TravcoForum.com

[Zed]

Shot in the dark but I'm doing some preliminary research on repurposing the TV antenna as a passive cell phone range booster. I think its possible and will only require changing the lengths of the vanes to match ones in the cell phone spectrum range, which depends on your provider too. Learning a lot about antenna's since I'm just beginning to study for a HAM license. The antenna system would be passive, ie you point it at a far away tower and your cell phone would pick up on the coaxial cable it was placed near automatically. Theoretically this should work, I'll let you know what I find out. Anyone with more info, post it here.

[KB2CRK]

Theoretically it should work. I use an external wifi antenna with a range extender on Nessie. I would check the possibility of cutting them to a full wavelength rather than the quarter wavelength used in most Yagis. The frequency wavelength for cell phones being either 800 or 1900 Mhz a full wave antenna would still be very short. Good luck with you ham license.
73 KB2CRK

[PrivatePilot]

Last I looked at using antennas for purposes other than which they were designed I came to the realization that it wasn't really viable as the frequencies and such required between different devices (cellphones, WiFi, TV, etc) were too varied and different antennas were not necessarily designed to carry them effectively.

Now, FWIW, RV TV antennas are typically of the Yagi sort so it could theoretically work if you managed to get everything wired up properly, but from the perspective of a Travco I'd be concerned about the viability of an old antenna, old wiring etc etc accomplishing that effectively.

FWIW there are lots of booster options out there for the <$100 price range that include not only an antenna purpose designed for the job, but actual active booster/amplifier hardware. Check Amazon for lots of options.