Is the power weaker CT-Jhb ?

[HR Solutions]

I travel between Cape Town and Johannesburg quite often and have found that in Jhb when I charge my phone overnight it lasts much longer the next day. But when charging the same phone in CT overnight - it does not seem to last the next day. Is there an explanation for this, because I really believe that the power might be weaker in CT, but I'm still using the same charger, therefore is the output power from the charger the same even though there might be a different input between CT & Jhb ???

[desA]

In simplistic terms (give or take a bit if AC vs DC):

Power = Voltage * Current

I wonder if the voltage is lower at one of your locations? (I guess the frequency may also vary, but would not think this could be the main driver. Stand to be corrected by the electrical whizz-heads out there)

[adrianh]

Aye...you're in Cape Town...even electrons only pull in to work at 10am and p1$$ off at 4pm

[Justloadit]

Modern charges dont' give a hoot about the voltage, thats why they have regulators in them, they simply adjust the drive in the PSU to ensure thatthe charge is the same, whether in Jhb, CT or New York.

The difference you find may be a number of reasons.
1. Temperature affects battery longevity
2. Usage whether data or calls or "what app'" also affects battery lifespan.
3. Weak tower signals in the area you are currently in forces the phone to interrogate the tower more often to stay connected to the network. This is done transparently but requires the transmitter to log onto the tower more times a day. You will also find that the phone adjust the transmitting power based on how far the tower is - receipt of a weaker signal, requires the phone transmitter to use more power to get the signal to the tower,using more energy to do the same transmission as to when the tower is very close.

[AndyD]

I doubt very much it's a power issue, Justloadit covers it for my thinking.^^^

[HR Solutions]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes justloadit seems to have covered it, but I do seem to get better signal in CT - but it does sound the most feasible reason. Its actually quite weird because it happens to both my wife and I every time we are down there and its not a charger problem because we take our own chargers with us.

[wynn]

And altitude not attitude is what says "Cool it Bru have another roach and park off"

[Justloadit]

The reason that the call may sound better in Ct than Jhb, may be due to the number of callers a tower is handling. What the tower does, is time slice every caller connected to the tower, both in transmission and reception, so as you talk, 1 second of audio is collected as data and is compressed into little packets and sent off to the tower. The receiver then gets this packet, and decompresses it back to 1 second of audio. You will have noticed this if you are listening to a radio, and waiting for an extension to answer your call and have the radio station as music on hold.Now because speech is real time, and speech priority is not high, sometimes the data packet does not arrive at the destination, or arrives after the last packet sent, in other words it got delayed some where and the next packet is received out of sequence. This noticed as the call coming in in burps with missing sections, or call breaking up. So if there are many callers on simultaneously, there is just not enough time to go round to each cellphone to collect the data packet, and may get missed.

Jhb has the highest density of callers in RSA, so many more towers are placed in JHB than any other city.

[HR Solutions]

aaaaaaaaahhhhh ........... seems to sort of make sense

[ians]

That explains why MTN gas become the crapest network, since telkom mobile have piggy backed them, i get dropped lines crap reception and my new favorite NO SIGNAL. I thought it was just the telkom sim card, but now both are just as bad. Telkom mobile response after sending technicians out to try fix the problem, eeeiish we are a new service provider you must just be patient, but just make sure your bill every month otherwise we will switch you off. It is a f$&@" joke. Thank goodness for prepaid.

So if you think like other people i have heard complaining about their phones not working properly and dropping calls etc. if you are on the MTN or telkom mobile network, it has nothing to do with a faulty phone its crap network that is overloaded