How to calculate antenna length for specific frequency, to be used in remote area?

sophiecentaur

That was stupid of me. You want 1/2 wavelength and not a full wavelength for the elements (and the dipole at the bottom).

Seriously, though, your biggest unknown is with how to get the signal into and out of the phone. Unless you can find specific information about your particular phone, you should avoid getting in there with a soldering iron! A wireless coupling is what you should go for. Once you have erected your antenna on the tree and are at the bottom with your cable end then it's easy to play around with bits of wire, two metal plates or even a loop and see which gives you more bars on your signal indicator. If you need to stand on one leg for best reception then so be it. Life will be just the same as it used to be with a TV set-top aerial in a bad reception area!

CanucksGirl

Thanks for the clarification.

What I'd like to do is get this working so that any and all our cellphones have improved signals. If that's not successful (or feasible), then I had considered getting an alternate cellphone for the camp that we could connect to the antenna, and have it as our "main line". With the use of alternative power sources we've established, we could then leave the phone on all the time in case someone needed to get in contact with us, or we needed to call out.

This is definitely a work in progress, and I imagine there are several hurdles to overcome.

Thanks for the advice!