KD7HB wrote:
On Sep 22, 7:47 pm, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:
I have a 5.8GHz digital cordless phone system (two handsets and base
station) that has reasonable range. It works fine inside the house
and within about 30-50m of the house outside. The house is steel
frame clad with cementitious planking and plasterboard lining, and
has a steel roof.

Is it possible to improve the range of the handsets outside the
house using simple supplementary aerials or by relocating the base
station? If so where might I find design details?

I am competent with tools (I built the house) but don't know much
about radio.

David

David, before you give up, you can ALWAYS add an external antenna by
capacitively coupling the to antenna. Try this:

I live in a older triple wide manufactured home with aluminum siding.
The door bell on the front door was mechanical. There was no bell for
the back and no way to put in standard wired bells. I bought a pair of
electronic battery operated bells. The central unit always hears the
front door bell because it is 10 feet away and through glass windows.

The back door bell unit could not be heard by the control unit unless
the two doors leading to the outside were open. Not much good that
way. I cured the problem by drilling a hole just above the outside
push button unit and running a solid copper wire through the hole and
bent the end into a circle and left it close to the bell unit. Inside
the "mud room", I ran the wire several feet up and over a storm door
and along the ceiling toward the actual house. Still one aluminum
covered wall between the wire and the central bell unit. Now the
central unit always hears the back pus button unit. If it couldn't, I
was prepared to run the wire on into the house a ways.

So, try running a wire from the phone base unit to the outside of your
house. Experiment with length and placement to see if you get improved
distance. My electronic bell runs in the 300 MHz range, but may well
work for your unit, as well.

Good luck, Paul KD7HB

So the picture I am getting is that I coil some insulated wire around the
base station's stubby aerial a few times and then run it outside the house
and up high. Then play around with length and placement. Is that the idea?
Is the guage of the wire significant?

David