Indoors

What buildings do to a radio path

Indoor reception is outdoor reception minus whatever the structure removes or reflects. The same handset can look healthy on the sidewalk and weak at a desk twenty feet inside.

Walls and building materials

Count the materials, not only the rooms. Concrete and masonry absorb more than a light stud wall. Metal and foil-faced layers can reflect the signal so it never reaches the middle of the floor.

A single concrete core can matter more than several plaster partitions.
Metal doors and elevator cars are small rooms with unusually high loss.

Room position

Phones do not average a building. They use the path in front of them. An interior room on the far side of a stairwell is a different path from a room on the street face.

Compare opposite sides of the same floor before you assume the whole building is poor.
A corner office and a windowless copy room on that floor can disagree by a wide margin.

Windows, floors, and elevation

Glass helps only when it is the clearer path. Coated glass can be a poor window for radio. Higher floors sometimes clear nearby roofs and sometimes sit behind penthouse equipment.

Step from the sidewalk, to the glass, to the back of the room, and note where the bars fall.
Basements add earth on every side. See the basement note for that case.

Buildings · Room to room · Basements