Has anyone tried the shakespeare vhf/ cell phone antenna. How far out will it extend the range of your cell phone? Does it make a difference? Does it have a seperate plug for your cell phone?

Thanks

I've just used a pissy little 8" tall magnetic base antenna that has a 15' extension cable on it for a cellphone. Works pretty dang good. Without it I lose digital service at point X. With it I go 10 miles further and still have digital service and it still shows 3 bars (out of 5). Haven't gone further to see how far it works - might very well run back into good coverage from the next tower (this is inland usage I'm talking about).

I figure as good as my tiny one helps, a big 8'er would have to work good.

I do know on the boat we took form the gulf to Miami, that it had a dedicated cellphone antenna (8'er or 6' with a riser to match the 8' vhf) but we would lose cellphones at over 16 miles (does that sound right?).

My vfh antenna is pretty beat up. George has the shakespeare galaxy 5225 on sale for 74.99. it is suppose to be a good vhf antenna.

If my cell phone would work 16 or even 5 miles out off san diego or la i should get one of the 5229 cell phone /vhf combo units.

Has anyone tried one of the combo antennas off southern ca and how does the cell phone feature work? I use sprint for my cell phone if that matters.

Thanks

I do know the cellphone on the boat was a full wattage (is it 3 watts??) unit as opposed to a handheld. It was also capable fo digital, but swapped to analog while we were still fairly close to shore. My handheld Sprint phone lost signal before we were 3 or 4 miles offshore. Boat dropped to analog and held it a good ways out. Highest point of antenna was probably near 30' from water.