Why the little >>curly part of the antenna (does it have something to do with >>horizontal v. vertical polarization?)? >The cellular antenna is really two vertically-polarized antennas of >approximately 1/2 wavelength, and the curly part can be viewed as a >delay line to cause the two sections to work in phase. Thus the >antenna has an effective "gain" (i.e., works better) than a simple >antenna. I always thought the main reason the center loading coil was there to let everybody know that you have a cellular telephone, i.e., that it was put there for marketing reasons, to give cellular telephones an identity and to look cool. How much gain is it really worth? One good reason for getting rid of the open coil would be so bits of outdoors don't get stuck in there, changing the inductance of the coil, and screwing up the performance of the antenna. Another reason would be so that people won't know you have a cellular telephone. This might not be a good thing. How easy is it to change the serial number on these puppies? They certainly would have very little fence value if it were impossible to make calls because the radio identifies itself and has been reported stolen. Maybe they don't get stolen much... Anybody know? Kent Borg "Then again I could be foolish kent@lloyd.uucp not to quit while I'm ahead..." or -from Evita (sung by Juan Peron) ...!husc6!lloyd!kent