Slashdot Mirror
Recommendations for Cellular Signal Repeaters?
itwerx asks: "Like most folks these days I have a cell phone and indoor reception problems, especially in my house which is behind a ridge from most of the carriers in my area. So, I'm looking for an indoor wireless repeater (not a plug-in amp). There are a lot of them out there ranging from $300-$3000+, but for every article, forum or newsgroup posting proclaiming the relative merits of this brand or model over another I find another post saying that they suck. A couple of units I'm looking at are the Wi-Ex YX500 series and some of the ones made by Wilson Electronics (not providing direct links so as to avoid boosting their Google ratings). Has anybody here used these, or junked them in favor of something better?"
"Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." Dammit, i must be out of minutes.
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction." - Blaise Pascal
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-267221 A1.html9 A1.html
http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-26608
Watch out if you buy one; they can easily create interference to other users in the 800 MHz band, like public safety radio systems, and the FCC takes a rather dim view of this - see the FCC notices sent to some unlucky users above.
My girlfriend had T-mobile at her old apartment and always had terrible coverage. She found out that Nextel got great reception in her building, so she switched to them. Later she switched jobs and gets no coverage from Nextel inside her work building, but my T-mobile phone works fine.
The point is that maybe you should try switching to a different provider that has better reception in your apartment/house. There's nothing inherently great about one provider over another in terms of coverage, but they do vary in their "dead/sketchy signal areas".
AccountKiller
Like most folks these days I have a cell phone and indoor reception problems, especially in my house which is behind a ridge from most of the carriers in my area.
According to the FAQ for the Wi-Ex model you were looking at, "If there is no signal outside, this unit will not give you an improvement in coverage." So if you're behind a ridge, it may not help.
What, can't afford the $4.95 for a high tech Cellphone Signal Booster
And don't be suckered in by the scammers selling 1st 2nd or 3rd generation boosters. Insist on 4th generation technology!
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
If you're interested in a cellular repeater do NOT be fooled. Anything less than 2500 is a waste of your money. A repeater simply takes a good signal and repeats it within a structure. You'll need a booster if your signal is not good to begin with.
Check out spotwave.com for the best repeaters in north america. Check out smoothtalker.com for the best boosters.
Phones in the U.S. either use the PCS band (1900MHz) or the original "cellular" band (800MHz). In theory, lower frequencies penetrate walls better. Any experts care to weigh in on this? I believe iDEN (Nextel) is all 800MHz...maybe this is why the submitter had better luck. Although its more likely that there was simply a Nextel tower closer to him/her.
Your perspective is kind of dumb when you pay a provider every month for service that does not do what you want. I have no idea how wireless providers tricked users into thinking signal problems are ALWAYS their fault. Just a tip to the wise, cell phone towers are normally broadcasting at less than 50% of capacity due to the fact they are terrified of the FCC, even though they have the licenses. I have cingular, and my wife has cingular. Both of my bosses, and everybody in my office has cingular. I called 611 on each of the phones, and filed a complaint with tech support about the 'poor service' in the area from five or six accounts. I also had one rep pull up a map and tell me the tower I was closest to. Then I found out that I was getting poor signal standing right next to it. I am a wireless engineer, so I made a couple guesses as to what could be causing the trouble (water in the fittings, disconnected pigtail, local source of interference from another carrier) and used the county locator service to find the ph# of the primary point of contact for the tower. I called the local cingular office, advised them of my situation, my trouble ticket numbers, the location of the tower, and my findings. The next day, they pointed a sector right at me and dialed up the gain. Now, I have 3-4 bars inside when I used to have to 1-2 outside. This might sound like I went to a lot of effort or something, but it took 2-3 hours tops - and now my calls don't drop!
Find the spot in your house where you get full reception. Buy a cordless phone similar to this one (http://www.uniden.com/products/productdetail.cfm? product=ELBT595&page=2) that will link your cellphone to your cordless phone. That way, it acts like a cheap repeater for your cell phone.
See the cellphone is linked via bluetooth to the cordless phone. Then the cordless phone can control both your landline and your cellphone and it will work anywhere in your house perfectly as long as you can find some spot where the cell phone gets good signal to place the base unit.
I think its a good idea myself.
This is just two directive antennas linked together.
Mac: All right, how about "Cat Game?"
Foster: Cat Game? What's the record?
Mac: Thorny did six, but I think you can do ten.
Foster: Ten? Starting right 'meow?'
[Mac laughs - they walk up to the car, and Foster taps on the driver side]
Larry Johnson: Sorry about the...
Foster: All right meow. (1) Hand over your license and registration.
[the man hands him his license]
Foster: Your registration? Hurry up meow. (2)
[Mac ticks off two fingers]
Larry Johnson: Sorry.
[the man laughs a little]
Foster: Is there something funny here boy?
Larry Johnson: Oh, no.
Foster: Then why you laughing, Mister... Larry Johnson?
[pause]
Foster: All right meow, (3) where were we?
Larry Johnson: Excuse me, are you saying meow?
Foster: Am I saying meow?
[Mac puts his hands up for the fourth one, but makes an "eehhh" facial expression, as he is considering the last one]
Larry Johnson: I thought...
Foster: Don't think boy. Meow, (4) do you know how fast you were going?
[man laughs]
Foster: Meow. (5) What is so damn funny?
Larry Johnson: I could have sworn you said meow.
Foster: Do I look like a cat to you, boy? Am I jumpin' around all nimbly bimbly from tree to tree?
[Mac is gut-busting laughing]
Foster: Am I drinking milk from a saucer?
[feigned anger]
Foster: Do you see me eating mice?
Foster: [Mac and the man are laughing their heads off now] You stop laughing right meow! (6)
Larry Johnson: [the man stops and swallows hard] Yes sir.
Foster: Meow, (7) I'm gonna have to give you a ticket on this one. No buts meow. (8) It's the law.
[rips off the ticket and hands it to the man]
Foster: Not so funny meow, (9) is it?
Foster: [Foster gets up to leave, but Mac shakes his hands at him, indicating only nine meows] Meow! (10)
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Ok, now you have my interest. Are you saying that pre-paid phones aren't locked into any particular band/provider? That's interesting news. I've been in situations where I'm looking at a cell tower and can't get service. I thought that AT&T would switch my Nokia phone to another provider's tower if they weren't covering me with their service. I dropped AT&T because of that incident.
Best regards.
Recently the company I work for built two beautiful new office buildings with one minor drawback; They had large metal roofs that almost completely blocked cell phone signal inside. Many employees had to go outside the building to use their (company owned) cell phones. Our solution was to purchase a wireless repeater like you mentioned above. We went with the Digital Antenna(r) DA4000SBR. This is the small building repeater, they also have other versions available that cover less square footage. It was very easy to set up (mount and outdoor and indoor antenna) and improved signal quality from -85db to -62db (1 bar to 4 bars)over about 3500 sq.ft. Our employees are very happy now that they can use their cell phones inside. This unit can be purchased for around $455 from Talley Communications corp or almost any other wireless retailer.
The Wi-Ex YX500 series and some of the ones made by Wilson Electronics Are all great. Get them.
The Statue of Liberty is America's lawn jockey.
Cellular coverage is like hex grid from your AD&D maps, where a tower is located at the junctions of the lines, and each of the open 'hexes' is called a sector. This is how it would look if the towers were at max density and the terrain were perfectly flat.
Each of the three sets of directional antennas are pointed so as to cover one of sectors adjacent to the tower. In the real world the towers are farther apart than max-desnsity and they project their signal in large misshapen overlapping bubbles, which will still be known as sectors.
Many things can go wrong to wreck the signal in a particular bubble, but once discovered and fixed the system can perform like the radio engineers envisioned. In this case it sounds like the parent poster's antenna array became misaligned and they adjusted the array to properly overlap his part of town again. No cellular company would re-point an antenna array just to make one customer happy, but a well documented problem carries a lot more weight and gets fixed much faster than vague customer complaints about coverage.
Another good solution is the UMA phone. They use your wireless acces point to do VOIP from your handset, even in your basement and then as you take the call out of reach of your AP they hand into the GSM network. So essentially you extend their network into your home for the carrier. That offering should be available from T-Mobile for Christmas.
I'm fond of the monoamines, such as dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine.
If this is just for one phone, go out and buy an external mobile phone antenna for about $25-50.
This is only going to work if your phone has an external antenna jack on the back (it is usually filled in with a rubber plug that you can pop out).
A member of my family spends a lot of time in a remote area and can only get 0-2 bars if he stands on the highest point of the property with his flip phone. After buying a $30 mag-mount antenna, plugging it into the external antenna port on his Cingular GSM phone and sticking it on the top of his truck/house he gets very good signal all the time. Sprint phones have good results with the antenna as well.
If this doesn't work (his problem was range, not obstacles), consider taking it up with your mobile company or look into passive repeaters. If those don't work, consider either dynamiting the ridge, developing a space ladder, or buying an active cell phone repeater.
I asked a similar question on Howard Forums and they do sound like a good idea. My problem turned out to be my phone locking onto a distant tower rather than one of three nearer ones (your phone will tell you the GPS coordinates of the tower it's connected to in its service menu, or some phones at least, see the link). I never did buy a repeater.
Try this one: http://www.signalwide.com/
they are consumers. Big Difference, consumers don't think about the idea of a phone company already putting this technology into a phone, they simply walk up to the man in the blue polo/blue vest, and ask him how to boost signal on his new cell phone. After that, the item is consumed by the consumer and the millionaires prosper on this generations stupidity.
Sig: I stole this sig.
I am amazed at the number of replies that say, "Oh just get a new phone, switch providers, or buy a landline." Isn't this supposed to be a site for geeks, tinkerers, people that like to fix stuff by ourselves? This person wants to fix a problem, and they want to fix it the geek way, and all everyone is saying is, "be a good consumer and give the phone company more money." This is supposed to be a geek site, and all these answers sound like they belong in Newsweek.
My own two cents. I frequently work in a datacenter that can, in theory, withstand a level 5 tornado hit. As a consequence, cell phones suck as inside the building. They recently installed a 500 dollar booster, not sure of the model, but it did indeed boost signal strength from useless to quite bearable. My casual inspection of the device revealed some kind of omnidirectional antenna fed by coaxial wire that ran to the roof, where I can only assume the rest of the gear was.
Do bear in mind that coax wire is a pretty lossy method of transmitting microwaves, and the connectors bleed power levels off like its their primary function. If you are going to need more than 30 feet in between ends, consider spending a bit more money on a better grade of coax than your standard stuff. Otherwise, you are throwing your money away. Microwaves move better through the air than they do over wire. So, collecting the waves where they are strongest, on the roof, with a dish, and carrying them inside over coax to another antenna only has a point if you don't bleed out all the signal strength along the way.
--Nuintari
slashdot : where an opinion can be wrong.
Two directional antennas - back-to-back - placed
;-)
on top of the ridge that blocks your connection.
One antenna is aimed at the carrier's cell tower;
the other antenna is aimed at your home/property.
Let us know how this works, if you try it...
Speaking from a sales and Installation experience, the JDTeck at http://www.jdteck.com/ line of Active Cellular repeters is the best bang for the buck. $695 retail will get you the JD65-XT which is a full-duplex active repeater, allowing up to 20 simultaneous calls. I have installed 3 of these units for various customers and have had excellent results.
When I call to order one they ask the Zip and carrier and will do a tower location to find the best frequency for you and send it along. It is a full kit with a flat panel antenna for 1900 (PCS) kits or a directional Yagi for other frequencies.
Keep in mind I set these up in a rural environment with distance to tower being 3-6 miles. But this sounds like it would do the trick for you.
For a mere 100k+, you too can have a full LGC Fusion Singlestar repeater system covering an eight story building. You could work with the carriers to extend their signal to your place and then it will work great. http://www.lgcwireless.com/products/intereach_ss.h tm
We have this at work and the cell signals went from no service to full 4/5 bars everywhere. Including in the elevator, bathroom, basement, and data center.
If you are gonna do it, do it right!
I have a "Cell Socket"... cradle with its own whip antenna that is then connected to either the hard-wired house phone system or the base of a regular cordless phone. Takes my phone from 1 bar to 4.
I come in the house, and put the phone in the cradle by the door, and then make and receive calls over the cell line on a nice 900mhz SS cordless phone w/ callerID that cost a whopping $14. And the cell socket charges the phone.
Firstly, all cellular networks suck horribly, they are all guilty of false advertising, breach of contract, extortion and other criminal acts that seem to be oficially condoned by the government.
If you must use cellular, get an old 5-10 watt analog bag phone. These kiddie toy 0.5W digital phones are a complete waste of time and are not really phones but are rather fashion accesories for kids.