Cell Booster

[TGIN]

Want to get Daughter a cell booster for christmas . She has service in a few spots in the summer and fair service after the leaves fall . What is the best without spending an arm and a leg . Would like to here your expereance with them .

 

[RayP(MI)]

May have to go through her cell company to get one compatible with her system.

 

[JT in CT]

I got one of the Wilson 'Sleek' cradle boosters. It has never worked right. Have it in a stationary setup at the house with the antenna on the roof. It seems to "cycle" for lack of a better term. I can watch the reception bars on the phone slowly rise then slowly fall in about 30 second or so constant cycles. I called tech support and got a lecture on how the bars meant nothing and how I needed to pull up the gain reading (or something like that but I don't remember) but my phone didn't have that function. I couldn't get him to understand that I didn't give a rat's a$$ about what the bars meant. All I knew was that when they were high I got good connections and when they went low it dropped out. The cycling seemed to me like some feed back problem but I don't know. They did send me a high gain antenna for free but it didn't help, just made the "cycles" bigger. In short; I don't know how it would work on a car installation.
I have a Wilson desk top booster at a different house with the directional antenna and it does help. Not great but always makes the difference between a reliable connection and a sketchy one.

Jim

 

[VaTom]

We bought a Wilson booster with exterior directional antenna to solve our ISP problem for a cell "hotspot". Turned out it was happy to amplify our different company cell signal at the same time (no need to reposition the antenna), increasing our signal inside our copper-clad house by 2 bars to the maximum the phones will show.

The Amazon reviews were slightly under-stating how well these boosters work. They said inside signal would be the same as if you went up on your roof. We found it was better. Our exterior antenna points into a mature hardwood forest, we didn"t see much difference when the leaves fell off.

At $360, maybe more than you want to spend. From my experience, I"d consider one of their cheaper boosters.

Something else to consider is a different cell company. My hunters this year use Sprint which is 2 bars fewer than my cell phone. Verizon is even worse here. Our cell carrier uses anybody"s but AT&T towers, happy to pay the other companies. That"s unusual, and why we use them. Anywhere anybody has a signal we do also.

 

[VaTom]

My Wilson installation instructions covered that, about minimum distance separating components. Apparently it's critical. I followed the instructions and have had no problems at all. Maybe the cradles are different, we use an interior antenna for all our cell devices in the house. Works extremely well.

If you use a smart phone, it can be a signal meter, ask your cell service for help with setting it up.

We dislike smart phones, got a friend to bring his here to help us align our exterior directional antenna. During which we found that alignment is not very critical.

 

[tomNE]

we've had a Wilson for 3yrs. it works well for cell phone. still can't get enough bandwidth to do much with video's on computer!

 

[JT in CT]

Yes, I do know about the component distances. Tried varied locations to the point of getting a 15' extension cable to move the antenna much farther away. Maybe I need an unafordably larger ground plane. Simply could not get it to work steadily even with my wife's smart phone. The desk top setup with the directional antenna is also sensitive to positioning of the phone to the indoor box but once I got down the "optimum" distance it worked reasonably well.
To add to TomNE's post; I notice that when I pick up a 4G signal I can "barely" do video but if it drops to 3G forget it.

Jim

 

[JDemaris]

I've got two Wilsons. One for our cell phone and the other for our wireless Internet. Use them in an area that gets just about no signal without an amp. With the amp - 2 bars on each. With the amp and a roof-top antenna - full bars, off the scale.

 

[VaTom]

Right, there is always a limitation on how much the signal will be improved. The Amazon reviews said it would only be as strong inside as what one finds on their roof. We found stronger, but nowhere near enough to do video well.

Distance between components, as I understand it, is straight line in most instances. If you don"t have enough straight line feet between, you will have problems.

Our situation is different in that we have a grounded steel roof with 2 feet of dirt on top. Signals don"t go through our roof. Means our interior components had an easy time being far enough. House was large enough that our interior antenna had no difficulties.

But I did pay close attention to the guidelines they published, which perhaps preclude your use. My kit came with 2 extra cables, to enable longer distance between components if necessary.

 

[VaTom]

Did you test for bars on your roof where the antenna is placed? That was the recommendation by Amazon reviews for determining if a booster would be adequate.

My booster was only medium-priced, they sold much more expensive ones. The signal we're tapping into didn't justify more, no 4G there to start with.

 

[JDemaris]

4GLTE runs on a different frequency then 3G or wireless Internet and requires a totally different amp.

In regard to checking for bars? Cell phone on the ground none to one bar - floating back and forth. With a roof-top antenna and no amp - it got two bars steady. Cell phone on the ground with amp and NO external antenna - 2 bars but off and on. Cell phone with amp and roof-top antenna - full bars all the time. This is for 3G and wireless Internet. NOT 4GLTE. That needs a different antenna and a different amp. It's not available where we're using the amps anyway. This is in two places. 15 miles from Rogers City in northern Michigan, and in Indian Lake, Hamilton County, in the NY Adirondacks.

 

[John T]

In our RV travels there are a lot of locations (try Utah and Colorado mountains or Northern Nevada grrrrrrrr) with weak cell phone signals. I wanted a small rooftop antenna with an amplifier. My buddy bought a Wilson and I opted for a cheaper (but still same basic gain and specs on paper at least) and they BOTH work about the same so far. Either will raise a typical weak signal from maybe 1 to 3 bars. The Wilson has a good reputation and strong sales and may or may not last longer then mine, only time will tell, but so far his and mine perform about the same.

REGARDLESS you have heard the old sayings GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT or You cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear lol If in an area where theres just NO SIGNAL an amp regardless of brand name, isn't gonna do all that much.

Its still a good investment in my opinion especially in an emergency situation, shop compare, look at reviews, consider opinions here, do your homework THEN GO FOR IT Its your call NOT ours

John T

 

[VaTom]

Yup. We had an interesting experiment here.

When test driving mobile hotspots we started with AT&T because they have a tower closer than anyone else. Not what they considered fast, but we were tickled with their 4G, unboosted. They said we should move our house (with a 200 ton roof) a quarter mile north.

Unfortunately we discovered that the 5 GB they said would be plenty was a joke even without video. No larger monthly plan available and overages were expensive. We went to another carrier who has unlimited data (and cheaper), but the signal is weaker, speed slower with no 4G to start with. Not a problem for us. 3G is what I was asking about.

I go to near West Branch, Mich every summer. Not much cell there. Pretty sure it's an Alltel tower I'm picking up, weakly. Good spot for a booster and high antenna. I get enough cell reception for a conversation, my sister does not.

 

[Dieselrider]

I can"t say good or bad about about antennas or other type boosters. All I can say with any accuracy about is what we have here. Our carrier is Verizon and we have one of their "repeater" signal boosters for here in the house. It usually works very well within the house. Not too good away from the house. It does require being hooked up to the internet. If you loose power it is out, if the internet goes down it is out. Once in a while if it is not working well, you can reset it by resetting the modem or the repeater itself. Our signal strength here at the house is not strong enough without the repeater to make a call out. However if I walk up the hill signal strength is much better. Kind of like Green Acres when they would climb the telephone pole to make a call.

 

[JT in CT]

That is what I bet. The fact that a car is steel and possibly similar in that your roof is steel also. While they mention distance between components they never mentioned anything about "isolation through steel encasement" (for lack of a better description) when using it for a home base. The pictorial installation instructions just showed typical household placement with minimum distances, which I was well over. That's why I felt I had a "feedback" type issue with the omnidirectional antenna (it just seemed to act like it). I think my other unit in the other house is not effected because the antenna is directional.

 

[MF294-4]

I have helped put in over a dozen of the cell extenders. All have been Wilson but I don't know the model. Most have been in metal buildings with an Omni antenna mounted on the roof. We use lmr 400 cable between both antennas. 11 out of the 12 have worked very well and the 12th works ok but we thought it should work better. If they weren't so pricy I would have one at home.

 

[VaTom]

Been awhile since I read my instructions, but I believe if you have enough straight line distance you won"t have a problem. However, might mean you need to remove your antenna from your roof and stick it up a tree to get it far enough. I remember them showing a drawing of a 2 story house with an attic, antenna mounted well above the roof. Single story ain"t the same.

I have no idea how my roof compares to a car, as cars aren"t earth grounded anymore. My single story underground house is. Why we have such a large drop-off in signal from outside to inside. Copper siding (also grounded) doesn"t help. Very large windows was why we could use cell inside- from one company only. With the booster, even when the antenna is pointed in the wrong direction, we get maximum signal bars inside now.

I"m sure you"re correct about differences between omni and directional antennas.

 

[Leroy]

All you are talking about are for stationary location boosters. What about a booster for when you are out walking around or in a car that goes to several different areas? Very seldom use cell around house, still use land line for that and at $36 per month cannot afford to drop it. And the cell is used only for emergencys so cannot carry around anything like an antenna. Cell phone will only make or recieve calls, no voice mail or camara or anything else. Everyplace you are talking about should be land line except in the motor home like John.

 

[Brad Buchanan]

My shop is a metal building in a fairly remote location and cell service was spotty at best. ou could text most of the time but voice was pretty much impossible inside the building.

I bought a Wilson system which consists of one directional antenna which is pointed at the nearest cell tower (I put mine on a 30' black iron pipe), a control unit and a directional antenna that broadcasts the signal inside the building.

I am completely satisfied with the performance. I get 3 to 5 bars of signal anywhere in the 40' x 60' building and useable signal outside.

The cost was just under $300 at Radio Shack and the system is made in the USA and has support for parts and upgrades.

Brad