Mobile phone external antenna- connecting...

Penguin7471, Tue Jul 04 2006, 02:26PM

Hello,

I have this Nokia 3200, and I'm with this lame company (won't mention any names here) that has poor coverage and weak signal strength everywhere. The cellphone doesnt even recognise the phone company when I'm inside the house.

I know there are external antennas for sale and all that... But I noticed my phone only has that skinny long 14 or more pin socket thing, which you can connect, say, earphones. Apart from the DC charger cable socket, there are no other connections. Which means the external antenna connection must be one or more of those 14 pins.

I've tried poking the wire from my huge antenna outside onto each pin in turn, but there are no noticible improvements in reception (ie, no signal bars at all).

I remember someone who said they had made a 12 element "copper tape" yagi to connect to their cellphone a while ago... Jim Frank maybe, can't quite remember. How is this done?
Re: Mobile phone external antenna- connecting...
Steve Conner, Tue Jul 04 2006, 04:13PM

Newer phones don't have an external antenna connection. I've never seen it in the 14-pin connector, it's always a separate coax type connector.

If your phone doesn't take an external antenna, you can still get boosters that use a yagi-like setup to funnel more signal onto the built-in antenna.
Re: Mobile phone external antenna- connecting...
AndrewM, Tue Jul 04 2006, 05:05PM

My Nokias had the antenna connector hidden under a soft plastic cap. Look for a 1/4" diameter bump somehwere on the phone, and pry it up.