WEST U.S. -- Have zBoost but Still Poor Reception

I recently moved to a new mountain community overlooking southern California. One might expect excelletn cell phone coverage at 6300 feet "in the clear." This has not been the case. Inside of my 2000 sq. foot home I have no coverage on Sprint. My wife uses Verizon and has intermittent coverage. Standing on the roof of my home I get varying 1-2 bars and upon making a call it is dropped. Just as a point of reference, I am an amateur radio extra class operator with 35 years of radio experience that included helping to build the L.A. cellular network back in the 80's.

Nonetheless, I purchased a zBoost 510PCS based on reviews. I properly installed the base unit and have 28 feet of horizontal separation and then 12 feet of vertical, and a wooden floor. The zBoost is in my basement office. Using the 3dBi dual band gain antenna provided by zBoost was laughable. 3dBi equals .86dBd. Unity gain. I get no better coverage inaide than outside.

I have emailed and telephoned Wi-Ex many times. None of my calls have been returned. Emails have been here and there and I purchased the 800mHz yagi for Verizon and the 1900mHz PCS panel for Sprint. I replaced their cheesy cable with new RG6Q cable and waterproof compression connectors.

Using my Treo's antenna adapter I plugged directly into the PCS panel to aim the panel. I get 5 bars but it bounces back and forth, back and forth between Digital Roaming and Sprint. Sprint is lower bars. But I have a strong signal at the antenna. I still have crappy coverage inside my office unless I leave the phone in a particular spot. Within feet of the zBoost I have minimal coverage. From inside my office I can plug into the cable from the antenna and again get 5 bars, so the cable is good. But the zBoost seems dead. Even a replacement base unit made no difference.

I am at a complete loss here. My phone is absolutely mandatory.

 

zBoost makes available a package that boosts the outside signal. It comes with an 800mHz yagi for Verizon and a panel for Sprint PCS. Two antennas. The standard dual band antenna is just a plastic stick, as you know.

The next comment quoted part of a web site stating that without a strong donor signal the zBoost won't work. This contradicts each manufactuer that I have called because the yagi and panel antennas specifically are intended to boost the donor signal. Otherwise, offering them and selling them would be fraud. I have asked this same question of Wilson, zBoost (Wi-Ex) and JDTeck. You can see why I am at a loss.

 

The upgraded antenna package IS getting me enough signal: 5 bars at the antenna and at the end of the cable. I can plug it directly into my phone and get 5 bars in my office. The issue is that when using the zBoost it hardly covers three feet. It is getting the 5 bars from the PCS panel but this isn't translating to increased coverage in my office.

Will a dual polarity, dual band 3dBd gain dome antenna in the office increase its cone of coverage? It amazes me that they claim that the 510 covers 2500 sq. feet.

 

I have spent time today on the phone with Wilson and they assure me that their unit will surpass the zBoost. It will cost me almost double once I have to buy their cable and plugs. The zBoost uses F connectors -- I have no fault with them - but Wilson uses FME and an adapter to type N. I could continue to use the RG6Q cable that I ran and the SWR would only be slightly higher. Or, I have loads of LMR-400 that is harder to run because it doesn't flex well.

I hate starting over.

Talking with a major distributor of Wilson, he tlls me that in mountains sometimes you have 1 bar, sometimes you have 5; it goes back and forth. I had not told him that and I have that situation. I was just on a call at 5 bars and it dropped to zero right in the middle.

A 20% restocking fee, though, ticks me off.

 

I sure wish Sprint had given me the actual addresses when I asked! Thank you!!!

As an extra class amateur radio operator, I knew of the noise po9lution. Altitude is great when on 2 meters, but not hitting 12 cell sites.

I own an internet hosting company with about 100 servers online. If a server or service goes down I get a text message -- but not when I have no signal. I continue to use Sprint because of their superior data service here in the mountains. Even while driving I can pull over and connect with the laptop -- just not from my office It is my backup for when Charter goes down. Ain't life grand?

I am going to return the zBoost to Amazon. They have agreed to take it back even though it has been more than 30 days and only because I have spent so much time trying to work with Wi-Ex.

 

I ordered the Wilson SOHO and inside dome antenna. The offered me only a 10% restocking fee. I still don't like a restocking fee when during their sales pitch they swear it will work. But they have a 30 day return policy and not 7-15 days like all of the others that I saw.

I will use my 800mHz yagi and PCS panel for the zBoost. The have F connectors but I have adapters and the VSWR is less than 1.5:1. If I have to change it I'll do it later. Right now the antennas are getting rained on, hailed on, and snowed on. I don't think Amazon will take them back

 

The PCS antenna works fine. 5 bars plugged directly into the phone.

 

I found that by pointing the PCS panel across the valley (about 5 miles) to Skyforest I can reliably get 2-5 bars in my office.

Do you have the physical addresses of Rim Forest and Sky Forest for Sprint? That would be awesome!

 

The Wilson SOHO arrived today and upon installation -- basically tossing it down and connecting the 75ohm cables instead of 50ohms - I get 5 bars on two floors. Imagine the slight improvement by switching to 50ohm cable.

I guess the zBoost just can't hang.

 

Service quality is excellent! The cable run is less than 50 feet. From an RF perspective, the VSWR difference is 1.5:1 using 75ohm cable. That's more than acceptable. The higher elevation does play a number, though. Sometimes the phone switches back and foirth between Sprint and Roaming. It did that with the zBoost as well. But the SOHO works and is solid.

 

I don't know how to enter debug mode on my Treo. But -- I have 5 bars and quality voice.