Mobile Phone & Modem Antennas

The original the best and the most copied antennas in Australia

Designing and Manufacturing Antennas since 1973  Information

Mobile phones in Australia are most efficient on the 3G 850MHz band

About Patch Leads

A patch lead is required in order to attach your phone to an external antenna, This patch lead is a special cable that is dedicated to your particular model phone or Modem and should be available where you purchase your mobile phone. A good source for patch leads is www.cellink.com.au

Some patch leads simply do not work

All external antennas use a female FME connector that connects directly to your patch lead which in turn connects to your mobile phone. The antenna needs to be connected directly to the phone in order to get the best performance, If your mobile phone antenna connection is through a hands free cradle and that cradle uses "induction through the cradle" i.e. the patch lead is not connected directly to the phone then it will may not work very well.

About Coax Cable

Cable lengths are critical and will reduce performance.

  1. Keep the coax as short as possible.

  2. Do not coil excess coax.

  3. Extension leads are lossy.

  4. Patch connections are lossy.

  5. The coax must be "RG58 Cellfoil" or similar - Do not use CB coax.

  6. By reducing the coax length you will get better performance.

About Connectors

All mobile phone antennas use "FME" female connectors

All Mobile One phone antennas have at the end of their cable a universal connector called a "Female FME Connector", This connector will connect to any patch cable that is required to connect to your phone or modem! Every now and then there can be confusion regarding the connectors, if so give us a call or e-mail us.

Installation Recommendations

The best way of installing a phone antenna is on the front passenger side of the vehicle's bonnet using a BMB mount or a Z Bracket, This allows the antenna to be high on the vehicle and close to the cabin of the vehicle which means a shorter run of cable is used. If at all possible you should cut the cable to the required length and terminate with a new FME connector but keep in mind that once the cable is cut it cannot be effectively lengthened again.

Please NOTE most mobile phone antennas are DC grounded and will show zero resistance
when tested at the connector.

Some Do's & Don'ts regarding phone antenna

DO - Use a 4G/5G antenna for a E4G/5G phone.
Multi band antennas do not perform as good as single band antennas.

DO - Use a spring if mounted on a bull bar - Some bull bars are ok but some can vibrate severely
The spring is important to absorb the vibration from the engine otherwise the antenna will eventually fail but it extremely important that you use the correct spring in the right position. if you don't do this the antenna will eventually fall apart or worst damage your transceiver

DO - Place the antenna high as possible - The higher the better the performance
The higher the gain the higher the antenna should be mounted.

DON'T - Use extension leads unless absolutely necessary e.g.:Base Station applications

DON'T - Mount the antenna along side any metal object - As far away as possible or practical
Any metal object will absorb the radiation from the antenna, greatly reducing its performance, you should try for at least one metre distance

DON'T - Concern yourself with earthing the base - It makes no difference to performance
Earthing the base has no effect and will not improve performance