Cell Phone Signal Booster

[roster]

I am working sometimes from a location that has weak cell phone reception. Lots of breakups in the calls but usually not dropoffs.

Have you had any success with a cheap antenna booster? If so please let me know what you used.

This is on topic because if I lose a client over this my sleep will suffer.

Besides, I never received any better advice than from youse guys.

[NightHawkeye]

Have you had any success with a cheap antenna booster? If so please let me know what you used.

They don't work, Rooster. The antennas have already been optimized.

Having said that however, it needs to be stated that optimization occurred for the "average" person. Therefore it is entirely possible that occasionally a slight improvement for a specific individual could be obtained by the inherent "detuning" those things provide.

If you want the best signal, choose your handset wisely. (Stay away from Motorola Razors - bad service and terrible reliability.) My cellular provider says that Nokia handsets tend, in general, to provide the best coverage.

Regards,
Bill (who, along with co-workers, has gotten a few good laughs from the silly cell-phone antenna boosters)

[roster]

.......
They don't work, Rooster. .......

Scheise. That's what I was afraid of.

[Goofproof]

The way I choose my new cell phone. I take some raw hamburger with me, put it on the different cell phones, the faster the phone cooks the hamburger, the higher the power. Faster is best. Jim

[hobbs]

Different carriers work better in certain areas. A friend moved to the Sierra foothills and went through (3) different service providers before he found one that was acceptable.

[j.a.taylor]

Rooster,

Tie a key to a kite, hold it in your right hand, fly it in a lighting storm.

Hold your phone under your chin.

Hold a large metal pole in your left hand.

Soon your phone will be fully charged and you'll be picking up signals from heaven.

However, any clients still may have trouble reaching you.

[Guest]

Those cheap antenna boosters don't work. I will tell you a couple of things that do work however.

If you don't mind the idea of your phone being plugged in to an external antenna, then this is the least expensive way to go. If you have a signal outdoors, especially if you elevate the antenna, then you will be OK. I have a secondary residence in a rural area that has weak signal, mostly due to terrain. I'm down in a hole. I purchased at a truck stop a Wilson Trucker's Antenna. These DO work. it comes with some coax but I needed to buy about 20' of extension so I could mount it at the peak of the roof on the house. You then need a phone adapter, all phones are different and need their own adapter. most phone have a plug for an external antenna. Your wireless carrier will not tell you about it, they are more concerned with the fifteen year old person texting from the mall. For this system google Alternative Wireless. They will have everything you will need.

If you want complete mobility of the phone, then you will want an indoor repeater. I have one here at my house because I don't want to be plugged in here and i also use the cellular modem for my internet. These repeaters are expensive, at least now they are. I purchased a dual band Wiex and you can find these by googling The Repeater Store. I bought mine there and they were great to work with, fast shipping, etc. I paid about $300. for mine.

The external antenna's are about $60, the extra cable and phone adapter will run you maybe $25-$30 extra. Considerably less expensive than the repeater but you must be plugged in.

There is a way though. Mine works so well, I'm most likely going to get rid of my land line phone. Don't use it much now anyway and we can move that home number over to my wifes cell phone. Yup, you can do that now too.

[momsworry]

Sorry, I wasn't logged in, that was not a guest post, it was me. PM me if you want with any more details. I've used the external antenna at the other place for about three years now. I've been using the repeater here at home for about a month. Both work great.

[WNJ]

Around here (very rural area) it seems that folks who really need the ability to keep in touch mostly use a bag phone.

Can you sacrifice a little convenience for much more power?

Wayne

[roster]

[quote="WNJ"]Around here (very rural area) it seems that folks who really need the ability to keep in touch mostly use a bag phone.

Can you sacrifice a little convenience for much more power?

Wayne

[roster]

Sorry, I wasn't logged in, that was not a guest post, it was me. PM me if you want with any more details. I've used the external antenna at the other place for about three years now. I've been using the repeater here at home for about a month. Both work great.

That's some great information MomsWorry.

I am using a Motorola Q and the only jack it has is the one for the charger and computer. Do you know if the external antenna would work in this jack?

I see an antenna kit with adapter and grounding metal for about $40 at The Repeater Store. I could use this but I know if you use the phone with a device (charger for instance) plugged into the jack, there is physical stress on the jack by the pull from the cord. This cause the jack to soon fail.

Now I would really like to have the indoor repeater you mention! However, at this point I am not willing to shell out $250+.

Thanks for the info.

Rooster

[Snoredog]

get a big chain, next time you drive by the cell tower hook it up and pull it closer.

In the olden days of cellular, cellphones only came in mobile units, they had a head up front and transceiver that installed in the trunk of the car, these were 3-watt cellphones, then Motorola came out with its brick phone, that power dropped to 1 watt or less,

Cellphones today have less than 1/2 watt transmit power. The cellphone talks to the tower whenever it is within range, it is not so much that the receiver cannot hear the signal from the tower (what is helped with antenna boosters), with today's phones it is that the handset does not have enough transmit power to talk to the tower to tell it where you are at.

So these phones NEED two-way communication with the tower, increasing receive only doesn't work, you would have to boost your transmit power in order to improve reception.

Some phones are crap to begin with, they have poor receivers, they have poor transmitters. you can usually tell the ones, they sound like crap when you call someone on a landline or has a quality phone to tell the difference.

Probably the worst on the market I've seen is LG's phones followed by Motorola. Nokia, Mitsubishi, Matsushita (Panasonic) has always had good quality transceivers an you can tell by the quality of the audio when someone calls you. I have an iPhone that sucker is great and I've spent years in cellular industry and helped several companies obtain numerous patents on them. Technology wise Nokia leads the pack.

So if you are continually having problems with coverage go back and complain to your cellular provider, they know which phones are crap to begin with because they certainly don't want to admit their network is crap.

Tell them coverage is unacceptable and that you suspect its the phone, they will swap it out, just don't go with the same model or you will end up with the same problem. I can tell you right now LG is the worst.

[deerslayer]

i've had good luck with the v3xx full rate razor http://stores.ebay.com/aria-cellular

[Fredman]

Good thought Wayne, but I need a phone that I can drop into my shirt pocket and scuttle off to clients. Thanks, I will keep the bag phone in mind in case something else comes up.

Rooster I just can't see you scuttling off to clients! It would be more like strutting off to clients....

When my boys were going to University in North Dakota, the coverage was terrible. I guess I live in the dark ages, I never heard of external attennas. Can you imagine what our grandparents and great grandparents would think about our CPAP's and cell phones! The problems they never had to consider

[roster]

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Rooster I just can't see you scuttling off to clients! It would be more like strutting off to clients....

...

Fredman, Is it that obvious even on an internet forum?

Swagger! (Except when my settings were poorly tweaked the night before )