Cell Phone Moble Repeater

[caffder]

I have owned a mobile repeater for my cell phone for about a month and since then I have no more dropped calls or dead zones when I am in my car. I purchased the Wilson Electronics amplifier. You can hard wire it. But, I just plugged it into my cigarette lighter. The amplifier box has a receiver antenna for inside the vehicle and I have magnetic mount for the outside antenna. They have some gain antenna options. They advertise that you can get 50 miles out from a cell site. The amplifier will adjust up to 3 watts and it will lock out if you get close to a cell site. The company says that your cell phone battery will last longer too. The cell phone will run on lower power because the mobile repeater is doing all the work. If you have several cell phones in the vehicle it will handle all of them at the same time too. I live in a rural area and I use Verizon. I get about two more bars out of my cell phone with it. I am really sold on it. I know they make a different mobile repeater for the Nextels. I know that there is at least another company Digital Antenna Inc making them too.

Has anyone else tried them out?

For more information on the product visit the manufactures www.wilsonelectronics.com and www.digitalantenna.com

[Berks2Montco84]

Originally posted by caffder
Has anyone else tried them out?

Not yet, but now I want to! I wish there was one that you could carry around, there are some places (like at this very computer), where my Nextel gets absolutely no reception. Is there a way to hard-wire it to your car's electrical system and not use the cigarette lighter?

[nmfire]

The amplifier he is speaking of is jsut 12v power like any other automotive accessory. It can be hardwired just fine. You can hook it up in your house too with a 12v power supply and some kind of outdoor antenna.

What are you using INSIDE the car? Is it connected directly to the phone through an antenna or data port?

[caffder]

The cell phone amp has an antenna for the inside of the vehicle and one on the outside of the vehicle. There is nothing that is attached to the cell phone. The Amp manufacture says for example, if there is 4 people in the same car using 4 different cell phones that it will repeat all of them at the same time. The entire unit with the exception of the outside antenna could be installed so not to be seen in the vehicle. Both the companies I mentioned make different units to be install in buildings.

[nmfire]

Ok. So it's a passive repeater with a bi-directional amplifier. Usually, this is what is installed in buildings to bring covertage from the outside to the inside. I've never heard of doing this in a vehicle though. It somewhat defies the laws of passive repeaters. I'm surprised it works at all. Very interesting.

Do you have a link to the product that you bought?

[caffder]

I purchased the wilson. But, I was also looking at the Digital Antenna unit. Both companies have alot of information on their web sites. www.wilsonelectronics.com and www.digitalantenna.com

This is a company that is making a related product. It is a amp in a bag that directly conects to your cell phone. www.ncicellular.com/ampinfo

[caffder]

Is anyone going to install this in there fire truck?

[ffexpCP]

speaking of passive repeaters...

Do you think I could get one of those cheap cell phone passive repeater thinggys for the car to work for my 800MHz digital radio?

Are those antennas that stick on both sides of a window any good?

[nmfire]

speaking of passive repeaters...

Do you think I could get one of those cheap cell phone passive repeater thinggys for the car to work for my 800MHz digital radio?

The system as described in this forummight. But it also might not. Assuming the BDA covers the frequency range of your 800Mhz system, there is a chance but things like that impossible to predict. There are too many variables.

Are those antennas that stick on both sides of a window any good?

No.