REFLECTOR: Cell phone repeater / amp

Mark Magee edjonesbrady at gmail.com
Mon Nov 28 06:02:13 CST 2011


Reiff,
I've looked at this as well. With our relatively slow-moving aircraft (vs. .9 Mach or even Embrauer turbo prop speeds) we can somewhat fool the system and use our phones in our planes as we cruise under around 200 kts. The larger problem for us is that the newer digital cell towers are directional and normally placed on the highest ground available to serve a geography. The towers are then directionally tuned toward the ground to make their power usage more efficient. The guys slow flying taildraggers below 8000 ft seem to be able to talk all day on their cell phones and even get data over 3G or Edge. They aren't changing towers so much that the system defines them as SKED Airline traffic. And they are below some distant tower that they locked onto. In summary our Velocities are on the edge of being able to use normal (AT&T) wireless service  primarily due to the normal cruise altitude of 10,000 ft MSL + and the faster of us run the risk of the system ID'ing your flight as SKED Airline traffic and temporarily locking you out as Reiff mentioned. Therefore a cell phone repeater/booster  will be of no advantage for access to normal cell phone networks for most of us. 
In all likelihood the future holds an aviation only cell system with the towers directionally tuned upward toward our aircraft and to serve only aviation. However I have to expect it to be another add on and much more expensive than what we get from consumer cell co's.

Mark B. Magee
Velocity N34XL XLFG 300 HP
Brady TX
Sent from IPhone 4

On Nov 27, 2011, at 6:51 PM, Reiff Lorenz <Reiff at lorenz.com> wrote:

> 
> Andy,
> 
> In the air, the problem usually is not that the phone's signal is too weak to reach a tower; it's that your phone can connect to too many towers at a time due to its altitude advantage. The aircraft cell phone ban is an FCC issue, not an FAA issue, because the possibility of jumbo-jets with 300 cell phones on board, each continuously trying to connect to 50 towers at a time as they zip across the country could overly tax the communications infrastructure.
> 
> If you leave your phone on in the air the cell phone companies' equipment can recognize the phone's overly efficient transmissions and they will temporarily disable connections to your phone so you don't crowd out other customers.
> 
> Since it is probably these airborne transmissions that are causing your network to disconnect you, a signal amplifier is unlikely to help the situation -- and it may even exacerbate the problem.
> 
> Here are some links to further reading in case I haven't bored you already:
> 
> FCC regulation:
> http://law.justia.com/cfr/title47/47-2.0.1.1.2.8.27.12.html
> 
> Wikipedia article:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#United_States
> 
> Hope all this helps!
> 
> Reiff Lorenz
> Dayton, OH
> XL-RG 5% done and headed back to it's birthplace
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Judge
> Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 1:41 PM
> To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
> Subject: REFLECTOR: Cell phone repeater / amp
> 
> I bought a useless cell repeater for my house and was looking for a way to use it. I was thinking I could get a panel antennae and point it towards the ground near the firewall and put the master box near the panel. I'd have to step down the voltage to 5v 2a. Been so long, I've forgot how to do that. Step down regulator from national semiconductor or mouser I suppose...
> 
> Anyway, I'm curious if anyone has tried that. I get sporadic signal and get emails in my blackberry  and can respond to them. The next tower I get, the email or text is out. It would be pretty neat to get something like this working okay in populated areas of coverage for say AT&T. 
> 
> I'd prefer not to us android or iOS since the active sync technology they use is not efficient in the air unless I can get something like this working. 
> 
> The model I have is: 
> 
> http://www.repeaterstore.com/products/repeaterkits/wi-ex/zboost-yx-545.php
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Andy 
> N55AJ
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