I have had success with using the phone as part of a yagi. I had a Motorola 
phone that was terrible at the fringe, so I calculated some crude distances and 
mounted it between a longer and shorter wire all in parallel. Wire length 
dependent on freq (a crude yagi antenna). I could then at least stay on a call 
and I could tell the tower heading by swinging it around. It was usually worth 
1-2 "bars".

Haven't needed to do that in a few years though... Using bluetooth, one 
wouldn't even need to touch the phone these days.

There was also one time in the woods I could only make a call by coupling to a 
very large pine tree (phone had to be a few inches from it while on my ear), 
and my other arm seemed to tune it somehow. If I moved away from the tree, no 
signal, and certain arm positions peaked it. It was PCS too, not analog.


Brooke Clarke wrote:
> Hi Cedric:
> 
> I live in a forest canyon and have thought about how to do this.  There are a 
> number of approaches like external antenna, ext ant with booster amp indoors or 
> outdoors, classical repeater, Intelligent repeater, cell to wireline adapter. 
> I've written them up at:
> http://www.prc68.com/I/phones.shtml#Rpt
> 
> Have Fun,
> 
> Brooke Clarke
> http://www.PRC68.com
> http://www.precisionclock.com
> http://www.prc68.com/I/WebCam2.shtml 24/7 Sky-Weather-Astronomy Cam
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