Five antennas were coupled to the Cel-Fi Go including three broom-stick styles from RFI, Strike and Axis. Research engineer Ben White explains that while the Cel-Fi Go was simple to install and use, it was essential to pair it with a quality antenna as performance varied between the models tested.

Plenty of farm business is done from behind the wheel of a farm vehicle. Because we tend to farm and drive across expanses of low-population areas, maximising fringe mobile phone coverage is essential. But connecting a mobile phone to a high-gain external antenna to utilise fringe coverage is not made easy. The number of mobile phones with an external antenna patch lead connection continues to diminish with the only handset sporting an antenna plug in our most recent test being the Telstra Tough Max.

Antenna performance was closely linked to price, so unfortunately, you get what you pay for when it comes to mobile phone antennas. See table 1.

The beauty of the Cel-Fi go arrangement is that all passengers in the vehicle can benefit from the use of the external antenna without the need for expensive phone-specific cradles.