How to monitor signal strength? I own a Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint, and I am having terrible but intermittent problems with my signal quality on my phone. I have reasonably high certainty that this is a hardware issue (my wife has the same phone on the same plan and her phone usually works where mine does not), but due to the fact that the problem is intermittent I have not been able to duplicate it in the Sprint store.

What I am looking for is a way (perhaps an app) that will periodically poll and record the signal strength on my phone, as well as recording when my phone fails to connect on a call (during the periods when my phone is acting up this will sometimes occur 10-15 times in a row). Are there any apps that provide this functionality, or would have anyone have any advice on developing this app on my own (I am a decent programmer, but I have never developed an Android app).
There are a some apps available which would answer your question. The probably best ones include...

NoSignalAlert, which not only alerts you when you lost the signal, but also provides a log1 of those events, and lets you even browse those "dead zones" on a map and display the collected log information along2

 

OpenSignalMaps, offering similar features, and giving you the ability to show nearby cells3 (so if your signal is low, and you want to have a conversation, you can move in the right direction4 for a stronger signal)

 

If you are primarily interested in mapping signal quality, Antennas might be worth a look as well5. It can export collected data to KML, so you can display it in Google Maps / Google Earth on your computer as well.



Then there also is already mentioned RF Signal Tracker, again rather interesting for mapping6, which additionally tracks Wifi signal

 

Last but not least: G-NetTrack is also good for mapping8 of daily routes and the like.





What might be of even more interest to you is how to automatically react on a weak signal in order to save some juice. If so, I recommend you taking a look at the question What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery? (and of course its answer).