[Hidden-tech] cell phone repeater/amplifier needed

[ussailis at shaysnet.com]

The cell phone system is interesting. Your phone uses low power, and an
inefficient receiver. The $$ is invested in the unit at the tower. Much
higher power, a very good receiver, and multiple antenna systems.

Because of the towers, antennas, transmitters, etc, the major cell
companies do not own all their towers. They share with other companies, and
many 'mom and pop' towers. There are businesses that own 2 and 3 towers. 

The other 'trick' that the use of a particular tower in all done in the SIM
chip. Yep, your phone controls what tower works, and to a large extent the
coverage you get.

Caveat: In North America there are two frequency bands used. There are
multiple bands in other parts of the world, but not the same as our bands.

There is a tower in Burgey. Just NW of downtown, close to rt 9. I have
T-mobile and in the past I had marginal service outside of Williamsburg,
which lead me to believe T-mobile service isn't on that tower. T-mobile
uses the "Sprint" (about 1800 MHz) frequency band. 

So one thing you can do is determine how far you are from that tower, Find
out if it is a line-of-sight shot. and then complain about your SIM chip,
or change carriers. (the other band is at 800 MHz).

Look at cell phone antennas. A good place it the chiminy at the 221 Pine St
Building (Arts & Industry) in Florence. These are easy to see from the
parking lot. Both frequencies are available there. The smaller antennas are
for the higher frequency. Then you can look at your local tower and figure
out which is which. Obviously if your local tower has only the larger
antennas, then Sprint and T-mobile doesn't use it.

I believe Verizon and AT&T are on the lower frequency.

If you do go wth an amplifier / antenna it is very important that the
antenna AND AMPLIFIER be placed up high. The amplifier should be placed as
close to the antenna as possible. Using an amplifier at the phone might
provide no benefit at all.

The issue here is signal loss in the cable between the antenna and
amplifier. At these frequencies this can be high, often higher than any
antenna or amplifier gain.

Also there are some "flat plate" antennas out there that are not very good.
They are covered with grey plastic, and have an aluminum backing. You could
do better.


Jim Ussailis

jim at nationalwireless.com

PS NO I do not sell cell phones. But I do design some of this junk.
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Lynn Goodhue lrgoodhue at yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:15:17 -0700 (PDT)
To: hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
Subject: [Hidden-tech] cell phone repeater/amplifier needed


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