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Old December 25th 05, 01:42 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna
Paul Johnson
 
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Default If the ideal lenght of an antenna is 1/4 Wave lenght then way are the Car Cellular antennas are longer then this ?

Ralph Mowery wrote:


"tomerbr" wrote in message
oups.com...
this was a qustion from my instractor in college


As Dave said, there is no ideal length for an antenna.

The 1/4 wave antenna will have a radiation patern that sends much of the
signal at high angles from it. Not usually good for cell phones where
they are usually on short towers (if you call a couple of hundred feet
short).


A couple hundred feet is taller than most (all?) cell towers. Nextel used
to boast about having the tallest towers, around 110 feet max. Sprint's
towers were the shortest before Nextel bought them at around 60 feet. This
is why Sprint's signal really sucked balls before Nextel bought them out.

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Paul Johnson
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