Cell antenna for house? And little update

[RecipeForDisaster]

Does anyone use(or know of)a device in/on their home to boost cell phone reception? My fiance likes his AT&T but there's no signal on a good portion of our property near/in the house. Other carriers work okay(my TracFone does not). Since we get most emergency type calls on the cell, we want to be able to at least have 2 bars so that we can kinda use the phone.... now's the time to install things! We're going to have a TV antenna anyway, and have cable and Cat5/6 run throughout the house already if that helps.

As for everything else, it's been pretty exciting... had my second-to-last dress fitting today(and the dress looks spectacular now), 10,000 board feet of pine have been stacked and stickered, we got our ISDS approved after 11 months of turmoil, our garage door(to be customized by us)and wood flooring installation are pending. One-third of our wedding guests have RSVP'd, we've got our marriage license, custom cabinet design is finalized, the porch/deck is stained... so much has been accomplished daily(we are there several hours each day regardless of 'real' work that day).

No time to upload photos, so here's one that's out of date by 6 weeks! The staging is gone, the porch now wraps around to an octagonal deck, and there are other updates too.

rfd

[Fritz]

nice house.

there are devices, but expensive for the ones that work well.

http://www.wi-ex.com/

http://www.wpsantennas.com/

http://www.digitalantenna.com/esupport/index.php

[GGD]

Someday AT&T might give more details about their Micro Cell that they have in testing.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=att+microcell

[SDGuy]

I used one of these, with much success. After I moved and no longer needed it, I recouped most of my cost by selling it on ebay.

The key is placement of the antenna - be prepared to climb into your attic or onto your roof - pretty much wherever a decent signal exists. Also - the receiver will really only work on the floor of the house it's located on. Just remember - you need to locate where a decent signal already exists. If you're out in the sticks, nothing will help. You can buy the dual-band version for a bit more $ if you feel the need.

[rgG]

We do not get good cell reception in our house, so we got T-Mobile's Hot Spot @ Home that lets a T-Mobile W-Fi enabled phone make calls over Wi-Fi. Another benefit is that all the Wi-Fi calls are free, so they don't count against your monthly minute allotment. When we signed up, it cost $10 a month in addition to whatever plan you had. I am not sure what the cost is now for new customers.

You can use any open Wi-Fi network, not just your home network, so you can make free calls anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi signal.

[lafinfil]

".. had my second-to-last dress fitting today(and the dress looks spectacular now),
10,000 board feet of pine have been stacked and stickered"

that's a big dress !

[GeneL]

I got lucky. After two years with no signal at home I found out that Sprint had a device called Airave that works through the Internet connection.

At first, I was charged $104 for the device and $4 a month for the service, but I read on my Treo forum that some people were getting both for free. I called Sprint about it and they credited me back what I paid and it's been free ever since.

Now it's five bars at home!

I know that Verizon has a similar device, but they charge more for it. I don't know about AT&T.

You might be able to negotiate, if your providers have it, on the basis of Sprint not charging for theirs.

[RAMd®d]

A signal booster needs a threshold signal to be effective.

If you are in a fairly remote area, a more effective unit with greater sensitivity [*might*] be required.

Just about any product will give you the *coverage* you need, but it's got to be sensitive enough in the first place to pick up a usable signal.

And/or a better external antenna, if *two* bars is a goal and not a given, mounted high or or on the roof, may be in order. Some units have a directional external antenna for greater sensitivity. A Yagi antenna is directional and provides greater gain that a single mast omni-directional antenna.

How far to you have to travel to get a signal? The farther you have to go, the more important your choice of gear is.

[OWC Jamie]

Digital and Wilson (and others) make high and higher gain amplifiers for the different network frequencies and you may need a directional antenna and aim it at a tower.

The outside chimney is for a wood stove ?

[RecipeForDisaster]

Wow, I never got my notification that there were replies. Sorry for the delay!

We only have to go about 400' to get a signal. We're kind of in a valley and there are a lot of trees. About 50' from the house, we can get 2 bars in a couple of small areas.

Ooh, if I put up a Yagi for this somehow, I bet I can rig it for our ham radios, too! Or am I just dreaming? I wouldn't want to do something that would only enable the phone to work on one floor-I want the security of knowing that if there's an emergency, I can communicate anywhere on the property(or as close to it as possible).

Ha ha. Nope, actually it's very tiny dress. I don't think it could hold more than a couple of 1 x 6s.

The chimney(which actually 'straddles' inside and outside walls-will have stone showing inside and out, all the way from the first floor to the second floor ceiling) is mostly for a pellet stove. We have electric forced fan heat in walls and floors(no ducts)as a backup but shouldn't need it... the whole house is on a generator that will run everything if we lose power.

There isn't any open wi-fi in our area currently(brought the Powerbook over to check)and I'm not 100% sure we'll have our own... since the place is Ethernet all over the place and it's so solid(plus I want computers on all 3 floors), I'm not sure I'm excited about it.

Great info for me to pore over, thanks! Getting on the roof won't be a problem, in fact, we have to go up and put our TV antenna there anyway. I'd really love to just put up one big device for TV, ham(that's a luxury, not a necessity-our handhelds do well with the antennas we have), AND cell.

Thanks!
rfd