Why don't you just get a cell phone antenna and if needed, an amplifier? With a 4 foot
antenna on the stern rail we had contact with ATT for the entire East Coast. The only
problem area was Maine, where the coves can be blocked by hills.

BTW, one of the proposals for "next generation" cell technology was by a company that
specializes in small supercomputers for Defense Dept. radar and sonar systems. The same
technology that can "aim" radar can be used to aim cell bandwidth to the customer that
needs it at the moment.




"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
(Parallax) wrote in message
. com...
My posts havent been gittin through fer some reason so I'm gonna
repost this one.

For ppl who really want to stay connected while afloat ( I dunno why
but they do). Useless Idea #3734

Put a T in the output of your VHF so your cellphone can be connected
to your VHF antenna waaaaaaaaay up thar on your mast. Since your 900
Mhz cellphone is even more line-of-sight than vhf, this will give you
more more coverage when you are a few miles out. In this case, I
expect coverage will then be limited by cellphone power instead of by
not being able to see a tower. I would expect to be able to get
coverage from 15 miles out. I once experimented, while standing on my
cabin top, I was able to use my cell phone while being 6 miles
offshore. Would a cell phone booster be illegal?


OK, an even worse idea.......Use your radar (I dont have one) as a
high gain antenna to point toward a cell tower. It ought to work for
900 Mhz. Some electronics could figger out the direction to the best
tower.