1) Cell phone amplifiers exist, work, and are legal. see
http://www.digitalantenna.com/cellamp.html

2) The VHF antenna idea won't work and might, as noted above, destroy
the cell phone.

3) The radar antenna idea actually has some technical merit, but the
challenge of actually getting the radar to point to the right place,
and hooking up the cell phone to its feed without significant
insertion loss, make it pretty much impossible. It would also be
illegal, as it would not be type accepted.

4) A cell phone antenna at the masthead is your best bet. West Marine
sells them. For good ones, see:
http://www.digitalantenna.com/cell.html


Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com

(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?