What is that little circle on the back for?

[ggrr8t]

There's always plumber's putty or Gorilla Glue.

Or old reliable duct tape

 

[natehoy]

This came up in March when the TBolt was first released. I answered the same way then. Not really for internal testing. It is actually a port where you can hook up an external wired antenna (like for a car -- truckers use 'em all the time). I used an external antenna on all my cell phones for quite a while at my home office, before I found better solutions. The rubber stopper is to protect

Part of my research led me to the xda-developers forum and several people on there mentioned that they had hooked up external antennas quite successfully to their Thunderbolts, but that the Thunderbolt frequently was incapable of switching back to the internal antenna afterward (something apparently had a nasty tendency to break).

When I looked at mine, I was surprised at how small and delicate-looking it was, and there's no support structure around it where you'd screw something in to it unless you used the case itself and there were no threads I could see in the plastic.

So it seems confirmed that this port uses a standard connector (which makes sense - why design something new), but I'm wondering how wise actually using it would be unless you intend for your phone to be a fixed installation.

 

[FrankXS]

So it seems confirmed that this port uses a standard connector (which makes sense - why design something new), but I'm wondering how wise actually using it would be unless you intend for your phone to be a fixed installation.

Yep. When I was using an external antenna with other phones I managed to break two phone connectors. And, since that connector is integrated into the actual built-in phone antenna, I had to replace the phones However, people who do this (like I used to) don't do it because they want to. They do it because there is no other way their cell phone will work at that location. It's a matter of cell signal or no cell signal. Considering that, you'd be surprised what you would risk.

-Frank

 

[natehoy]

Yep. When I was using an external antenna with other phones I managed to break two phone connectors. And, since that connector is integrated into the actual built-in phone antenna, I had to replace the phones However, people who do this (like I used to) don't do it because they want to. They do it because there is no other way their cell phone will work at that location. It's a matter of cell signal or no cell signal. Considering that, you'd be surprised what you would risk.

-Frank

True, but my external repeater works better than anything I could possibly dare install on my phone, and within a 20-foot circle I have complete mobility. You can get some pretty impressive antenna arrays for external repeaters.

 

[FrankXS]

True, but my external repeater works better than anything I could possibly dare install on my phone, and within a 20-foot circle I have complete mobility. You can get some pretty impressive antenna arrays for external repeaters.

Yeah, but you have to have a better signal to work with a repeater than you with a direct connection amplifier. I had almost zero signal. It wouldn't "repeat", period. Had to have a hardwire. You lose about 5dBm per foot in open air wireless (or so, I forgot exactly). Way less with a wire. More like on the order of .2dBm per foot in wire. There are times when hardwire is the only answer.

Thankfully, since those days, VZW has improved the signal around my home office. I was eventually able to use a repeater (20 foot mast on top of my house) after they improved the signal. Still not perfect, but it worked. And I didn't need the wired system any longer. Then, as progress continued at VZW, they "invented" the Network Extender. Way better solution. I grabbed the first 1x model and was very happy. Then, later, I grabbed the 3x model which I have now. It's been a struggle.

-Frank

 

[ggrr8t]

I can confirm it is for external antenna. I rigged this up, and now I never loose signal.