And as regular TUAK readers know, technology is not Uncle Joel’s best thing.
A year or two ago, my old Tracfone having worn all the hell out, I bought a new one at the local dollar store. And since a quorum of the people I communicate with like to text, I got this thing…
And life hasn’t been quite as good since. Texting is certainly easier, no complaint there, but this phone’s reception was far worse than the old one right off the bat, and things have deteriorated since. It’s not entirely the phone’s fault, everybody has complained that our cell phone reception is going downhill.
Thing is, everybody uses cell phones for everything including emergency communications, and we really do occasionally have emergencies. I’ve been missing calls I really wanted to hear, to the point where it has become a real issue.
At Ian and Landlady’s places they installed boosters for their wi-fi hotspots, and they genuinely seem to work. I assume they’re just as useful for cell phones. Yes? Anyway, I’m looking at something like this, but I know absolutely nothing about this stuff and don’t know if I’d be throwing money down a hole. Anybody have an opinion/suggestion?
Could you get everyone to go the CB route? Less dependency.
If you can scrounge some coax and coat hangers, try this:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ultra-cheap-cell-phone-antenna/
Hey Bear. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most phones don’t have external antenna connectors these days. So there is no place to plug in your coax.
I have cell phone reception issues at my place. I bought the $120 version – different brand than the one you linked, but same basic idea.
It doesn’t work worth spit. No discernible improvement.
I bought a $1200 version. That included 100 feet of high quality coax to separate the two antennas – that proved to be essential. If the two antennas can “see” each other you get no benefit. I put the two antenna on opposite sides of a metal building, with about 12′ difference in elevation.
The pricey rig works. When I turn it on, my cell phone goes from no bars or 1 bar (still not decent voice quality) to 4 or 5 bars. The boost only works within about 100 feet of the second omni antenna. The yagi is the pointy one with cross bars, you have to know where the cell tower is and point it DIRECTLY at the tower.
I had to learn to hack my cell phone so that it displayed signal strength, then spend an hour or two patiently moving the yagi back and forth then locking it down. Tightening the bolts would move the antenna enough to degrade the signal, so I had to learn to compensate for that.
It’s like aiming your satellite dish antenna – if you have the right tools and a really solid mount, you can do it once and be done with it. Get it wrong and it doesn’t work very well.
Beyond 100 feet even the expensive rig does little good.
Given your budget and I suspect a need to get calls when you are outside of the Lair, I don’t think this is for you.
Sorry.
There are phones that have much better built-in antennas, and these days TracFone will work with pretty much any phone that accepts a SIM card. I’d look into a better phone – cheaper and more effective than the repeater route.
This one doesn’t. And anyway plugging my phone directly into a yagi isn’t really what I’m going for. 🙂
The problem with the external cell phone antenna linked by Bear is you have to aim the home-brew Yagi quite carefully at the cell tower, then attach the cable to your phone. Which kind of defeats the mobile aspect of a cell phone. It worked for the guy who posted the writeup, because he was helping his dad replace a land line. I don’t think it would work for what Joel needs.
I have that Phonetone setup at work, where we are inside an aluminum-sheathed building that grounds out cell phone signals. It works, but the caveats are very real – you need to register the device with your cell provider, the yagi antenna needs to be pointed at the cell tower, and that separation distance is essential. The antennas will interfere with each other unless they are separated, and it’s better to have some shielding (like my building’s metal) in-between them.
You could always just piss off the Feds enough that they choose to tap your phone with a Stingray.
Since the device emulates a cell tower and has to be the strongest available signal for the phone to choose to connect to it, you would see some improvement in service.
Of course, if you value your privacy then you might want to use encryption, and the improvement would only be temporary.
Just to be clear, this is an attempt at dark humor; it is meant to be funny; YMMV.
FWIW, the booster at my place & Ian’s does boost cell signals, but you have to be within 5 feet of the device. Which is fine for a hotspot (since that doesn’t move and sends out its own wifi beyond that range), but less useful for a cell phone unless you plan to hang out in the same 5′ radius the entire day.
Good news: I have an old iPhone 5 you can have
Bad news: the battery isn’t great, although it will last a full the day if you’re not playing with data (which I assume you wouldn’t be). Just make sure to charge it each night.
Not sure if the physical phone makes a difference or not, but I’ll bring it up next visit for you to check out. No judgement on my app selection…
I’m going to wager that particular LG phone probably uses AT&T towers. I would heartily recommend a Motorola Moto E. They’re on Tracfone’s website but you can get a Tracfone branded Moto E from eBay or Amazon for less than $60. They use Verizon towers and I’ve had much better reception since switching from my old LG flip phone (which used AT&T). Keep your number by just transferring it to your new phone.
I got one last summer I love it.
In your area, were I not a ham operator, I’d absolutely have CB radio, or at least FMRS. Heck, I’d probably still have CB. I can put my hands on 2, maybe 3, CB radios, free. Caveat – I assume they’re working rigs, as they’re from people I know and trust. And you’d be on your own for a antennas, and feed line. They’re mobile radios, rather than hand-held, so you’d want one in the lair, and one in the jeep. And of course, other folks would need to get on board. And I know, that doesn’t help when you’re out walking around. Well, there are hand-held CB radios too.
Tahn is right. Out there, having radio comms is the way to go. Even if it is just FMRS.
Let me know if you’d like to pursue CB.
Because, if the cell tower goes out, you don’t want to resort to drum telegraphy, do you?
Something like this might be ideal, for a CB in your situation. Midland 75-822 CB Radio. It’d work on your belt, in your car, and in The Lair. Performance with that stubby antenna won’t be great. As will all radio, your #1 performance improvement is almost always going to be a better antenna. A FireStik, for example. Here’s a Jeep kit, just to show one option for mobile ops. Current draw when not transmitting should be very little additional draw on your batteries, when you have it hooked up to your solar system.
I know almost nothing about Midland as a brand. Haven’t delved into CB to say Cobra vs. another brand, or the reverse. That Midland portable looks like something that’d be versatile, without costing a big pile of money (yes, that’s all relative). Yeah, there’s money in other needed stuff – better antennas, coaxial feed line, mounting brackets.
And it’d do you no good, without buy-in from the neighbors.
This company has done right by me, http://www.solidsignal.com
They were not afraid to recommend a less expensive unit.
Their tech-reps were helpful with questions and not just about cell phone service.
I have used a zBoost for years, both with a yagi and the supplied stick antenna.
With the yagi, I was about 45 miles from the tower and had line of sight though.
With the stick I am only a short distance away from the tower.
The booster worked really well when the phone could “see” the booster.
When walls were involved then the range was diminished to about 10 yards.