Can anyone suggest a good way to boost signal strength inside my house? I have T-Mobile and my phone works great pretty much everywhere I use it but my house. I see that there are cellular repeaters available for around $250.

I don't know, but you could also try another phone - they are not all equal in terms of reception.

Vitalogy, email me your email address. Mine is in my profile.

Bill, no disrespect but I like to keep my email private. Can you post your suggestion here? I don't want to do anything illegal and it pretty much has to be an out of the box type solution as I'm not a tech, just a handyman around the house. I was looking on the web and found this: http://www.repeaterstore.com/products/repeaterkits/wi-ex/zboost-1900.html

I've heard that these kind of devices only help if the signal is good outdoors but not good indoors. I think my neighborhood is a tough area. AT&T and Sprint were both terrible. Verizon seems to work okay but it's too expensive for me as I use a ton of day time mins and T-Mobile gives me 3000 anytime mins for $50/mo. I've tried several different handsets and all have the same issue, which is dropping calls and occasionally having the phone say no service. I drive down the road 100 yards and I'm at full strength. Will a repeater help out or are they a waste of money?

Understood.

I've got some 19 dB bi-directional amplifiers where you mount an antenna outside and another inside.

They are small, about the size of 2 decks of cards, and have a small wall wart to power them.

I can either show you how to install it (it's really simple) or help you install it.

You are welcome to try it and see if it helps. If it doesn't, give it back to me, if it does, we'll work something out.

It's the first amp on this page, but it comes with all the accessories listed in the second amp.

I also have any adapters you'd need. And on the off chance that you need more gain outside, I have some Yagi antennae that would help.

http://www.primecellular.com/search.asp?keyword=cm2000&gclid=COq4noON0ZgCFRlcago drjoF2w

One thing I noticed is the one in the link you provided is only for the PCS frequencies (which I believe T Mobile is), but the ones I have will cover both the 800 MHz and the 1900 MHz bands.

Let me know if you'd like to try it.

Vitalogy, Skybill definitely knows his cellular and has offered a dandy solution. Take him up on this one. Heck, you two guys could get the cell squared away and talk about the joy of new babies too. All politics aside, this is a great idea.

If the signal outside is marginal, the suggested solution may or may not work. I'd take Skybill up on his offer because if it doesn't improve function, it's not going to cost you more than a couple of pints for SkB's efforts. You might even get a free RF measurement out of it which would be a definitive indication of whether there is any solution at all.

Questions not yet asked:

How far is the cell tower from your location. Is it obscured by topography in any way?
What kind of siding is on your house?
Is your house electrical old, like in BX cable or other metal shielded cable?

It's hard to tell from your posts, but is the field strength indicator on your phone(s) always, even at its best, very low?
Do you live near an AM broadcast tower? Very heavy RF fields can screw up any receiver, and more often shut down oscillators running a computer based anything if it's not well shielded.

http://brneurosci.org/interference.html

The closest cell site according to their customer service people is not that far away, probably about 2-3 miles, but I did find out that the cell site is about 600 feet below me in elevation.

My house was built in 2001 and is your standard cedar siding 2 story house.

The phone will range from 3 bars to none, sometimes within a minute of each other, which is what puzzles me. If the coverage was crappy, it seems like it would be crappy all the time.

I doubt I live by an AM tower.

The topography is hilly, I'm about 800 feet elevation but not in a valley.

I'm willing to give the cellular repeater a shot since it will have a money back guarantee. From the reviews I've read online it appears that they do work if installed properly and with the right situation. I've always been somewhat skeptical on some of the products the cell industry puts out that says it will enhance coverage...

Vitalogy, as I mentioned above, you are welcome to try this one out and see if it helps.

I can also help install it if you'd like.

I've got the equipment to measure before and after signal levels, although the bar graph on your phone is a fair indicator of signal strength too.

Let me know.

Thanks Bill, I'll keep you up to date!

Hi Vialogy,

Just curious how the repeater is working (if you had time to hook one up). I am in the biz and must say that carriers are not crazy about having customers use repeaters. They are often installed wrong (not that you would do that) and they have a tendancy to oscillate and feedback creating more interference. These days, few carriers are placing cells on elevations higher than 300 feet around here. Higher than that makes frequency reuse intollerable, especially on 3G CDMA HSDPA service. As a result, hill top coverage is awful in many areas. T-Mob is a PCS carrier therefore they are up at the 1900 MHz band. Not as robust as 850 where Vz and AT&T operate at (in addition to PCS). Anyway, you need to seperate the donor antenna from the Tx antenna on those repeaters or they may feed back. So, don't place them too close. Vertical seperation works best. Good luck, Ken

Hey, thanks for the tips. I ended up ordering the: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=zBoost+YX500-PCS+1900Mhz&cid=1724 386091471476502&sa=title#ps-sellers

I had read that making sure there is enough distance between the base and the antennae is important. I should be getting it this week and I'll report back to see if it works.

I had read that making sure there is enough distance between the base and the antennae is important.

Vitalogy, It's not the base and the the antennae that is important, but as 001kw_erp mentioned it's the distance, or technically the isolation between the donor (outside) antenna and the transmit (inside) antenna.

In all reality since it's a bi-directional amplifier, both antennae are actually transmitting and receiving.

Keep as much of your house in-between the antennae and keep the two antennae as far apart as possible and you should be OK.

On another note, I hope you didn't pay anything near the price range listed in your link! I'd have made you a WAY better deal on one of the ones I have!!!! (And you could have tried it first with out shelling out any bucks!!)

If you need any help installing it or testing it, my offer still stands.

I paid $194 from Solid Signal. Think of it as my small contribution to the economy...

I've had my repeater up and running for about a week now. I had to play around with it for a while to figure out the best set up and I had to go underneath the house to run some coax cable, but I'm happy to report it's working as described.

I have a Nokia 6263 which has 4 signal bars. Previous to setting this up, I would mostly get 1 bar, sometimes 2, and rarely I'd get 3. Sometimes no service at all. With the repeater on I'm averaging 3 bars, sometimes 4. Occasionally I'll get 2 bars.

So, if you have issues with your cell coverage in your home, this repeater will do the job. Just be prepared to spend a few hours testing for the best location.