Poor Reception inside my home

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Bruce D. Brown - 05 May 2005 20:23 GMT

My problem is a little different. I live in a "marginal" coverage area with
poor reception inside my home. I have found the answer to my particular
problem by installing a device called "Wireless Extender" in my home. I was
skeptical at first but went ahead, bought and then installed this device and
I now get great reception throughout my entire house. It is not cheap but I
would recommend it highly (especially since they have a 15 day return policy
if it doesn't work.)

The Wireless Extender consists of a high gain antenna which I mounted on the
highest point of my roof. I then ran coax inside to a small box which has a
small omni directional antenna attached. The box is then plugged into 110
volts and immediately my signal strength increased greatly.

Instead of comparing the number of bars showing, I went into the phone and
checked the signal strength measured in dBm. Before I installed the
Wireless Extender, I had signals of -90dBm to as bad as -256dBm (the higher
the negative number, the worse the signal streangth is.) Since I installed
the unit my signal goes from -56dbm to about -100 dBm with an average
signal strength of about -80dBm. That is good enough in anybody's business.
One other thing, this device works only in the 1900 mh band.

I have never before recommended anything in a news group but I feel very
strongly about this product. It really is very easy to install. If
interested, their website is www.wirelessextenders.com , ask about a return
policy in case it doesn't work for you. I feel that it will work just like
it did for me but I don't want to be responsible if it doesn't. The company
can be reached at 800-871-1612.

Bruce D. Brown

Reply to this Message

Scott Mc - 06 May 2005 05:32 GMT

That's a decent price, and yes, these products really do work. Wilson
Electronics & a few other manufacturers offer something similar called a
repeater.

What I have is a product similar to this, by Inteligain, for both the
800-850 MHz & 1900 MHz signals, but it does not broadcast the boosted signal
through an internal broadcasting antenna, but instead runs the boosted
signal through a cable to the external antenna input on my Nokia
6340i....makes a huge difference in fringe areas or areas where there are
dropped calls. It's portable, so it's easy to use both in the car & in the
house.

> My problem is a little different. I live in a "marginal" coverage area
> with poor reception inside my home. I have found the answer to my
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
>
> Bruce D. Brown

Reply to this Message

Bruce D. Brown - 06 May 2005 14:42 GMT

I looked at the other products, and they were much more expensive but the
selling point in this system is that it has an antenna inside the house and
I didn't have to be tethered to a length of coax attached to my phone.
Besides my new phone, the BlackBerry 7100 does not have an external antenna
connection.

Bruce D. Brown

> That's a decent price, and yes, these products really do work. Wilson
> Electronics & a few other manufacturers offer something similar called a
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
>>
>> Bruce D. Brown

Reply to this Message

childs945 - 12 Sep 2005 23:52 GMT

Bruce D. Brown Wrote:

> I looked at the other products, and they were much more expensive bu
> the
[quoted text clipped - 78 lines]
> >
> >I bought the wireless extender and it was defective(the

power light flashed all the time)I called the co and they don't see
to
know what to do.So I hade to send it back and try to get my money
back.Hope that will work and I will try a co with a tech dept
jo

Reply to this Message

RobR - 13 Sep 2005 01:40 GMT

$300???? Holy OUCH!!! We had the same problem here,
but just ended up replacing our phones with ones that were
more sensitive (though that might not be enough in some
areas of course).

> Bruce D. Brown Wrote:
>> I looked at the other products, and they were much more expensive but
[quoted text clipped - 84 lines]
> back.Hope that will work and I will try a co with a tech dept
> joe

Reply to this Message

Mij Adyaw - 13 Sep 2005 04:08 GMT

Instead of spending $300 to boost the signal in my home, I would try other
cell phone services and find a cell phone service that works fine in my
home. It may or may not be possible to find a cell service that works better
in your home, but it is worth a try. If you find a service that works better
at your home, sign up with them and terminate your old service. The early
contract termination fee is only $150. Much better than spending $300.

> $300???? Holy OUCH!!! We had the same problem here,
> but just ended up replacing our phones with ones that were
[quoted text clipped - 89 lines]
>> back.Hope that will work and I will try a co with a tech dept
>> joe

Reply to this Message

RH - 13 Sep 2005 03:24 GMT

The thing that kills me about cell phones is a lot of people forget
that this cell phone thingy is that a cell phone is a RADIO in it's
puriest form. Couple that with the fact that is in the microwave
band, add to it that the cell phone uses less than a watt of power,
and most homes have insulation with aluminum foil and that will
explain most of the reception problems. Getting a microwave
signal to penetrate that kind of enviroment, coupled with all the
RF signals in a home (computer, microwave oven etc) and you have
poor reception....
I know in home, certain areas don't get as good of coverage as
others.
Ham radio operators in my area have a term for a particular area
of our town with a bunch of business band repeaters and pagers
that have their deviation set so high that it splatters everything.
We call it intermod alley or the RF junkyard :)

>> >> My problem is a little different. I live in a "marginal" coverage
>> area
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>> 1900
>> >> mh band.

Reply to this Message