Mobile Range Extenders
Discussion
99% of poor signal is more likely to be the phone having too short an aerial for the frequency the transmitter is working on. Mobile phones these days are by demand small flashy bits of kit without external aerials hanging off them. I use an S4 on O2. without an aerial extension at home I get 1 bar at best but during busy periods that drops to zero and no connection at all. I have used the TU-GO app, yes it worked, but didn't find I could use it in the garden/garage etc as the wifi didn't extend that far. I bought a extender for £125.00 set it up and again, it worked but not far from the base. I then investigated the aerial in the phone and found it was only a quarter wave length long. Simply by adding a an homemade simple aerial twice the length of the phones own aerial, bypassing the existing one I now get 5 bars just about everywhere on my property.
Total cost was 10 mins on google to find the O2 frequency and a bit off wire plus 2 mins to attach.
Total cost was 10 mins on google to find the O2 frequency and a bit off wire plus 2 mins to attach.
3200gt said:
99% of poor signal is more likely to be the phone having too short an aerial for the frequency the transmitter is working on. Mobile phones these days are by demand small flashy bits of kit without external aerials hanging off them. I use an S4 on O2. without an aerial extension at home I get 1 bar at best but during busy periods that drops to zero and no connection at all. I have used the TU-GO app, yes it worked, but didn't find I could use it in the garden/garage etc as the wifi didn't extend that far. I bought a extender for £125.00 set it up and again, it worked but not far from the base. I then investigated the aerial in the phone and found it was only a quarter wave length long. Simply by adding a an homemade simple aerial twice the length of the phones own aerial, bypassing the existing one I now get 5 bars just about everywhere on my property.
Total cost was 10 mins on google to find the O2 frequency and a bit off wire plus 2 mins to attach.
Interesting, I take it you got an externally mounted aerial pointed to the mast and tuned to 900.whatever MHz and joined it to a bit of leaky co-ax?Total cost was 10 mins on google to find the O2 frequency and a bit off wire plus 2 mins to attach.
broadcaststorm said:
Interesting, I take it you got an externally mounted aerial pointed to the mast and tuned to 900.whatever MHz and joined it to a bit of leaky co-ax?
No much simpler than that. Take the back off an S4. You have an external aerial socket, measure the length of the existing internal aerial ( which will be a multiple of the waveband length, eg 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2 etc. Decide what length you want, longer the better but more inconvenient so I tried double the existing length. get a bit of thin coaxial, strip off the outer and shielding leaving just the central core and its shielding, cut to the desired length, strip off a bit of shielding to allow the core to show, push that in the external aerial socket and stick a bit of tape over it to hold in place. Lay the new aerial flat against the back with the excess hanging off the bottom. Put the rear cover back on and you have an external aerial.BE WARNED that putting the coaxial core into the external aerial socket can disable the existing internal aerial on some phones.
cuneus said:
Er no - you can get dual band repeaters which cover 2G/3G
Yes sorry, your right, but at £300ish they are a bit steep for putting right something my provider should have been providing according to their coverage website.Long story short, I was with orange, when they merged and became EE they decomishioned the best mast for me. Checked all the coverage sites and O2 was the only one which gave me excellent coverage both in and outdoors. Took a new contract with them and the website was talking b
ks! By the time O2 had done all their checks and mast reboots the 3 weeks was up and they wouldn't cancel the contract! So that left me with the option of fighting and having no mobile coverage or sorting it myself, so that is what I did. 3g wasn't a worry for me at home because emails were replied to via pc anyway but 2g was critical.The external phone extension solved the issue for little or no cost. As it is now an fixed part of the phone I get coverage even when out of signal booster range and wifi range. Which means I have a 2g booster unused that cost £125.00 sitting around here which is suitable for Vodafone,O2 & Tesco networks apparently http://mobilesignal.co.uk/products/166/iBoost-GSM-...
Edited by 3200gt on Monday 19th May 13:43
3200gt said:
broadcaststorm said:
Interesting, I take it you got an externally mounted aerial pointed to the mast and tuned to 900.whatever MHz and joined it to a bit of leaky co-ax?
No much simpler than that. Take the back off an S4. You have an external aerial socket, measure the length of the existing internal aerial ( which will be a multiple of the waveband length, eg 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2 etc. Decide what length you want, longer the better but more inconvenient so I tried double the existing length. get a bit of thin coaxial, strip off the outer and shielding leaving just the central core and its shielding, cut to the desired length, strip off a bit of shielding to allow the core to show, push that in the external aerial socket and stick a bit of tape over it to hold in place. Lay the new aerial flat against the back with the excess hanging off the bottom. Put the rear cover back on and you have an external aerial.BE WARNED that putting the coaxial core into the external aerial socket can disable the existing internal aerial on some phones.
Thread resurrection time.
Where I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the tt that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.
Where I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the t
t that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.bingybongy said:
Thread resurrection time.
Where I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the tt that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.
I call complete and utter BS on that oneWhere I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the t
t that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.cuneus said:
bingybongy said:
Thread resurrection time.
Where I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the tt that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.
I call complete and utter BS on that oneWhere I live O2 has been useless for the past 3 months.
The whole town was able to make calls but nobody could hear what you said.
It transpires this was due to an illegal mobile repeater, or so we have been informed.
If so I hope the t
t that fitted it rather than switching network never has his name made public, he'll be lynched.We can't get permission to access the mast
We haven't got the part to fix it
We don't know what the problem is
Too many people are using their phones
Etc etc
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