iPhone gets better reception in Dock!

[avalys]

I am renting an apartment for two months this summer, somewhat away from most of civilization. I don't get cell phone service when I'm inside, which is rather annoying. For the past few weeks, I've been setting my iPhone to forward calls to my Skype number, and then turning it to airplane mode when I come indoors.

However, I recently discovered that when I put my iPhone in the dock, I _do_ get cell reception inside my apartment. This is not just a freak little burst of good signal - I can make and receive calls just fine, even surf the web over EDGE. If I take it back out of the dock, the "No Service" banner appears.

So, if you're having reception difficulties in your house, try putting it in the dock!

I haven't had a chance to test whether this also happens when the dock is unplugged from the wall adapter, or when connecting directly over USB (sans dock).

 

[iBookG4user]

I've noticed this too, I usually get around 2 or 3 bars around my room, but as soon as i put my iPhone in it's Dock it goes up to 4 or 5 bars.

 

[johnee]

possible reason is the transmitter inside goes to full power after detecting it is being charged/not on battery power.

do this :

put it in the doc, but remove the charger/cable and see if it still gets better reception.

it's also possible just being docked sets a register to "1" which the software interprets as "happily docked and charging" even though it's not charging.

 

[mrtune]

Mine is like this as well. I have the dock on the dresser next to my bed. I don't get very good recepeption in my room (it's in the basement), but get full bars when it's sitting in the dock. Never have problems. I simply answer the call and put it on speaker.

If I get a call and I had forgot to dock it, I gotta run upstairs or I'll drop the call.

Wierd.

 

[johnee]

Mine is like this as well. I have the dock on the dresser next to my bed. I don't get very good recepeption in my room (it's in the basement), but get full bars when it's sitting in the dock. Never have problems. I simply answer the call and put it on speaker.

If I get a call and I had forgot to dock it, I gotta run upstairs or I'll drop the call.

Wierd.

Its not weird. read my post above. Engineering isn't magic.

 

[ecks618]

The reason for this is that the cord from your dock acts sort of like a antenna, this also happens if you use your headphones, theoredically it will give you a better reception.

To test you can use and radio phone or mp3 player and when you extend the headphone wire you will ger better radio reception and signal strength.