It might work in some applications.
Making antennas is not a problem, a piece of wood or PVC or Plastic and
some coat hanger wire to make a beam is fine.

You might also just look at wilson electronics for their amps and antennas.

-Jim-

On 10/13/2010 10:20 AM, Bruce Carter wrote:
> If you know how to make yagi or log periodic antennas - there is the old passive reflector trick. You use two antennas, point one at the cell tower, hook it up to the second antenna and point it into your house. It worked for people in a valley behind a mountain from TV stations, they would get together and place two antennas on top of the mountain and bounce signals into the valley for everybody. No reason why it shouldn't work for cell signals, too. There are a lot of antenna design calculators on the web, materials would be really cheap, antennas really small at 2.4GHz.
>
> I'm about to do it, because my house is a new subdivision pretty far from the cell tower, my daughter complains of dead zones in her room. When I get it working, I suppose I could post a web site with construction details.
>
> --- In apple-iphone@yahoogroups.com, N1JMM1_GMAIL<n1jmm1@...> wrote:
>> Has anybody experimented with using a signal booster / repeater /
>> bi-amp / directional antenna(s) for the iPhone 4 on AT&T.
>>
>> Doesn't matter if the phone is in the carry case, pocket, or how I hold
>> it, most of the time it reports NO SERVICE, occasionally it will get
>> enough service to ring but can't conduct a call until I go outside and
>> find a sweet spot.
>>
>> While their online coverage maps claim to have average signal strength
>> at my work place, the iphone 4 reports "NO SERVICE". Several other AT&T
>> users have the same/simular results, having to go outside and search for
>> the signal to use the phone. Verison& Sprint also claim decent coverage
>> there but it isn't true either. The only thing that works there is
>> Nextel because we have a Nextel site on the property, oh it would be
>> nice to have the iphone on Nextel.
>>
>> I doubt AT&T will resolve the coverage any time soon so I'm looking for
>> alternative solutions.
>>
>> Thanks
>> -Jim-
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

Work place
its big, several buildings, big company.
Nextel works fine there, have a tower on the property, would be nice if
AT&T did also.
My chances of getting the company to do repeaters is most likely slimmer
than slim to none.
-Jim-

On 10/13/2010 2:11 PM, N.A. Nada wrote:
> Jim, were you speaking of home or work?
>
> If work, does your building have a metal roof? If so the answer would be repeaters with an antenna outside. You should be able to find them for about $400 each, but you will need one for GSM and one for CDMA. If it is a warehouse with steel racking you may need more.
>
> Nothing will help for steel roofing except a repeater. There is nothing the service provider can do to penetrate metal. If you have a stucco house, the wire mesh used to hold the stucco to the walls can act as a Faraday cage and cause the same problem.
>
> Brent
>
>
>
> On Oct 12, 2010, at 9:11 PM, N1JMM1_GMAIL wrote:
>
>> While their online coverage maps claim to have average signal strength
>> at my work place, the iphone 4 reports "NO SERVICE". Several other AT&T
>> users have the same/simular results, having to go outside and search for
>> the signal to use the phone. Verison& Sprint also claim decent coverage
>> there but it isn't true either. The only thing that works there is
>> Nextel because we have a Nextel site on the property, oh it would be
>> nice to have the iphone on Nextel.
>>
>> I doubt AT&T will resolve the coverage any time soon so I'm looking for
>> alternative solutions.
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

I agree, they should be providing a good signal as part of the
package. I've never used my minutes either, of course its hard to
without a signal. Its nice that the microcell works for you Patti.

-Jim-

On 10/13/2010 9:52 AM, Patti Robertson wrote:
> Yes, you're correct about all those things. You can pay a $20
> monthly fee for a plan that puts all the minutes you use onto it, but
> I cancelled that because I don't use all my minutes ever anyway. And
> it bugged me that I had to pay to get a decent signal when I feel that
> AT&T should be providing that as part of the service I pay for.
>
> But after years of never having a good signal at home, when they
> offered the $100 rebate I bought it and I'm not sorry.
> At your office, though, this clearly isn't an option.
>
> Patti
>
> On Oct 13, 2010, at 6:22 AM, N1JMM1_GMAIL wrote:
>
>> I looked at that in the store when I got the phone, seems to me it
>> requires an internet connection and they still charge you minutes& or
>> data when you use it and yet you have to supply the internet to it.
>> http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/ Also calls will not
>> transfer to it, you can start calls on it and transfer to a cell tower
>> but not from cell tower to it. It obviously has some limitations and
>> you
>> don't get any cost savings using it.
>>
>> Since this is at my work place, connecting to the company network is
>> not
>> allowed so this is not an option.
>>
>> Thanks
>> -Jim-
>>
>> On 10/13/2010 8:46 AM, Patti Robertson wrote:
>>> Are you talking about lack of signal strength at your home?
>>>
>>> I bought an AT&T microcell last summer and have been really happy
>> with
>>> it. I could only get 1 bar or nothing, usually, at my house.
>>> Now I have 5 bars constantly and never have a dropped call here.
>>>
>>> They gave me a $100 rebate which I used to pay down my bill, so the
>>> microcell cost $100 less than the advertised price. Don't know
>>> whether the rebate is still available, though.
>>>
>>> Patti
>>>
>>> On Oct 12, 2010, at 9:11 PM, N1JMM1_GMAIL wrote:
>>>
>>>> Has anybody experimented with using a signal booster / repeater /
>>>> bi-amp / directional antenna(s) for the iPhone 4 on AT&T.
>>>>
>>>> Doesn't matter if the phone is in the carry case, pocket, or how I
>>>> hold
>>>> it, most of the time it reports NO SERVICE, occasionally it will
>> get
>>>> enough service to ring but can't conduct a call until I go
>> outside and
>>>> find a sweet spot.
>>>>
>>>> While their online coverage maps claim to have average signal
>> strength
>>>> at my work place, the iphone 4 reports "NO SERVICE". Several other
>>>> AT&T
>>>> users have the same/simular results, having to go outside and
>> search
>>>> for
>>>> the signal to use the phone. Verison& Sprint also claim decent
>>>> coverage
>>>> there but it isn't true either. The only thing that works there is
>>>> Nextel because we have a Nextel site on the property, oh it would
>> be
>>>> nice to have the iphone on Nextel.
>>>>
>>>> I doubt AT&T will resolve the coverage any time soon so I'm looking
>>>> for
>>>> alternative solutions.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks
>>>> -Jim-
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

I've never heard of that. How does it work? We hardly have service at our home and that might be worth it.

~Dawn
� sent from my iMac �

On Oct 13, 2010, at 5:46 AM, Patti Robertson wrote:

> Are you talking about lack of signal strength at your home?
>
> I bought an AT&T microcell last summer and have been really happy with
> it. I could only get 1 bar or nothing, usually, at my house.
> Now I have 5 bars constantly and never have a dropped call here.
>
> They gave me a $100 rebate which I used to pay down my bill, so the
> microcell cost $100 less than the advertised price. Don't know
> whether the rebate is still available, though.
>
> Patti
>
> On Oct 12, 2010, at 9:11 PM, N1JMM1_GMAIL wrote:
>
>> Has anybody experimented with using a signal booster / repeater /
>> bi-amp / directional antenna(s) for the iPhone 4 on AT&T.
>>
>> Doesn't matter if the phone is in the carry case, pocket, or how I
>> hold
>> it, most of the time it reports NO SERVICE, occasionally it will get
>> enough service to ring but can't conduct a call until I go outside and
>> find a sweet spot.
>>
>> While their online coverage maps claim to have average signal strength
>> at my work place, the iphone 4 reports "NO SERVICE". Several other
>> AT&T
>> users have the same/simular results, having to go outside and search
>> for
>> the signal to use the phone. Verison & Sprint also claim decent
>> coverage
>> there but it isn't true either. The only thing that works there is
>> Nextel because we have a Nextel site on the property, oh it would be
>> nice to have the iphone on Nextel.
>>
>> I doubt AT&T will resolve the coverage any time soon so I'm looking
>> for
>> alternative solutions.

Hi Dawn

check out the website for the microcell.

it requires an internet connection. Basically it is a mini-cell tower
function and pipes all calls over your internet connection.

-Jim-

On 10/13/2010 10:06 PM, Dawn wrote:
> I've never heard of that. How does it work? We hardly have service at our home and that might be worth it.
>
> ~Dawn
> � sent from my iMac �
>
> On Oct 13, 2010, at 5:46 AM, Patti Robertson wrote:
>
>> Are you talking about lack of signal strength at your home?
>>
>> I bought an AT&T microcell last summer and have been really happy with
>> it. I could only get 1 bar or nothing, usually, at my house.
>> Now I have 5 bars constantly and never have a dropped call here.
>>
>> They gave me a $100 rebate which I used to pay down my bill, so the
>> microcell cost $100 less than the advertised price. Don't know
>> whether the rebate is still available, though.
>>
>> Patti
>>
>> On Oct 12, 2010, at 9:11 PM, N1JMM1_GMAIL wrote:
>>
>>> Has anybody experimented with using a signal booster / repeater /
>>> bi-amp / directional antenna(s) for the iPhone 4 on AT&T.
>>>
>>> Doesn't matter if the phone is in the carry case, pocket, or how I
>>> hold
>>> it, most of the time it reports NO SERVICE, occasionally it will get
>>> enough service to ring but can't conduct a call until I go outside and
>>> find a sweet spot.
>>>
>>> While their online coverage maps claim to have average signal strength
>>> at my work place, the iphone 4 reports "NO SERVICE". Several other
>>> AT&T
>>> users have the same/simular results, having to go outside and search
>>> for
>>> the signal to use the phone. Verison& Sprint also claim decent
>>> coverage
>>> there but it isn't true either. The only thing that works there is
>>> Nextel because we have a Nextel site on the property, oh it would be
>>> nice to have the iphone on Nextel.
>>>
>>> I doubt AT&T will resolve the coverage any time soon so I'm looking
>>> for
>>> alternative solutions.
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>