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Cellular Repeaters

harvey Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY   Pics

2004-07-10          90509

My cell reception sucks. I have tolerated it for 12+ years here only using land line.

I am looking at cell repeaters for the home. HOLY STICKER SHOCK! From $800 - $2500.

Anybody using one of these? I can make calls from my deck if the winds are blowing correctly. So some type of boster should do the trick.

Thanks in Advance Harvey

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Cellular Repeaters

lucerne Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 192 Lucerne Maine   Pics

2004-07-10          90521

Harvey, Look at a cell socket, I think www.cellsocket.com will get ya there, if not use google. They are a small unit you drop your cell phone into, they connect to your home phone line so when you drop the cell in all the phones are live through the cell phone. It also charges your cell phone while it's in there and comes with an antenna on the side that will unscrew and a truckers cell antenna will screw on to it. I have the wires run in my wall and the antenna on my peak. No land line in the house. You can pick up any of the home phones when they ring or dial out from them too. One number, always charged and always with me, $60.00 a month unlimited nation wide anytime. ....

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Cellular Repeaters

TomG Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley

2004-07-11          90537

I haven't heard of home repeaters and don't know what they do. I'd make sure it would cure the problem before buying one. I assume you have an analog rather than digital service. If a repeater a booster idea, I'm not sure it'd be much improvement if the location is in a hole. I don't think fancy high-gain base antennas are much help either. They can make reception worse. They are good for hauling in distant cells along line-of sight.

We're in a marginal area that's full of hills and valleys. Our camp is in a hole and there's no land line phone. I tried a 5-watt bag phone with a 6 db gain stub antenna--no improvement over a hand-held. I tried climbing on top of a building and put the antenna on top of a 16' 2x4--still no good. I have to walk 50 yards to near a highway and then one service on my regular hand-held phone works in a small area. Pain in the but.

I initialized my phone for two companies and switch back and forth as needed. It doesn't solve all reception problems in the bush but it might save a really long bush crash sometime. Pay as you go plans holds down the costs. If I have to burn hours to keep from loosing them I just use the cell for long-distance calls.
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Cellular Repeaters

harvey Join Date: Sep 2000 Posts: 1550 Moravia, NY   Pics

2004-07-11          90540

I can call off the deck many times just barely getting service, with Verizon. Cingular has no service at all unless atsomphere is just exactly so.

On top of my TV tower 70' I get a solid bar of service on Verison and still no service with Cingular.

I have Verizon and cingular phones plus 2 land lines. It's a pain to fwd calls back and forth at home plus 2 and from work.

I think Joannes customers would also benifit from a repeater here at the house. Maybe a tax write off??? :-)

But I need to do more research B 4 I commit money to the project.

Thanks ....

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Cellular Repeaters

TomG Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley

2004-07-12          90609

Google smart ads are working. I hopped in here and see three ads for cell phone boosters. Boosters do have to receive something before they can boost it though. A 70' tower might work here since the cell tower is fairly close. A fancy antenna wouldn't be needed but a booster probably would help make up for line losses to the tower.

I'm getting the sense that a home repeater may be something that's privately owned but hooked in to a network by land-line. That sounds like an interesting idea but I don't think the cell companies here provide the service. Sounds like one would provide service to passerby's as well and that should help a cell company too provided their cells in the area aren't already over-loaded.

A private repeater might pay for itself in our case since the one service we do get is routed outside the Bell long distance area so we pay tolls for almost everything. I can call free for several hundred miles to places I never call though--aggravation. Wonder how long it'll take for satellite phone costs to come down? ....

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