# cell phone signal boosters?



## greenLED (Jun 9, 2008)

I know about the bogus stickers that you put on your cell to boost the signal, but is there a *real* device that could boost cell phone signals in and around a house where reception is sketchy (at best)?

Thanks.


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## Trashman (Jun 9, 2008)

Use a headset (bluetooth, for more range) and set your cell phone flat on a piece of aluminum foil or on some type of flat, non-ferrous metal (I used to use a pewter plate and have found that flat copper, aluminum and brass plates also work.). That's it. It may not work with all cell phones, but my wife and I did not used to have signals in our houses (when we first met) and this absolutely worked for us. We both used (and still use) Nokia, non-flip phones. No hokus pokus or mythological acounts, here, either--we'd set our phones on the foil (or plate) and see our signal bars go from 0-1 to 3-7, remove the phones and the signal bars go back down. Eventually, Cingular improved the service in both of our areas and we didn't need to do that anymore, but when we needed it, it was miraculous. It worked *every* time. I've reported this on EDCF, a long time ago, I think, and I seem to remember someone reporting that it did not work for them. It may be specific to the position of the phone's internal.

You're right about those stickers, they are definitely bogus!


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## Mike Painter (Jun 9, 2008)

There are both active and passive antennaas that do this.
Most of the passive ones ar aimed for car interiors and I don't know how well they would work in a house.
Active ones are fairly expensive.
ebay "cell phone antenna repeater" will get you some ideas.


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## scott.cr (Jun 9, 2008)

There are high-power cell phone repeaters available. See HERE for example. These are very easy to find on Google. However they may not be legal in terms of violating your cell phone provider contract, since these devices aren't "certified" by any providers right now.

(I work for a company that manufactures RF amplifiers... we researched producing these, but it's a no-go because no providers would agree to let us certify it on their network.)


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## Manzerick (Jun 9, 2008)

Depending on your carrier there are solutions where you hook inot your internet connection and your phone iwll transmit in VoIP form. The good thing is that most calling is included witht his option. I don't have much info on it but it has been explained in a few meetings here and there (when I wasn't sleeping lol)


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## greenLED (Jun 9, 2008)

Thanks, guys! So it's a "cell phone repeater" that I need. I'll have to check what kind of network/signal we're under. 

...or do the VoIP thing. :thinking:


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## acourvil (Jun 9, 2008)

Sometimes also called "extenders." I got a zBoost YX510-PCS/CEL Dual Band Cell Phone Extender last summer, and it has eliminated the dead spots in our house.


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## Aluminous (Jun 9, 2008)

Trashman said:


> Use a headset (bluetooth, for more range) and set your cell phone flat on a piece of tin foil or on some type of flat, non-ferrous metal (I used to use a pewter plate and have found that flat copper, aluminum and brass plates also work.).


Would aluminum foil work?


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## Led_Blind (Jun 9, 2008)

only on your head!


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## Trashman (Jun 9, 2008)

Aluminous said:


> Would aluminum foil work?



Woops...that's what I meant--aluminum foil! Thanks! Basically, if it's flat, metal, and a magnet doesn't stick to it, it should work. 

I just edited the word "tin" out of my first post. I think my mom referred to it as "tin foil," so that's what came out as I was typing. Wikipedia says aluminum is sometimes mistakenly referred to as "tin foil." Yep, they're right!


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## GLOCK18 (Jun 9, 2008)

Don't waste your money on any booster, cell phone towers are designed to work off the lower signal put out by todays cell phone, they generally cover 7 square miles. If you boost the signal sometimes the next tower will pcik up with a degraded signal. I worked for motorla for 15 years.


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## greenLED (Jun 10, 2008)

GLOCK18 said:


> Don't waste your money on any booster, cell phone towers are designed to work off the lower signal put out by todays cell phone, they generally cover 7 square miles. If you boost the signal sometimes the next tower will pcik up with a degraded signal. I worked for motorla for 15 years.


Since you have experience, than maybe you can recommend me what to do.

I don't get a consistent signal where I live. I have to get out in the yard or the garage to get a (faint) signal. And that's with my phone; the other cells we have won't even pick up a signal until we're closer to downtown.

What do you suggest?


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## GLOCK18 (Jun 10, 2008)

Do you have a CDMA or GSM phone.


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## gadget_lover (Jun 10, 2008)

I worked for Pac Bell for 25 years.

Sometimes the towers are on the other side of a metal building or hill. My mother in law lives in San Diego, in a small valley that barely got any reception for years.

An external antenna was able to boost the signal from unusable t o fairly stable. 

I have read that the cell repeaters are quite viable. They sell them to boat owners to allow them to use their cellphones when anchored off shore.

Daniel


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## Norm (Jun 10, 2008)

Greenled I've just gone through the same exercise at home very little signal in the house, all I've done is buy a small magnetic car antenna, passed the cable through the wall and plugged it into the phone. Gone from zero bars to 4 out of 5 bars now. Hopefully your phone has an external antenna connector.
Norm


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## greenLED (Jun 10, 2008)

I have a GSM phone, AFAIK.


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## GLOCK18 (Jun 10, 2008)

Cellular phone providers purposely limit signal in certain areas, As Norm stated an external antenna will give you a stronger signal, if available its not boosting the signal but giving you better performance them the built in antenna. Most repeaters sold are nothing but an empty box, they do sell booster for marina use but you must be 12 miles out to be legal. Any other booster will be illegal, on GSM towers they boost the signal in area that are more traveled such as main road or freeways, and turn down other less used areas on the same tower, I would recommend calling your service provider and request a service ticket for your address if you complain enough times they will fix the issue not always easy to do. I have a Sprint tower (CDMA) on my property and because the way it setup I get a better signal a block away.


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## Trashman (Jun 10, 2008)

So, I guess, laying it on aluminum foil didn't improve your reception? What model phone are you using?

Have you spoken with your carrier about your lack of service? There was a time when my service that had been upgraded to good went bad (at my house) and I reported it to my carrier and they told me they'd look into it/take care of it. (I can't remember how exactly she phrased it.) The service eventually returned to being good, again.


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## GLOCK18 (Jun 10, 2008)

When you call the service provide ask for a service ticket make sure they give you a ticket number, customer service generally doesn’t know what you asking for, ask to be transferred to the a field service rep, I use to go out to the cell towers and perform these service call, mainly when a consumer would make a Motorola make model complaint. Service provider will also program there tower to drop a certain % of calls depending on time of day.


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## TorchBoy (Jun 10, 2008)

My old cellphone (which I still have lying around) has an external aerial connector, so I guess I could play with it. At 900 MHz the wavelength is ~33 cm so the aerial needs to be 8.3 cm long up a really tall tree... Strangely enough, its standard extendable aerial _is_ that long, so maybe I just need to build a ground plane on the end of a long wire and find a suitable tree.

Does the size of the aluminium foil make a difference for that technique? :tinfoil:


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## Aluminous (Jun 10, 2008)

Trashman said:


> Woops...that's what I meant--aluminum foil! Thanks! Basically, if it's flat, metal, and a magnet doesn't stick to it, it should work.



Cool. Wish I'd heard about this years ago! I used to live next to a radio station and TV station HQ, and always had poor reception at home, even outside. When I was anywhere else in town (and at home after I moved to another location), my reception with the same phone was fine.


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## Coop (Jun 10, 2008)

Another cellphone company (Ericsson and T-Mobile NL before that) employee here. The brand of phone can really make a big difference. So far I found that Nokia & Motorola seem to have best reception, while Samsung clamshell models have the worst reception by far. This test was conducted when I was still working at T-Mobile, we tested 5 phones of 5 models of 5 manufacturers in different locations. Unfortunately, as I no longer work at T-Mobile, I don't have access to the full testresults anymore


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## gadget_lover (Jun 10, 2008)

Smarthome is a reputable dealer I've done business with in the past.

http://www.smarthome.com/9631.html is a cellular and PCS bidirectional radio freq amplifier.

No license required, it's FCC type approved. Cell: 0.5 Watt EiRP; PCS: 0.25 Watt EiRP (w/ included antenna). It is legal.

It's $390, but I found it at a reputable store in only a few seconds of searching.

Daniel


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## greenLED (Jun 11, 2008)

Coop said:


> The brand of phone can really make a big difference. So far I found that Nokia & Motorola seem to have best reception...


Yes, it does. I now have a HTC Touch, which does catch a signal around the house (outside). The other phones we have are Motorolas and they don't catch a signal.


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## V8TOYTRUCK (Jun 12, 2008)

Is there something that works well that won't break the bank? I checked the repeaters but..

$300 is steep...my Tmobile MDA gets 0-1 bars at my apt. I will try that aluminum foil trick tonight. I'll be happy if I get consistant 2-3bars. 

I do plan on getting the 3G Iphone coming out in July, and my buddy with an iphone gets great signal at my apt.


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