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Connecting Cordless Phones to a Cellular?
dmallery asks: "I live about 40 miles from the nearest Verizon cell. Last week, I put a 13db Yagi antenna about 18' up and voila: a reliable connection! The problem, of course, is that the phone has to be connected to the antenna to be usable. I have two wire lines that I'd love to get rid of, but you can barely hear the cell phone ring! Is there a way I can 'patch' from the digital phone to my cordless phones? There used to be something like that, but it was only for analog phones. Has anyone had this problem?"
This is a strange question for you to be asking given that you were obviously resourceful enough to discover and find a place to sell you an appropriate yagi antenna comaptible with your phone and cellular frequencies and resourceful enough to install it. What's more these types of devices are almost always sold by the same people that carry fixed mount high gain cellular antennas, so I find it very hard to believe that you had trouble finding one.
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Anyway, since you didn't specify what phone you need it to work with, I don't know if either of these will work for you or not but try these easily-found-on-google solutions:
http://store.voxilla.com/customer/product.php?p
http://cellsocket.com/
Actually, that merely forwards your calls to the POTS phones (you have to register the number) while the cell is in the device. So he'd have to keep his current POTS service which he's trying to get rid of.
I dunno who it is
but it prolly is fhqwhgads.
It's a cradle for your cell that either powers your land lines, or has it's own cordless handsets, allowing multiple connections and strategicly placed ringers. I'll get the name for you on Monday (it's in at the office). Quality was no worse than POTS (on a conference call).
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
These people have several solutions. Check out the Telular base station or the in-building repeaters.
Um, the US? Seriously, if you are in a sparse state (most of the states west of the Mississippi, Maine, etc.) cell service is quite spotty especailly in smaller communities where people can't see a Walmart from their doorstep (yes I know, hard to believe, but Walmart isn't everywhere yet...)
My parents are in remote northern Wisconsin, and have been debating (with the local homeowners association) on allowing a cell tower in the area (a 30,000 acre private community encompassing several lakes.) Cell service isn't available until about 5 miles out. The NIMBY folks are pretty vocal however. The area is remote enough (and hilly enough) that the fake pine tree towers won't work.
I'm not sure - I've been looking at the devices myself, but haven't actually bought or tested one yet.
There may be another alternative for you, though... Many cell phones actually have data and fax capability built in - I know my S/E T68i does. There are two ways to use it, IIRC; one is to connect through the data cable, the other is to connect using bluetooth. I prefer the bluetooth option myself. Since most PCs don't yet have BT connections, Belkin Components has some relatively inexpensive BT/USB adapters. I use this myself for communicating between the phone and the PC.
So you may already have the capability you're looking for without spending the extra on the cradle.
Hope that helps!
Mattcelt