Doug, If your cell phone does not have a connector to attach an external antenna, you may be able to create a "passive repeater" of sorts. No amplifier is used, and it comprises two antennas connected back-to-back with low-loss coaxial cable. Install a Yagi antenna on the roof, where it can get a stable and strong signal. Connect this antenna to an omni antenna in the dead spot in the house.
This solution works best in locations that are almost completely shielded from direct coverage. As soon as your phone is at a spot where it can receive both the repeated and direct signals at the same time, multipath distortion will degrade both your reception and transmission. Have you brought your coverage issue to the attention of your service provider? If enough people complain of poor coverage in a particular location, the service provider will install a "path extender" station to resolve the problem. 73, Eric Lemmon WB6FLY -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of dadavies3 Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 8:42 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Repeater-Builder] Re: OT: Cell Phone Yagi - More Info. The situation I have here follows: We live approx. 7 miles from the main cell site which is on a 3700' mountain top. Between us and the cell site is a smaller "hill", the top of which is just cuts the line of sight. Typical of communication at these frequencies, if I stand in a particular spot and hold my arm just right, I can opbtain full-scale signal on the cell phone. So, I'm thinking that if I install a Yagi on a pole and move it around, I should be able to find the "sweet spot" and permanently mount the antenna there. It would then be connected directly to the cell phone, no BDA or repeater would be required. The longest run of coax would be under 30 feet so I should be able to use LMR-400 for the feed line. The one thing I'm not sure about is how to connect the coax to the phone. Is there an adaptor that would go between the little jack on the phone and then to one of the more common coax connectors like a TNC or SMA or some such thing? Hopefully this explains the situation a bit better and thanks for all of the replies so far. Doug VE7DRF
