Smartphone Thoughts: Antenna Booster - This One Works!

Motorola MPx200 is an awesome Smartphone. Motorola engineers put out an almost perfect Smartphone 2002 based device. I am calling it almost perfect because it has one critical shortcoming. The signal reception is nowhere near perfect. The device has served me well and in spite of the fact that Motorola never released the Windows Mobile 2003 for this device, I have been very happy with its features and the way they have been implemented. Except for the signal quality; inside my office building and at home, I get only one bar or at times none. :-( Past experience has taught me that the Antenna Booster stickers "do not" work. So I set out to design my own antenna booster. I am mighty pleased with the results of the half-hour operation that I carried out on my phone. The phone looks a little odd with the 3" wire sticking out of it, but it works! :-)



Note: I must warn the Do-It-Self'ers that I cannot guarantee that this will work for you. Not to forget, you will be voiding the warranty on the Smartphone. I am posting this article not as a How-To guide, but as an article that proves that the signal reception on the MPx200 could have been improved had the Motorola engineers not cared about the aesthetics and built an external antenna into the phone.
I have had this experiment in my mind ever since I got the phone, but never had enough confidence to carry it out. Now that MPx220 and other Smartphones are close to their launch date. I thought that even if I goof up, this will give me an excuse to buy a new Smartphone right away. And if it worked I would be able to wait a month or two, for the prices on the new Smartphones to settle down. It was a win-win situation. ;-)

So you want me to end the blah-blah and get down to the details of how I actually did it.


Figure 1: Once you remove the four screws under the battery cover and release the two clips on the side, this is what you will see. I have marked the original antenna.

The antenna is a small metal plate. No wonder the reception is not that great. Of course the circuitry can also be blamed for not boosting the signal enough. But I am convinced that the small metal plate is the reason for poor reception and decide to proceed with my experiment.


Figure 2: I then drilled a hole into the back of the cover and passed a wire through the hole. I wish I had done a little more research on how antennas work and picked up a wire of suitable gauge. But I had some wire sitting in my hobby kit box and didn't want to go wire shopping (read that as lazy).


Figure 3: I soldered the wire to the antenna connector.


Figure 4: Another picture of the back cover showing the hole and the wire passing through it. I chose to drill the hole in the back because I was worried that I may crack the plastic if I drill the hole on the top (where the antenna is located usually).