Connecting aerials together to boost mobile signal?

[Sutty]

I've read a couple of interesting but old threads on here, eg "Homebrew passive antenna coupler" and "Ultra low power 3g repeater"
I'm wondering if it would be possible to boost a modern smartphone's effective range by connecting a decent sized aerial (directional if needed) to a small patch antenna which would be placed next to the phone. This would be without any active amplification.
This might enable better communication on hill walks which otherwise have minimal/no phone cover.
I saw an Australian YouTube item that used "inductive cradles" in a vehicle with an external aerial but it was unclear if there was active amplification.
Would the patch antenna re-radiate the phone signal usefully?

 

[Delta Prime]

Would the patch antenna re-radiate the phone signal usefully?

No. It is passive. It will not radiate anything. It's woo woo territory The Twilight zone. Sorry about that.

 

[Sutty]

Thanks for your answer. However elsewhere (may have been on here) I read someone reporting that they had an aerial above ground run into a basement with no signal, which gave them a signal when phone placed near the simple bare wire termination.

 

[kellys_eye]

Aerials can be simple or complicated depending on how you analyse their function. From a basic isotropic radiator (null gain) to highly directional ('focused') multi-element devices with many dB of gain it's a dark art to some - many in fact.

You can increase gain but this introduces directionality - and 'gain' applies to both transmitting and receiving aerials (both the same thing).

With a mobile phone, assuming you can correctly couple the internal aerial to an external one there will be losses - there always are - and your 'ongoing' aerial will have to compensate for those losses by having a greater gain which, in aerial design, means making it more directional rather than, as in most portable radio equipment, omni-directional.

If your phone-to-antenna loss is (say) 20dB the you'd need an 'ongoing' aerial that has AT LEAST 20dB gain to compensate and such an aerial will be so directional as to be worthless in a mobile phone application.

For point-to-point applications such as sending/receiving a wifi to remote(r) locations you focus the signal with 'laser-like' accuracy to get the gain necessary to increase the range of transmission/reception and it works! But for a mobile phone???? Unless you know precisely where to aim your external aerial and can hold it there then the chances of making a workable solution is minimal to say the least.

 

[Delta Prime]

Thanks for your answer

You're welcome. Make model of your cell phone?
Your geographical location?
Your cell phone provider?
In these matters is best not to go perhaps-ing around.
On speech to text
Excuses spelling.

 

[Sutty]

You're welcome. Make model of your cell phone?
Your geographical location?
Your cell phone provider?
In these matters is best not to go perhaps-ing around.
On speech to text
Excuses spelling.

Currently Sony Experia xz2 compact, though may change soon.
O2 network.
UK

Thanks for any advice.
A low power amplifier (especially as a module) might be an option.
A shame modern phones don't support an external aerial!

 

[Bluejets]

To begin with, 3G is about to be switched off all over the country in Aus (if that is where you are based) so not much point anyhow.

Other than that, best look at your provider's coverage map.
If you ain't in there, no point either.