We use mobile phones daily in are lives.

Have you thought about how they work?

This exhibit is made up of 3 smaller activities that will help you understand about mobile phone ‘cells’ and how mobile phone reception can vary.

 

Mobile phones work using ‘cells’. Each cell has a base station (mast) at its centre. The base station sends and receives calls from your phone using radio waves. The size of the mobile phone cells varies depending on location. In the country a base station is about 10km apart and in the towns about 500m apart. A base station can only handle a limited number of calls and there are lots of people in towns/cities making demands on them. In towns smaller cells are used and these are called microcells. Microcells are used in built up areas as buildings can block the signal and more cells are needed to handle the demand. The signal strength can be affected by a number of factors. When travelling the reception can be reduced by the fact there are fewer cells in some areas, forests or, hills and mountains blocking the signal. The strength of the reception is increased the nearer you are to a mast, on a hill and in an area with many microcells. Airports are areas where there are lots of microcells to cope with the demand.

 

Curriculum Links 

There are at this time no relevant links but this exhibit can provide extension to a child’s learning.