Hurricane Luis in Anguilla / Cellphone Antenna

--- begin forwarded text

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 13:24:33 +24000
From: Vincent Cate <vince@offshore.com.ai>
Subject: Hurricane Luis in Anguilla / Cellphone Antenna
To: Steve Roberts <wordy@qualcomm.com>
cc: Technomads <technomads@UCSD.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0



Hurricane Luis took Anguilla apart.  The three utility polls right near my
house all blew down.  My house, computers, etc are all fine.

Nobody was killed in Anguilla, but in St Marten (5 miles away) it seems
there were many people killed.  They have a lot of poor people there
and also a lot of people used to live in boats.  More than 1,000 of
about  1,400 boats sank.

They eye went right over Anguilla.  For awhile it was calm enough that
everyone went outside to stretch and say hi to everyone.  Overall it
took about 4 days to pass.

It has been nice to have solar pannels, batteries, an interter, etc. I did
not have a cellphone, but I do now.

And now that I have one I am really interested in the directional antenna
that might let me reach other islands - in particular the US Virgin
islands where long distance rates are $0.10/min at night with sprint
instead of the $2/min that we pay here in Anguilla.  Does anyone know
where I can order a directional cellphone antenna (boat antenna) good for
100 miles?

  --  Vince
--- end forwarded text


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131
USA (617) 323-7923
"Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell
>>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf@clark.net  http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

Assuming your cellphone operates in the 800 MHz range, transmitting with 
about 1 W., I think you're out of luck.

With UHF and particularly at low power levels, you just about have to be 
line-of-sight to the receiving antenna. Guessing how high up your antenna 
might be and how high the receiving antenna could be, I would say you 
would be lucky to achieve a range of 20 miles.  I'd be astonished at 
anything over 50.

Brad

On Mon, 18 Sep 1995, Robert Hettinga wrote:

> 
> --- begin forwarded text
> 
> Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 13:24:33 +24000
> From: Vincent Cate <vince@offshore.com.ai>
> Subject: Hurricane Luis in Anguilla / Cellphone Antenna
> To: Steve Roberts <wordy@qualcomm.com>
> cc: Technomads <technomads@UCSD.EDU>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> 
> 
> 
> Hurricane Luis took Anguilla apart.  The three utility polls right near my
> house all blew down.  My house, computers, etc are all fine.
> 
> Nobody was killed in Anguilla, but in St Marten (5 miles away) it seems
> there were many people killed.  They have a lot of poor people there
> and also a lot of people used to live in boats.  More than 1,000 of
> about  1,400 boats sank.
> 
> They eye went right over Anguilla.  For awhile it was calm enough that
> everyone went outside to stretch and say hi to everyone.  Overall it
> took about 4 days to pass.
> 
> It has been nice to have solar pannels, batteries, an interter, etc. I did
> not have a cellphone, but I do now.
> 
> And now that I have one I am really interested in the directional antenna
> that might let me reach other islands - in particular the US Virgin
> islands where long distance rates are $0.10/min at night with sprint
> instead of the $2/min that we pay here in Anguilla.  Does anyone know
> where I can order a directional cellphone antenna (boat antenna) good for
> 100 miles?
> 
>   --  Vince
> --- end forwarded text
> 
> 
> -----------------
> Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
> Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131
> USA (617) 323-7923
> "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell
> >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf@clark.net  http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<
> 
> 
>