-GE> TDMA does sound pretty good as long as the towers aren't
-GE> very busy. As
-GE> more and more TDMA phones start competing for tower time,
-GE> and the Time
-GE> Division Multiplexing kicks in, then you'll hear the
-GE> "burbling" sound
-GE> people complain about with TDMA. A salesman I know from our
That's no good, the primary reason for going digital over analog is to 
increase capacity. If the system sounds poor when it's getting loaded, you 
may as well stick with analog. My opinion is that CDMA is the way to go.
-GE> people complain about with TDMA. A salesman I know from our
-GE> major
-GE> competitor confided in me that he only lets customers
-GE> listen to his TDMA
-GE> demo phone during low-use times. He never lets anyone try
-GE> it during
-GE> evening rush hour.
I'd hate to be in that position, I'd rather sell for the winners, not the 
losers. If worse comes to worse he can let them try it in analog mode which 
normally sounds great all the time.
-GE> analog portables. That only advantage to that nice bag
-GE> phone you refer
-GE> to is it's 3 watts of power. With digital, that advantage
-GE> is moot.
The 3 watt / 3db gain antenna setup is nice because it provides a much 
stronger signal to the cell site. My Diamondtel 92 displays the attenuation 
level that it's using when I'm on the phone. 0 means the phone is running 
wide open and 7 is maximum attenuation or minimum transmitted power. With the 
antenna on the roof, the signal is noticably stronger than when using the 
antenna on the car so the phone runs at lower power. Quite often it's running 
at minimum.
With a better setup you're also within range of more cell sites. With this 
phone I can use the diagnostic mode and manually move thru the 21 setup 
channels and see which ones are within range. With the antenna on the car, 
it's not uncommon to be within range of 5 or more. This gives the cellular 
system a little more flexibility in completing my calls. If the cell that I'm 
originating the call on is busy, the cell can issue a directed retry and have 
the phone automatically try the call on another site. The same person sitting 
in the next car with a little handheld phone may instead get the retry alarm 
and have to resubmit the call.
Another nice thing about the 3 watts and the good antenna is driving thru 
rough terrain and keeping the call rather than losing it. We started out with 
the little shirt pocket phones but it doesn't take too many calls to realize 
that when the going gets rough the little phones get hot and noisy.
When I place a call while mobile, I expect that the call will end when I hit 
the end button, not before, I also expect a quiet call. I may be on the phone 
for 1, 2, or more hours but none the less, I still expect that the call will 
continue until I end it.
The 3 watt phone and good antenna meet those expectations 99.9% of the time.
In short, unless the area is saturated with cell sites, the points of power 
and antenna are never moot, they need to be the best possible.
Thanks for the reply.
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