Why does a cell tower need to be massive to transmit data to a smartphone but the phone’s extremely small antenna can transmit data back over the same distance?
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Because doing it that way is much more convenient than making the antenna on the cell tower phone sized and carrying around a cell tower sized phone.
Basically the total “strength” of the antennas at both ends matters. You can either have a small antenna on one end and a huge on the other, or a medium sized on both. Bigger antennas also make it easier to make it directional. That’s not useful with a phone that moves, but very useful with the mast as you can have several antennas each covering a different direction.
Because doing it that way is much more convenient than making the antenna on the cell tower phone sized and carrying around a cell tower sized phone.
Basically the total “strength” of the antennas at both ends matters. You can either have a small antenna on one end and a huge on the other, or a medium sized on both. Bigger antennas also make it easier to make it directional. That’s not useful with a phone that moves, but very useful with the mast as you can have several antennas each covering a different direction.
The cell tower needs to be somewhere all the cellphones can reach it. This means high up. Because of how buildings work, to get something up high, it needs to be pretty big.
The device actually doing most of the work is probably about the size of your refrigerator. We just have to put it really high in the air.
And that refrigerator sized thing is handling thousands if not millions times more calls and texts than you send. So it does need to have a bit of hardware. That’s why it’s so big.
Also it needs to reach other cell towers potentially. So there’s also that.
The cell tower needs to be somewhere all the cellphones can reach it. This means high up. Because of how buildings work, to get something up high, it needs to be pretty big.
The device actually doing most of the work is probably about the size of your refrigerator. We just have to put it really high in the air.
And that refrigerator sized thing is handling thousands if not millions times more calls and texts than you send. So it does need to have a bit of hardware. That’s why it’s so big.
Also it needs to reach other cell towers potentially. So there’s also that.
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