Is there Cell service near ... ?

Now, you may be able to find out for yourself. This web page will show you the locations of towers and antennas from a given address. (Note, it might not be a completely accurate guide as to reliability, as local terrain may still block reception). Also, I do not see any way to input coordinates, (what's the address of Haystack Mountain? ), so it may have limited usefulness in the back country.

Can someone explain the difference between antennas and cell towers? I checked a place in the north country that has no towers, yet has four antenna sites. There's no cell service there at all. So what are the antennas used for?

Existing Towers: Registered and Non-Registered structures where antennas are placed. Towers may be used for various services including Cellular, Paging, Microwave and others.

Future Towers: Newly filed (or pending) applications to construct new towers. Application info includes location coordinates and detailed ownership data.

Antennas: The actual emitters of radio signals. Antennas can be placed on towers (multiple) or can be installed stand alone on top of existing buildings. Stand alone antennas are small (well below 200 ft). You may also check multiple antennas to determine which cell phone carriers are located on a particular tower.

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My guess is that antennas are just the receptor/transmittors themselves whereas cell towers are actual man-made structures used to support the antennas.

You can mount cell phone antennas on like water towers, tall buildings.. or here in the berkshires, old fire towers..

dentonfabrics said:

Can someone explain the difference between antennas and cell towers? I checked a place in the north country that has no towers, yet has four antenna sites. There's no cell service there at all. So what are the antennas used for?

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Strictly speaking, antennas are devices that launch and/or receive radio signals. Towers are one form of support structure and cell towers, of course, support antennas that are used by the cell phone systems.

Antenna size scales by wavelengh--cellular telephone signals generally have a wavelength of <.5 meter so the individual antennas can be fairly small. (However, individual antennas can be used in arrays (groups) to form directional beams.) A fairly common configuration is a horizontal equilateral triangle support structure with 4 or 5 vertical bars mounted on each side of the triangle. The bars contain the actual antennas and the net effect is to generate steerable horizontal beams.

In urban areas cell antennas are often hidden in or on existing structures, eg on the side of a tall building or in a church steeple. In suburban or rural areas, the antennas and towers are sometimes disguised to look like trees.

In general, cell antennas will be lower and closer together in areas of high population density (to make the cells smaller) and higher and farther apart in areas of low population density (to make the cells larger).

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site for some pictures.

There are a wide variety of both types of antennas and radio services that depend on them--any wireless or radio service uses them in one form or another. The summit of Mt Washington, for instance, is festooned with antennas of a variety of types and services...

Doug

DougPaul said:

In suburban or rural areas, the antennas and towers are sometimes disguised to look like trees.

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Here's an example on the Hutchinson River Parkway. The fir tower really blends in well with the deciduous trees in the background!
http://www.ryerecord.com/Rye Record Website 02.09.06/Images/PAGE 1-CELL TOWER.jpg

chipc said:

Here's an example on the Hutchinson River Parkway. The fir tower really blends in well with the deciduous trees in the background!
http://www.ryerecord.com/Rye Record Website 02.09.06/Images/PAGE 1-CELL TOWER.jpg

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You can often spot them as funny looking trees sticking up above the canopy on hills as you drive along. When you get closer you can frequently see the (vertical bar) antennas in among the plastic branches.

Doug

chipc said:

Here's an example on the Hutchinson River Parkway. The fir tower really blends in well with the deciduous trees in the background!
http://www.ryerecord.com/Rye Record Website 02.09.06/Images/PAGE 1-CELL TOWER.jpg

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That's a beauty!!!

chipc said:

Here's an example on the Hutchinson River Parkway. The fir tower really blends in well with the deciduous trees in the background!

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Good example of a tower. Great example of sarcasm!