I see some paging network antennae on my local list. And there seem to be some others associated with private wireless networks, possibly for computer networks that need to serve multiple buildings where the owners wanted to avoid stringing cable.
Some of the towers/antennas shown around here seem to be for various police or other emergency agencies.
And if you have a jailbroken iPhone, get this app in Cydia:
http://www.ijailbreak.com/applications/cydia-app-signal-from-planetbeing/
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But all of these antennas are for cell phones, right? They don’t show antennas for other things, do they, and if they do, what would those other things be? Ham radio?
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No, not all of those antennas in Fubaya’s link are for cell phones. In fact, most aren’t. And probably not ham radio, but PCS, paging, land mobile, etc. You need an antenna for a lot of different things.
You’re not going to have a tower listed there without an antenna, but it might not be a cell antenna.
An antenna is tuned to only one frequency or set of frequencies and only belongs to one company, so yes, a given antenna can only serve one company.
Most of the antennas around my house are used for other things like the express way authority or a local golf course, cab companies, paging companies, but they are usually low power, sometimes as low as 2 watts. I know Sprint uses 800MHZ and 1900MHZ. When I found a antenna that was using between 854MHZ and 860MHZ it was owned by Sprint Nextel and showed a radiated power of 1000watts.
The tower is about a mile from my house.
140 towers and a whopping 434 antennas within four miles of me.
Don’t forget private radio services, radio & tv stations. Most of the big sticks are broadcasters (though they lease lower parts for other services). Multiple towers in a row are most often directional am transmitters, the more towers the more extreme the ‘throw’ or directional pattern.
Also, as far as tower masking, it comes in fake trees (most often evergreen out East), on power line towers, buildings, and my favorite, the really thick flag pole with a huge American flay flying on it.
Who would dare complain about a huge American flag flying in your neighborhood, eh?
fm radio and tv broadcast towers are best sited on high elevations as so often are clustered on the highest points near a metro area, unless the city makes there own high elevations (skyscapers). fm radio and tv broadcast towers are very tall and obstructions to aircraft and so get clustered to obstruct less.
am radio broadcast towers can be in low areas.
mobile services towers are placed where people are living, working or driving.
Typically, what kind of range do they have? How close do I normally have to be to a tower to get a decent signal?
I used that site to discover that I have a single-digit number of towers, but a 90+ number of antenna close to my house. What is the difference between a tower and an antenna?
I’m about a mile away from my cell phone carrier tower. I’m fine anywhere in my house. I’d double or triple that if I’m outdoors. There is a grocery store about a mile from my house and further away from the tower. I can’t get a signal in the back of the store. Keep in mind that the reception quality can vary a lot from phone to phone. I still find it hard to believe that most people buy phones without researching the reception.
an antenna tower is a structure that antennas are placed on. a tower may have one, a few or many antennas on it.
I used to ask the people selling me phones which choice had better “reception” (generally it is actually the transmission from phone to tower that is the limiting factor), and they would always say all the phones are exactly the same. It was like they were chanting slogans, or had talking points and were staying on message.
Is there a typo in your number of towers? I have 29 towers and 245 antennas, plus three evil new tower applications.
I think this is a problem common to grocery stores. They are usually concrete block or similar type of building, they typically only have windows in the front, and they’re quite large, so you can go back and be pretty far away from the windows, and they have lots of metal shelving between you and the windows. I also experience loss of signal in Target and similar stores.
In general, believing what a salesmen tells you is a good way to get screwed and not in a good way. I go check out what the reviews say on phonescoop.com and cnet.com. I like a combination of professional reviews and user reviews. User reviews are often lame but sometimes you find out about dealbreakers.
I feel the same way about most electronics. I may buy in a store, but I shop online.
Yes, it is like being in a Faraday cage. There are also metal studs in the interior walls on newer buildings.
stores may have metal roof trusses and sheet metal as a fire break on the ceilings.