Improving Mobile Phone Reception in Car
 

Greetings,

I happily use an Orange Nokia 6310i in my Fiat Stilo, connected via a
CARK-91 cradle etc. It has a 10cm rubberised roof-mounted aerial* cabled
directly to the CARK-91 control unit, but this isn't always sufficient to
maintain reliable signal strength in rural areas (mainly Northern England).

Is there any merit in replacing the roof aerial with a longer/better one? I
know next to nothing about RF or telecoms, but it seems to me that the
emergency services must use those long steel whip antennae for some reason?
I'm not worried about appearances as long as it's tidy, and would consider
any other affordable solution (multiple aerials, RF amplifiers, witchcraft
....?)

* Photo's at http://tinyurl.com/2uqgqc, http://tinyurl.com/3yb7ag,
http://tinyurl.com/37hffn in case they mean anything to expert viewers. Was
installed by Orange technicians along with the CARK-91 etc approx 3yrs ago,
they told me it would give a better signal than the stick-on window version.

Comments & advice would be greatly appreciated -
(NB - FU's set to uk.telecom.mobile)

Many thanks -
Steve