Booster??
KK814
Contributor - Level 1

Ever since Alltel was taken over by Verizon,my home coverage stinks..........at first I thought it was my old Alltel Samsung Hue...........so on Dec 14th I got an Eris...............still the same thing............very little if any reception...........

 

I have heard there are boosters one can buy to help............anyone know anything about them or do you have other suggestions??

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Re: Booster??
TheGreatOne
Master - Level 1

 


KK814 wrote:

Ever since Alltel was taken over by Verizon,my home coverage stinks..........at first I thought it was my old Alltel Samsung Hue...........so on Dec 14th I got an Eris...............still the same thing............very little if any reception...........

 

I have heard there are boosters one can buy to help............anyone know anything about them or do you have other suggestions??


 

 

Yeah. There called external antenna's. Their supposed to increase reception & signal strength. I used to know of someone that had one for their cell phone. It worked well.

 

HTC Eris Antenna

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Re: Booster??
imragtop
Enthusiast - Level 3

 First, did you do the *28 or what ever it is,  thing to update your phone so it knows what towers to use. I think you are supposed to do this monthly.

 I have used the Wilson Cell Phone Amps and antennas for years. They are not cheap but work extremely well.

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Re: Booster??
bkfist
Specialist - Level 1

Yes, I had one in my car (well, it's still there) when I had Sprint, due to terrible coverage between my house and work.

 

Anything labeled as an "External Antenna" will be junk.  Do a Google on "Cellular Repeater" and check around.

 

Wilson makes some good units, but are a bit on the expensive side.  There are a couple other companies also making decent equipment.

 

Do *not* try to get a mobile unit and put it in a home - The antenna that communicated with the cell phone (I'll call it the transmit antenna) is only designed to reach 2 or 3 feet beyond the antenna.  Make sure you get a home unit.

 

The trick is with any repeater system is that the signal from the "inside" antenna can not reach the "outside" antenna (which, depending on the construction of your house, and how decent the signal is, *could* be in your attic.

 

If the outside antenna can "see" what the "inside" antenna is transmitting, it creates a "loop back" effect on the amplifier.  The amplifiers are designed to automatically cut the transmitting power until the loop-back ceases, so if the two antennas are placed too close together, they will appear to not work, or only give very limited coverage inside the house.  The further the antennas are apart, the better the repeater systems work.

 

When I was researching repeaters I think it was reviews on Amazon that either had some really good info, or at least a link to some really good info.  People who rated them as "junk" were doing something like trying to get a car repeater to cover the entire inside of a mobile home, had their antennas too close together, mounted an outside antenna to some metal flashing (there is a minimum distance between metal and the outside antenna that must be respected - **bleep**her is better.) or in some other way were setting up their systems in a way that they were creating a loop-back and the repeater was decreasing power to the point where they "boost" inside the house was only being seen within a few feet of the inside antenna. (By the way, once you find some reviews on Amazon, you can find better prices elsewhere.)

 

Some units are designed with an inside antenna that is only designed to transmit 1 or 2 inches from the antenna.  (Portable units)  These are pretty much designed to have the cell phone rest in the cradle and use hand-free, or a blue-tooth device.

 

The units work, and work well, especially if you can get 2 bars outside or in  your attic. (well, with Verizon's use of only 4 bars, 1 is probably sufficient).

 

The only problem i had with my car unit on Sprint was the fact that the Sprint signal was 1 bar (out of 7) at best in many areas, and Verizon was giving 5 to 7 in these same areas.  I think the signal from Verizon was just completely over-powering the incredibly weak signal from the Sprint towers at times.

 

When you get a unit, there are single-band and dual-band units.  These are for the 800 and 1700? Mhz spectrums.  A dual-band unit costs a few bucks more, but will work with any carrier.  (except nextel)  So if you have a friend who has US Cellular, for example, who tend to use 800 and 1700? Mhz frequencies, the dual-band will work for your friend while he's in your house also.

 

The repeaters are NOT carrier-specific, and work for both CDMA and GSM equally well (again, except for Nextel phones), and unless you have one of the inside antennas designed to have the cell phone directly on top of it, they can also handle multiple phones calls, with multiple carriers simultaneously. 

 

Keep in mind, when they advertise 2500 square foot range, that is 1.  BEST case scenario - good outside signal, and the antennas WELL separated, and no walls between you and the inside antenna.  And 2. This does not mean 2500 feet away from the inside antenna - this means more like the size of a typical house - maybe 2 stories up, and 30 to 40 feet away from the inside antenna.

 

There are some higher gain, directional inside antennas you can get, that will give you more range by focusing the signal more "downward" away from the outside antenna, giving a little wider range of coverage, as well as reducing any loop-back to the outside antenna, allowing the repeater to use higher transmit power.  You can also get a directional "yagi" antenna for the outside that is highly directional and pointed at the cell tower for your carrier outside.  Again, this increases the signal received and transmitted to/from the Verizon cell tower, as well as reducing the ability of the outside antenna to see the inside antenna.

 

The advantage of a repeater over a femtocell solution, is that once purchased, there is no on-going monthly charges from the cell company, and you don't have to use part of your internet bandwidth for your cell phone usage.  Also, many femtocell solutions only give you 1X data speeds, not 3G  (Sprint's is definitely that way)  A repeater not only repeats the voice signal, but the data signal as well, be it 1X or 3G coverage.

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Re: Booster??
TheGreatOne
Master - Level 1

 


imragtop wrote:

 First, did you do the *28 or what ever it is,  thing to update your phone so it knows what towers to use. I think you are supposed to do this monthly.

 I have used the Wilson Cell Phone Amps and antennas for years. They are not cheap but work extremely well.


 

*228  :smileywink:

 

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Re: Booster??
imragtop
Enthusiast - Level 3

Thanks, couldn't remember at the moment.

Link to Wilson for more info.

 

http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/?gclid=CJPA5u2-954CFRSdnAod-wpcJw

 

Should answer your questions.

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Re: Booster??
KK814
Contributor - Level 1

Thanks all.............

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Re: Booster??
kenyu73
Contributor - Level 3

I just ended up buying theVerizon Extender. It hooks up to your High Speed Internet. When you make or receive a call, its routed through the Extender via VOIP. Verizon touts it as a mini-tower for your home. Even though my Eris doesnt show full bars while idle, once I make or receive a call, I then get full bars.

 

The only downsides:

1) No Power means no signal

2) Its only 1x... doesnt support EVDO which shouldnt matter because you should be using WiFi anyhow while at home as its quicker and uses less battery.

 

 

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