W124 radio antenna useful for cell phone?
 

My 92 300E has the first generation of the combination radio/cell phone antennas. According to the service manual, there is a junction box in the trunk where the optional cell phone could be connected. My car did not have the optional cell phone, but I am wondering if I can hook up my digital cell phone to it. I have a hands free set-up that I used in a previous car, and it has a connection for an external antenna. In the last car, I had a glass mounted antenna. But if the MB / Hirschmann antenna is compatible, it might be easier and neater to use that.
But the cell phones of that era (1992) were analog only, not digital, and might have worked at different frequencies from today's cell phones. I use AT&T, which works at either 800 or 1900 MHz, as I recall.
So does anyone out there know if the 1992 antenna is usable for digital phones? Is the frequency critical to the antenna design, so that the one I have is specifically for wahtever carrier(s) Mercedes used then? Has anyone actually hooked up a digital cell phone to one of these units?
(Note: I am not looking to connect this into the audio system or anything like that, just use the antenna connection.)

You might be able to upgrade to the 1994 + anntennas with the black top section. The black section is for cell phone use.

Regards,

Don

92 300E antenna
 

The antenna I have does have the black (plastic) top part for cell phones. That is, the antenna mast itself has a black plastic toip. (Just got a new one, in fact). From what I see in the manual, the later models apparently have a different antenna mechanism, which is probably better in some way but I do not know if the later model is different in its cell phone capability. And yes, I could upgrade to that, but that is expensive. In any case, if I did , do you know if that one is OK for digital? My impression was that the original equipment cell phone was analog until quite late in the 1990s....so my original question would still apply, I think.

MB cell antenna
 

800/900 mnz antenas dont care if it is analog or digital, and will probably hanle 1.8. the problem as I recall is getting an adpter from the european connector on the Hirshman splitter to adapt to your connector. It is not too common the ones we see here are usullly TNC or mini UHF. You have to remember to raise the antenna, the cellphone had a power lead to raise the antenna when the radio was off, but the cell was on. I dnt know if you will se a remarkable difference unless you are constantly in marginal areas.

Great feedback, thanks! I had not looked at the terminal box, so I was not aware of the connector problem. And having to raise the antenna to use it might make it more annoying than useful.