Any way to improve cell phone reception?

Question

My wife & I are in the process of moving & are living on opposite sides of the continent for awhile. To lower phone bills, we got a cell plan that gives us unlimited minutes to one another (Cingular). My phone (a Motorola V180) gets great reception around town, but naturally, I have found it gets lousy reception from my home, where I generally am when we talk. 0 to 2 bars, usually 1. So I'm wondering if there's any way to inprove reception, like an external antenna, even a clip lead attached to the antenna connection inside (which I have not tried yet). Phone has a stub antenna about 1 inch long. Suggestions appreciated.

Dan

NSM · Accepted Answer

FWIW. Figure out where the closest tower is and build a yagi antenna

formatting link

to point to that. Couple that to a small vertical whip and see how well that works. You can often make a test yagi out of the old TV antenna ribbon and see how it works. YMMV.

N

Dan · Answer

Thanks for the reply. At least one company offers a solution along these lines, but a repeater incorporating an amplifier rather than a "passive" arrangement, which they claim is not feasible due to the low signal levels (but then, they WOULD say that, wouldn't they?). Around

700 bucks. Yeeesh. They do offer a $100 800 mhz yagi (my freq), but unfortunately no adapter for my particular phone. I'd have to do some surgery. A final option appears to be a magnet mount vertical whip with a ground plane (square of sheet metal), about $50 w/o cable, still faced with attaching it to the phone. Might be worth a go. I'll check out the article you suggest, futzing around with a cheap yagi might be fun, once I solve the no-jack problem

Dan

NSM · Answer

The secret of all these things is to try something and then see if you can improve it. For a vertical, all you need in a piece of heavy copper wire or small tube. You could also try a Radio Shack telescoping antenna.

I also remember people selling those passive boosters (for as low as 1 cent) that you stick in the battery compartment but they seem to have died out - guess they didn't work.

As for an 800 MHz amp, try the library for a copy of the Radio Amateur handbook which may have a design. But always do the easy things first.

N

Stephen Sank · Answer

I think those stick-on passive "boosters" work great. No help on reception, but if you stick 3 or 4 layers of them on, it keeps the battery from rattling arround.

-- Stephen Sank, Owner & Ribbon Mic Restorer Talking Dog Transducer Company

formatting link

5517 Carmelita Drive N.E. Albuquerque, New Mexico [87111]

Tony Marsillo · Answer

Dan,I have an LG VX4500 phone that gets poor or no signal in my basement. I bought a replacement telescoping antenna for my phone on e-bay. It has improved my signal in the basement some what. It will not go from 1 bar to two, but I have found that I can complete my calls more often with the antenna up than with the OEM stub. Here is the link to the one I bought, I think they sell them for other phones.-- Tony MarsilloNutmeg Repair-----------------------------------------------------------------

Dan · Answer

3 bucks?!?  What, you think I'm MADE of MONEY??? ;-)Looks like it could be worth a shot, I'll see if they have one for my phone...

kenmooresbc · Answer

hack the mothers phones should be freeI

Any way to improve cell phone reception?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?