Student simple gadgets sheds light on mobile black spots

FOR those mobile phone users who frequently have to retreat to the nearest mountain in order to get a signal, a young scientist from Cork unveiled a simple gadget yesterday which could make even the most remote parts reception-friendly.

Fiona Ryan, 16, who is a transition year student at Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál in Blarney, said the poor reception in her own area of Cork was the inspiration of her invention.

Realising her problem was shared by many throughout the country, Fiona decided to design a type of antenna which can be connected to a mobile at any time to improve reception.

Using a complicated diagram, Fiona explained that narrowing the beam, which is omitted from the mobile phone, through the use of the antenna would give greater scope to the range of reception possible.

As well as being a useful tool for those living in reception black spots, the antenna would also be most helpful for hill or mountain walkers, who could store the antenna in their rucksacks, and therefore guarantee that they could use their mobiles in the event of an accident.

Fiona has been working on her project since October, and did most of the work on her own. She did, however, have plenty of willing helpers among her classmates and teachers, and paid several visits to Cork Institute of Technology to test out her progress on the antenna at various stages.

“I did have to put in a lot of hard work on this over the past few months, but I think it could be a useful tool for people like myself who are living in areas where there’s very poor reception. Mobiles are everywhere these days, and you need to have reception,” she said.