OT: Cell Phone Booster Update

[Jeffreauxdawg]

So the booster is a winner. I went with the weBoost Home Studio for $349 from Best Buy.

Here's a screenshot of trying to run a speed test from my phone my phone sitting at the back of the house before hooking up the booster. Notice the signal at the top near the battery life indicator.

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Here's the same screenshot from the same location after cutting the booster on. The booster was about 8' away.

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I then disconnected and tested the signal from the bedroom in the front of the house and this was the result.

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Again same location in front bedroom after cutting booster back on. (About 25' from booster with 2 walls between.)

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Massive difference in signal quality and data speed. We have some storms coming in today and I didn't want to start on the install so I just did this quick test by running the cable through a gap in the back door and set the antenna on top of a retaining wall in the back yard. I will probably get even better results when I stick a pole in the group and elevate/optimize the antenna direction.

Thanks for the advice and I recommend for anyone with signal issues inside a house with a metal roof or any other structure where reception is great just outside the building.

 

[o_Hot Rock]

Wow! Good get!

 

[Xenomorph]

I thought this was going to be a Hugh Freeze thread.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

More feedback. The rain held off long enough so I have half assed the install. I ended up using a pole about 15 away from the house and on the backside of my retaining wall... Total 13' off the ground which is about 2 feet above the roofline.

The irony is after installing the sucker I turn around and for the first time I see this..

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I couldn't see it because of the trees at ground level. I immediately drove over and it's a T-Mobile tower about 400 yards away as a crow flies. I'm sure the signal will melt my house, but it sucks everywhere else in town.

So anyway, it's in it's final resting place, I just need to get some supplies to get the cable into the house properly instead of the cracked window method. But here are the results, quite an improvement and worth the money spent.

Booster plugged in -88 dBm (-50 dBm is perfect right next to a tower.
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Booster unplugged -116 dBm (-110 is when calls start breaking up, -120 is no signal.)
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No help for whoever the hell fishy fish is and stealing some WiFi until the cable company gets out.

I was nervous this was going to be a big waste of time and money, but I am pleasantly surprised.

 

[grinningmule]

Your RSRQ number, which is signal quality, is the most important to look at when tweaking the direction of your antenna. You are also on two different bands from the pic when booster is turned on versus off. I would tweak the antenna direction just a little at a time and check the signal quality and the bands. If your booster is like mine you can individually turn down or off the bands you don't want to be boosted and that will essentially lock you to the best signal quality and band. Forgot to add the closer to 0 your RSRQ gets the better. Also the SNR reading is important. The higher, the better (as in 5db is better than -1db)