Cell Phone Antenna or Pre Amp needed.

[gary350]

My cell phone works good every where except at my house. Other people have trouble with their cell phone reception at my house too. My house much be almost out of range from the cell phone tower. Reception is bad, voice breaks up all the time. Sometimes I can not make a phone call I get a message that says, no signal. Sometimes I am talking and we loose connection and we have to keep calling each other back. People that come to visit have the same problem with their phone, different service and different phone. Some times signal is better certain times of the day. I can sometimes get a stronger signal if I go outside. When I need to call my 88 yrs old father I drive over to the Mall parking lot to make the call.

Is there a way to pull in a stronger signal, maybe a cell phone antenna?

 

[jpanhalt]

I have very bad signal strength at my "farm." Tried Wilson directional panel, and it gave 10 dB gain by itself. A variety of amplifiers/wireless routers are available.

Try: 3G Store (3gstore.com/category/716_3g_4g_amplifiers_signal_boosters_repeaters.html) and
Cellphone Mate and Wilson directly for antennas.

I have no connection with any of those vendors. My experience with 3G has been good. It does have a 20% restocking charge and 100% in-store credit. It did allow me to buy one amplifier, while keeping the other and agreeing to accept it for full refund, should the new amplifier work better. Neither worked well enough, so I got stuck with the 20% on both. But, that was the rule I had agreed to.

3G ships from outside Chicago (Cary, IN), and I got next day delivery of everything with very nominal ground rates.

John

 

[gary350]

Too many unknowns??? It comes with no cable. How do I know what to buy? It says for people that know where their cell tower is, how do I know that? My cell phone has a place to plug in 3 things, battery charger, ear phone, microphone. Where does the antenna attach? Can antenna be used as a direction finder to find the cell tower? Amazon sells one but still no information about how it works before I buy?

 

[dr pepper]

Older phones often had a connector for connecting an external aerial, I looked into a while back an aerial to fit to the mast of a boat to increase the range by a few miles.

 

[jpanhalt]

Too many unknowns??? It comes with no cable. How do I know what to buy? It says for people that know where their cell tower is, how do I know that? My cell phone has a place to plug in 3 things, battery charger, ear phone, microphone. Where does the antenna attach? Can antenna be used as a direction finder to find the cell tower? Amazon sells one but still no information about how it works before I buy?

How are we supposed even to start to answer those questions without knowing what cell phone you are using and to which carrier you subscribe? Better questions get better answers.

Did you check 3G? Did you call its tech service? Some of its antennas/amplifiers re-broadcast (i.e., they are repeaters), which is what I thought you wanted rather than a direct plug in, based on your comment about providing service to people who visit your home.

Let's assume you are Verizon. If you search on Verizon towers, you will get a map if its tower locations and service areas (e.g., 4G LTE extended, 4G LTE, 3G, 3G extended). Couple that with Google Earth and you can find out elevations, obstructions, distance, etc. The best tower may not be the closest, depending on terrain.

As for an antenna jack, they are very small. Not all phones have them. On the Verizon JetPack I used, the jack was quite inconspicuous.

And finally, 3G Store (probably others too) will tell you how to do a "site survey." The JetPack I had and many cell phones have aps that will allow you to walk around and measure signal strength. So, if you get a directional antenna and repeater, then you set your phone in range of the repeater, dial up the signal-strength ap, and start testing with the antenna.

John

Edit:

Here are some links that may help you. The easy way is to just skip to the last one.

https://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/devices/knowledge_base.html?id=16455
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800798 (shows signal strength measurement)

Or, you could just try this(be sure volume is up):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVE2x65MnN4

 

[gary350]

How are we supposed even to start to answer those questions without knowing what cell phone you are using and to which carrier you subscribe? Better questions get better answers.

Did you check 3G? Did you call its tech service? Some of its antennas/amplifiers re-broadcast (i.e., they are repeaters), which is what I thought you wanted rather than a direct plug in, based on your comment about providing service to people who visit your home.

Let's assume you are Verizon. If you search on Verizon towers, you will get a map if its tower locations and service areas (e.g., 4G LTE extended, 4G LTE, 3G, 3G extended). Couple that with Google Earth and you can find out elevations, obstructions, distance, etc. The best tower may not be the closest, depending on terrain.

As for an antenna jack, they are very small. Not all phones have them. On the Verizon JetPack I used, the jack was quite inconspicuous.

And finally, 3G Store (probably others too) will tell you how to do a "site survey." The JetPack I had and many cell phones have aps that will allow you to walk around and measure signal strength. So, if you get a directional antenna and repeater, then you set your phone in range of the repeater, dial up the signal-strength ap, and start testing with the antenna.

John

Edit:

Here are some links that may help you. The easy way is to just skip to the last one.

https://support.verizonwireless.com/clc/devices/knowledge_base.html?id=16455
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1800798 (shows signal strength measurement)

Or, you could just try this(be sure volume is up):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVE2x65MnN4

Bought phone at Best Buy March 2012. It says LG on the front, no other name. It has a micro size key board, does internet, email, text, games, photo, video, and lots of stuff. Plug for battery charger, ear phone, micro phone. Net10 phone is probably Sprint $25 monthly service. Service works great all over the USA been to Montana, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Florida, Illinois, KY, MO, NM, TX, AL, GA, NC, Maine, it works fine every place I go expect my house and National Parks out in the wilderness 60 miles from town.

After reading some of the info it seems a repeater is the thing to have. It boost the signal and transmits to all phones within about 15 ft range. No wires to plug into the phone, no antenna either. I am learning looks like an antenna is not the way to go no way to plug it in anyway.

 

[jpanhalt]

You will need an antenna for the repeater. There are direct connect repeaters/amplifiers, which I had and which are not appropriate for your situation, and re-transmitting repeaters that might help. Some people recommend an omni antenna for the repeater, as that allows access to multiple towers. My best reception was with a directional flat plate antenna (10 dB gain). Higher gains can be had with a Yagi, but I didn't try one of them.

Remember, you will be receiving and re-transmitting on the same frequencies. Separation of the receiving and transmitting antennas is essential. Too much gain can cause oscillations, and interfere with other cell phone users. A directional antenna helps in that regard. You definitely do not want to cause oscillations. You probably want to deal with a vendor that allows returns and pay a reasonable restocking fee (e.g., 20%), rather than one that doesn't. Knowledge isn't free, except on ETO.

John

 

[ClydeCrashKop]

My girlfriend had Metro PCS that wouldn't work in my cement block house, maybe with lead paint. I got a zBoost antenna that brought the signal from 1 bar up to 4 bars, but only in a couple rooms. (line of sight) Since then we went to AT&T and have good reception except in the engine room of the big boat that I work on, I have 0 bars.
I paid $100.00 for the zBoost and would sell it for $50.00. It only works for Metro PCS and Sprint.

 

[transistor495]

Correct. You can use something like zBoost exterior which can be low cost implementation. As far as I can see, it use directional Yagi antenna which should be sufficient. If it won't support your GSM service provider then switch to the one it supports . Here in India, we are able to switch in between different GSM providers easily without changing the cell number. This is called number portability.

I don't have any idea about your system though

https://www.repeaterstore.com/products/antennas/zboost/zboost-antenna-upgrade.html

**broken link removed**