Cell Antenna Boosters

[amalventano at sc.rr.com (Allyn)]

ok, heres the deal with the boosters. i was skeptical as hell about these
things, but a buddy of mine gave me one. i threw it on my phone, as i was a
bit desperate (same situation as you, but its MY house, and im here all the
time, so it was pissing me off). i tried the sticker thingy, and lo and
behold my phone doesnt cut out anymore around the house. its not some
awesome snake oil thing that pegs your reception meter the instant you use
it (like in the commercials), but it does bring reception up by a tiny bit,
and if you are on a border area, it may help. on my phone, which has a 5
increment signal meter, it managed to bring it up by about one increment.
still skeptical/confused, i brought the topic up at work (office full of
nuclear trained electronic technician geeks), and we checked some stuff out.
turns out the shape of the booster is such that it will absorb and
effectively short a specific frequency. this is *not* the frequency of the
cell phone band, but it *is* the frequency of the internal
carrier/discriminator of the cell phone (the same frequency that
radar-detector-detectors tune into - different for radar bands though). you
normally dont want this internal carrier to be felt at the antenna, as it
can basically cause a sort of self-inflicted interference. cell phones
should have internal shielding to prevent this from happening, but phone
makers tend to skimp out on shielding wherever they can, and thus for some
phones, these sticker things can kill off a bit of the carrier, and possibly
help out a tad.

i've found these things are played way up/way down by different people.

- the companies selling $$$ amplified boosters completely diss the foil
boosters, as they are trying to sell something else (that does work, but is
not cheap).

- the guys selling the foil thingies make them look like the next best thing
to sliced bread.

- the people that have tried it in the middle of the rockey mountains and
still get no reception, naturally get pissed and hate that they wasted $5 on
it.

hth
Al


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Haygood" <haygood@aemail4u.com>
To: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2003 4:09 PM
Subject: WOT: Cell Antenna Boosters


> Help! I got my parents a cell on my service and they can't use it in most
of their house because the sprint signal there is too weak.  Works in the
front rooms of the house only.  They generally have mediocre coverage in the
area.
>
> Are those stupid looking antenna booster stickers usefull at all?  I have
always assumed they don't work at all, but if they work even a tiny bit it
would probably allow them to use the phone in the rest of the house.  Anyone
ever use one?
>
> Any other suggestions for things that can make slight improvements to
reception?  Phones are Motorola StarTac Dual Band.
>
> Thanks.
>
> BH
>
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