Thanks for your feedback. It is a magnetic base antenna. But I'm not sure about the 'ground-plane' comment. My understanding is that mobile antennas do not need a ground plane, and the magnetic base is simply for attachment and stability.But there is SO much more to the story. It turns out that fooling around with the external antenna attchment too much BROKE the coupling which is soldered to the phone's main board, internally. So now the phone does not receive any signal, at all. I guess this coupling was part of the entire antenna subsystem, and it is now not tuned correctly or just messed up.
So, I'm in the middle of getting it repaired through Sprint while I turned my old phone back on. And the Sprint deal is an ENTIRE story, as they can't honor the warranty if the phone is NOT the one on service. So I have to put the broken BACK on service, just to return it! There's more to it, but I'll spare you.
I did e-mail a guy who had a very similar problem and was asking about external antennas. His advice to me was STAY AWAY FROM THE EXTERNAL ANTENNA CONNECTOR!! I was I had heeded his advice.
Have you ever tried those 'signal reperaters'? Maybe that's what I need. Or maybe an upstairs office!
Thanks - Dave
