[amsat-bb] Re: Cell Phone in Spce

[Kelly Martin]

Cell phones need about -95 dBm received to work at all (and really at
-95 dBm about all you get is network beaconing, with no ability to
actually place a call).  Typical cell transmit powers rarely go past
one watt, and I think the cell base stations rarely go much over ten
watts (per channel).  I think you'll find that there's too much path
loss for that to work to even LEO, notwithstanding the fact that cell
tower antennas typically have radiation patterns that send virtually
all the signal into terrain, that being where the cell phones are.

Kelly

On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 7:59 PM, Dave <dave at mynatt.biz> wrote:
> Anyone have a calculation/estimate of cell phone functionality in space? Would it be able to transmit and receive a signal from/to earth?
>
> Dave