| Any Antenna designer wants to see the antenna being an elevated ground-plane or dipole mounted clear of obstructions well above the phone. However he is stuck with a compromise design and knows that there are various effects that a nearby conductive body can have on the antenna's performance. - Anything nearby will effect the tuning of the antenna. And if the antenna is no longer at resonance, then it's efficiency is greatly reduced. - Anything nearby will disturb the antenna due to its missing ground plane, which will change both the tuning and the loading (eg impedance). - And anything nearby will act as Directive or Reflective elements thus greatly effecting the radiation pattern (eg directivity). In the early days, it was common for phones to have an external whip antenna, and also a socket so an outdoor antenna could be plugged in if required. But forcing the designed to include the antenna within the body of the phone, (and without an effective ground plane) results in a mess of compromises. Unfortunately the general public thinks that phone works by "magic", and is somehow exempt from the fundamental need for a radio to have an efficient external antenna. |