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Using a Cellphone in a Basement?
Nimsoft asks: "I recently moved into a basement flat and as a result I get no cellphone coverage in there. This is incredibly frustrating as my cell provider is so much cheaper than landline offerings I rely on my cell as my primary means of telecommunications. I can pick up a signal the second I step out of my front door and friends on other networks can sometimes pick up a weak signal within my flat. What would the geek solution (must be cheap!) to this issue be? Would attaching a larger antenna to my phone work, or can I hack together some sort of repeater and put an antenna outside somewhere?" While thousands of offers of repeaters and signal boosters are only as far away as the nearest Google search, what recommendations or experiences would you care to share on the subject?
I have a similar situation. Except my office is in the basement. Anyway, I use Vonage.
I have my cellphone set to conditionally forward to the vonage line. By that if I don't answer, instead of going to voicemail, it goes to the Vonage line. I use the Vonage voice mail. IMHO it is better because you can check the VM online via a web browser and other nifty features that are better than the cellphone.
-MS2k
Get a Bluetooth headset. Maybe you can leave your phone upstairs or near a window for a signal. You don't have to wear it all the time, just put it on when the phone rings.
I was conned by an old man in a cloak. It turns out those *were* the droids I was looking for.
Dear Slashdotters, I need to use my cell phone inside my lead lined closet. Any suggestions?
That don't have problems which carrier/phone they use. Use that.
Back in the day (when I was more involved with Ham Radio), we would use a passive repeater to fill in dead spots. A passive repeater is simply two antennas connected by a piece of coax. One antenna is placed where it will receive the desired signal well, the other is placed where you want to improve the signal (in this case, the basement).
Seems simple, but there are a couple of things to consider. First, you will have to know which band your cell phone is using at your house. The two likely choices are around 890MHz and around 1800Mhz (I am doing this from memory, so look it up). Then, the simplest antenna to make is a vertical dipole. Each antenna is two pieces of coat hanger, each piece cut to a quarter wavelength of the frequency you are using.
The next thing to consider is that all coax has loss. At 1.8 Ghz, you could easily be looking at -10db per 100 feet for average coax. So, make sure that you use the best coax you can find (it will be more expensive, but worth it) and keep it as short as possible.
If you are not getting enough signal with this arrangement, you can get fancy and build a better antenna for the end that gets a good signal from the cell tower. Two more pieces of coat hanger will let you build a three element directional array. Mount the coat hanger pieces through 3/4 inch PVC. You will need something like the ARRL Antenna Handbook to get the correct lengths for the pieces, and the distance between them. Since this kind of antenna is directional, you will need to point it at the cell tower. Also, remember to keep the elements vertically oriented, not horizontal like a TV antenna.
Good luck
it is most likely that your cell phone has an antenna connector on it somehwere (most do, they are usually covered by small grey plastic plugs). i would find out what kind of connector it takes, and get a cell antenna (the kind people use in cars should work fine) that will adapt to it. signal loss with coax is a significant concern, so you will want to keep that link as short as possible, another way around this is to use a high-gain antenna deisgn, that should help compensate for the signal loss from the cable.
Cogito Eggo Sum, I think therefore I'm a waffle
Don't some car 'hands free' kits include an outside arial?
If so, the obvious thing to do seems to be to get one, and put the arial somewhere where it gets a signal.
Just my $0.02,
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
To counter problems like these, operators are coming up with WLAN-GSM / WLAN-CDMA solutions. A cellphone can switch seamlessly to WLAN network when you enter your home and there is WLAN signal. The voice traffic is encoded and transmitted to the operator's network. I believe, T-Mobile and Sprint have plans for such products.
Why are "Ask Slashdot" questions allways so generic and vague?
..... just a thought?
..... even a Country/CONTINENT would help!
.....
.....
..... air vents.
..... trace any wires/pipes/air vents that come into your building - could you follow any cable/phone/water inputs to the outside world? If so how far would it be to get a cable to there?
.....
..... or are you renting? (you never said)
/vs/ cable length when using car antenna (hint usenet) - from what I know the are shielded coax ..... so they *may* be useable at 100 metres.
..... as you phone will be pinned to the antenna cable ..... depending on max cable length
Try posting some more information
ie.
Location - What County/City/State?
Cellphone Service Provider - Would be handy.
Current Cellphone - Make/Model - as above.
Somebody may have had exactly the same issue in the same region with the same phone/provider and could answer your question in one sentence.
Please when posting "Ask Slashdot" questions be a little more concise!
My thoughts
A basement is an enclosed space (I will assume you have no windows/sky lights) however there must be a means of circulating air around the "basement" - im thinking
Have a look at the car antenna kits that are compatible with you current phone - remember these antennas are normally installed in the rear car window and after trailing the cable around the window/sills/footwells you could easily use 6-9 metres of cable.
Next
Then stick a car antenna on the wall
If you own the place then get out a 2 foot long drill - bang a hole through the wall - problem solved
Even if you have to follow the path of an existing cable/pipe that runs "upstairs" - measure the distance - then talk to somebody who knows about signal loss
Then spend about (rough guess £40) on a bluetooth headset
Then a hurricane came through town and took care of some of the trees for me. I get fine reception now! I highly recommend it!
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
For me, any of the pre-pay plans are cheaper than a land line. I don't use enough minutes to exceed $20 every three months. You know a log of local providers willing to sell you a phone line for $7.00 a month?
That isn't everyone however. My daughter can easily eat through $50 a month on pre-paid, so for here it would be cheaper to get either a land line, vonage account, or if she needs mobility, a $39.99 a month plan, once she figures out how to manage her minutes so she isn't going over whatever limits that plan has.
My son can also work within the pre-pay limits, though he does go through more minutes at a time than I do.
How expensive your plan is depends upon how much you use the service, and what that usage will cost. It does vary from person to person.
For pre-pay plans I happen to like Virgin Mobile http://www.virginmobileusa.com/ (for US users, other urls for Europe) or Boost Mobile http://www.boostmobile.com/. Boost Mobile is a sub-division of Nextel, so they do have the PTT feature Nextel provides, though that's an additional $45 a month (on average).
Since with Pre-Pay plans you buy the phone up front, there can be a significant front end cost. Anywhere from $59 on up to over $200 for highly feature full phones. However as noted, month to month may cost you significantly less.
-Rusty
You never know...
http://www.4cellular.com
^ These guys sell a repeater that would suit your needs.
"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
Universal Antenna.
I'm tired of bombing the universe
Several companies make products like this one which let you stick a cell phone in a cradle and hook it up to one or more wired telephone sets. Just set one of these up at your entry and wire it down to the basement.
First, as everyone else has suggested, run a bunch of antenna feedline down to the phone, from an antenna parked in a good location. This sucks, because there's a tradeoff between flexibility and performance. Also, the antenna connector on your handset may or may not be very durable. However, if you're going to go this route, check a truck stop for adapters. Truckers generally spend a lot of time outside traditional cellphone coverage, and any well-equipped service plaza that's more than a hundred miles from a big city will probably carry an assortment of antenna adapters. They generally use TNC as the "common" antenna connector, since it was the standard on the old analog bag phones.
:)
Second, you could leave the phone upstairs where it gets decent signal already, and bring the voice downstairs. Do this with a Cellsocket or a Dock'n'talk cellular POTS adapter. Run a regular phone line down to where you spend most of your time, or hook up a cordless phone to the analog port.
Next option: Leave the phone upstairs. Get a really long headset cord, if your phone supports voice dialing and an answer/hangup button on the headset.
Yet another dumb idea: Leave the phone upstairs, and use a Bluetooth headset to bring the audio down. You should be able to dial by sending commands from a Bluetooth-equipped PDA.
Relying on a cellphone as your 'main' communication device is stupid. A cellphone is nothing but a glorified walkie-talkie.
Okay, so why exactly does that make it stupid?