There was a storm the other day with rain and high winds. When I left work, I tried to use my cell phone in an area where I normally get a good signal but all I got was “No Service”.
I continued driving and eventually (five or ten miles later) got a digital signal.
So, can anyone educate me as to what physically took place to cause this? I can understand phone lines being knocked down by trees, but what about cellular phones?
It could be one of a few things. First of all, it’s possible the storm damaged the cellular tower or antenna.
Also, cell phones are, remember, in effect, two way radios. You talk into the phone, and that’s broadcast to the cell tower, which then connects to the land telephone line. When the person on the other end talks to you, it works the same way in reverse. Storms, because they can put out a lot of electromagnetic radiation of their own, can disrupt radio reception. That’s why your TV or radio sometimes gets static during a bad storm. The same thing can happen to cell phone reception.
Cell phones aren’t subject to the same sort of EMI that radio and television receivers are, unless you’ve got an old analog TDMA unit. Nearly all cell phones these days are digital, a mode which is very good at rejecting analog noise. It’s most likely that the tower was either physically damaged by wind or blown objects, or electrically damaged by lightning or lightning-induced powerline surges.
Thought about that, but as a huge metal antenna I would suspect the cell tower would be constucted with lightening strikes/high wind in mind.
Thought about this also, but I was attempting a cell to cell call. Are land lines used in any way for this type of call?
Also, by the time I was attempting the call the storm was gone and all was blue skies and rainbows. And yes, Q.E.D., it is a digital phone.