Antenna guru: 'Get a bumper and learn the Vulcan iPhone Pinch'

Since then, Webb has done a series of online posts that are a rare combination of lucidity and wit to unravel for those visitors the arcane mysteries of RF, antennas and the iPhone 4 reception issue. But he admits that he still has no answer to the question: "What were they thinking?"

Analog design engineer

Webb got his start as an analog design engineer, a task at which he was "merely adequate," he says. He was also a ham radio operator and as he was constantly fiddling with the antenna, he decided to learn about them. "One day, I woke up and I 'got' it," he says. Since that fateful dawn, he launched his own custom antenna design and consulting firm, based in Pelham, N.H. Besides extensive design and consulting work on embedded antennas, he has also worked for law enforcement and intelligence organizations operating with small battery operated devices…not unlike today's mobile phones.

But Apple CEO Steve Jobs did not call him to consult about the iPhone 4 antenna design. Apple will hold a press conference Friday at 1 p.m. EST, during which executives are expected to discuss the antenna issue.

We talked with Webb on Thursday, via his brand-spanking-new iPhone 4 (replacing an original 2G iPhone), complete with rubberized bumper (£25/$29 via Apple) and what he calls the "Vulcan iPhone Pinch" or VIP (holding the phone between thumb and first two fingers, with remaining two fingers lifted off the phone)

In antenna design, you can think of a triangle with three labeled points: size, bandwidth and efficiency. We say "pick any two."You can have an antenna that's efficient and broadband, but then it can't be small. The problem is the iPhone wants all three of them.

Smart antennas require [extra] space: you have multiple elements and electronics to handle switching between the elements or tuning the antenna. But in the iPhone 4, you can't even drop a crumb in there. So that's going to tug on the product design requirements.

The first step is --

The first step is -- and I just know the Apple antenna guy [apparently Ruben Caballero, who warned Apple execs about possible problems, according to one news story did exactly this -- I would go to the marketing dudes (this is California so you have to say 'dudes') and I would say, "Dudes, give me a piece of foam or plastic that is the shape and size of what you want to sell." Then, I'd come up with some ways to put an antenna into this thing, when a human is holding it. The last place you'd put it is on the edges [of the phone]. The edges are always, always where you're going to put your hand. All. The. Time.

And they're right. [That happens] when a human hand is put over an antenna in any device. Period. I have a GPS from Garmin, for my bike. If you put your hand over the antenna, you stop receiving the GPS signal. That's not new. Prior to my first iPhone, I had a Palm Treo, with a little antenna bump at the top. You just intuitively know if you stuck your hand over it, it wouldn't work as well.

[Motorola] Droid X [newspaper] ad

My plumber handed me a [Motorola] Droid X [newspaper] ad. It says, "And most importantly, it comes with a double antenna design. The kind that allows you to hold the phone any way you like…." Now they're boasting about their antenna!

The public will be more 'antenna-aware': that's the good thing to come out of this. They'll walk into an AT&T store and say 'lemme see that pink phone and what kind of antenna does it have?' That hasn't happened since we bragged about our newest rabbit-ears [antenna] for our old TV sets.

With your fellow "nerd engineer" and friend, Steve Golson, you devised a series of tests to measure the effect of different grips on the upload and download data rates for both iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G, measuring with a "naked" iPhone 4 and then with the same phone clothed in a bumper. Both phones were affected by touching, but the naked iPhone 4 showed dramatic drops in both upload and down data rates.

The testing

When we finally got around to the testing, Steve was doing the various grips. When he did the full grip, he looked over at me and said. "Oh yeah: this is making a huge difference."We immediately saw that the full grip on the naked iPhone 4 was having a big impact.

A lot of this [controversy] was based initially on just staring at the [signal] bars. Apple took away or hid the 'secret' utility on the phone that would give accurate signal strength data. But data rates are a very smooth measurement, and it's indirectly related to the Bit Error Rate. It's almost as good as having a real BER measurement.

That was Apple's smokescreen. The bars show what's called 'relative signal strength indicator.' I'll tell you what RSSI means. It means, "more is better and less is less better." That's all it tells you. With five bars, you know you can use your phone and life is good. With just one stinking bar, you know you might have problems….And they're controlled by Apple: they say what Apple wants them to say. Staring at the bars is utterly useless.

The [standard] "Grip of Death" holding the phone has no effect on Wi-Fi because that antenna is on the top. But if you're using Skype [for VoIP calls] you might see a problem.

Get a bumper and learn the Vulcan iPhone Pinch. And enjoy the phone. I've had Apple products since the first Macintosh. This [iPhone 4] is a great product. I love it.

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