On Mon, 21 Mar 2005 23:15:32 +0100, Markus Baertschi
wrote:

Mark wrote:
I need to buy an external High Gain Antenna to plug into my mobile
phone. I need to operate the phone in a very remote area, where the
signal is at best, only one bar on the display. I will mount the
antenna on a pole on the roof, so I will need advise on cable as well.
Can anybody tell me where to buy such a beast, thanks.

Most mobile phone accessory shops have external antennas for sale. These
antennas are designed for use in a car, but work fine without. The cable
is not very long (2-4m), but adding a chunk of 50Ohm RG58-type cable is
possible. I'd cut the cable close to the antenna to preserve a decent
bit of the original cable (with the connector matching your phone) on
the phone side for comfort.
If you know where the closest base station is than you can add a
parabolic reflector and aim for it to increase the signal. Just google
for wifi and parabolic and scale according to the frequency you use. If
you are using the 800 or 900 Mhz bands the reflector can get quite large
though.

Markus

Is there a rough calculation on how high I should be aiming to mount
the Antenna (law of diminishing returns, and all that). A half
informed friend said I should use a YAGI antenna, is he correct? If so
where do I buy a suitable one in the UK or Europe for Spain.

I know where the base station is, where do I buy a parabolica to
match, how does one mount the Antenna on the parabolica? what size
dish is a good size to start with? would an old TV Satellite dish do
it? Do I ground the dish?