A small portable balloon and inflator similar to [Caine]'s idea. Except it avoids the problem of a long piece of coax by lofting your entire phone in the air. You stay on the ground and talk via your Bluetooth earbud (the Class 1 kind, with 100 ft range). A fishing line type tether allows you to retrieve your phone when done.-- CaptainCrunch, Jul 12 2008 original idea by Caine Emergency_20Phone_20Range_20Extenderthe inspiration [CaptainCrunch, Jul 12 2008] Makes sense...-- ServoMan314, Jul 12 2008 Rather than a helium balloon, how about a hot air balloon ?
Consider: If you're hiking, you're probably carrying a cooking appliance; that gives you meths, kerosene, meta fuel, sterno ..... the balloon fabric could be very thin polyaramid which would squeeze down to a small size. All you need is a reel of fising line, and some sort of burner for the fuel that won't ignite the envelope, which would need to be sized to lift an average phone.
This is highly Bakeable, and indeed should be. A Bun for you, and a simialr one for [Caine] for originating the idea. [+]-- 8th of 7, Jul 12 2008 Very nice (+). I wonder if there is a way to extend the Bluetooth range even farther with antennas.-- MisterQED, Jul 12 2008 random, halfbakery