Wilson or Cyfre & What Do I Need?????

I see Wilson antennas being used a lot but I don't know if that means they are the best. However I will say that the Yagi is effective when aimed properly. Antennas and amplifiers do not always work but if you have some signal right now inside the home there should be slightly more outside the house. If you put any kind of antenna on the roof and connect it to an amplifier you should notice a difference. You could try just putting up an antenna to start and if that doesn't satisfy you then you could buy the amplifier. I have a similar problem and the antenna hasn't been enough so far. If you don't like the Yagi, Wilson makes a trucker antenna that is about $60 and that should increase your range and call quality. I have an antenna mounted outside my house right now but I am looking into a repeater system. Let me know what you decide on.

 

You shouldn't have a problem with 20-30 feet of cable. When you get above that length you should start to develop a need for an amplifier. I am sure you will be getting low-loss coaxial cable with the trucker antenna.
Find a place that you are able to make calls now and mount the antenna in that location. If you can get on your roof and test the signal there I suggest you do so. If you find that you can make a call from the roof then try mounting the antenna there, away from other antennas that you may have. Also attaching a pole to the corner of your roof/house and then mounting the antenna on the pole for another 5 feet of hight may help. If the antenna is up hight it will hopefully get over some of the trees and increase its effectiveness. Find an antenna a high gain. Depending on how bad the signal is outside you may still need an amplifier but you might be able to avoid it. I wouldn't go too far with your coaxial cable because at some point it will no longer be any better than your signal was to begin with. Then you will need to shop for an amplifier and spend $200 but you will have a good signal almost guaranteed.

 

I am sure you can get something that will work. There are some fairly good deals out there so even the worst case would run maybe $250-$300 and that would be a good trucker antenna, the amplifier, the cables, and phone adapter. You should probably get a dual band antenna and amplifier even though that can be slightly more expensive than the single band options.

Hopefully this link works
OPEN BOX ITEM – Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS/CEL Wireless Extender (YX 510-PCS/CEL) (Wireless Extenders) | YX510-PCS/CEL [Wireless Extenders (Wi-Ex)] | cell phone repeater booster cell booster cell phone booster wi-ex WI EX z boost z-boost yx 500 510 xy500
For $269.00 that is a repeater so you will not need a direct connection to the phone. It comes with everything you need and it might be easier than buying the components individually. You can add higher gain antennas if you have a need for it. This is just another option you might want to look at. Their full list of repeaters is at this link. Wireless Extenders (Wi-Ex Products | Solid Signal)
Good luck.

 

The Yagi antenna, if properly aimed, will give FAR superior results than will the omni-directional trucker antenna (or similar) if you are working with a single tower/carrier. If you don't have any signal to work in the first place, no amplifier or antenna is going to create one out of nothing.

When it comes to radio communications, altitude of the antenna trumps EVERYTHING ELSE, especially the inflated power claims used by at least one of the vendors you mentioned. Amplifier power has little to do with the effectiveness of the system. Your most important thing to look for is the receiver's sensitivity numbers. If your system can't "hear" the tower, all the radiated power in the world going back towards the tower isn't going to get you a connection.

You will have to decide whether you can live with your handset being hardwired within your residence or if, by spending more money on a repeater, you would like to be able to move about within your home while still maintaining communications.

Your selection of the proper gear depends on your carrier and what frequency band it operates on in your local area.

Longer antenna cable runs mandate the use of very low-loss cable. If you use the cheap stuff, you'll loose most of your signal in the cable and will still be out of luck. 20-30 ft of cheap cable will kill most, if not all, of any weak signal.

Plan on spending $300-$500 in materials and you should be able to get a decent setup. Again, your actual achievement is highly dependent on your geography, your carrier and your relationship to its local site(s), and the equipment and its installation.

I'm in a valley, trees, 5.5 miles from my local tower. I went from having to sit on my roof to barely use my phone to being able to go almost anywhere inside the house and have reliable signal coverage. Unfortunately, the coverage doesn't extend to my yard due to the distance from the interior relay antennas. I have a Yagi (Wilson) on the roof, an 800 Mhz BDA in the attic, and two interior antennas (one a Wilson), all interconnected with LMR-400 cable. I have almost $500 and a lot of hours invested in the system.

Steve

Yes, I did go to school for radio communications....

 

I've used all four models on difference countries. Wilson is really good, but for mountaines lands maybe Trucker is the best. And don't forget to put min 3 watt amplifier!

 

I have to agree with projectSHO89, a yagi would be a better choice especially if using an amplifer. if you don't have aleast a -82 or better on your roof I would not go through the cost of buying all the equipment needed.

 

This is total misinformation and only applies to some brands of Wireless amplifiers. There is no minimum signal needed for a direct connect amplifier. As far as antenna choice. It all depends on your application ,time and patience. Yagi's will provide the greatest gain but they require alot of time and patience to set up as they are very directional. You should also have line of site when using a Yagi . For the general enthuisast A good Omni Directional antenna will provide good results without alot of effort setting it up

 

I'm sorry you think this is misinformation, but if the signal is weak at the antenna the amplifier will not make it better it will just amplify the weak signal.

 

A direct connect will amplify the signal and make it a good signal not an amplified weak signal. Sorry you have it wrong there.

 

The added height of this tower might be enough to give you a better line of site to a tower or it might get you above enough of the trees to increase the performance of the system significantly.
At my house in Vermont my antenna is mounted a 20 foot pole above my roof which is already about 35' high. I have been able to get very good performance out of this setup. Yes, you are going to want an amplifier when running 60'-70' of cable. I have had even longer cable runs than that in the past and when using an amplifier I was still able to achieve the results I was hoping for. I have about 55' of cable right now with and amplifier and no problems.
I think you should buy the equipment that you want and if it doesn't work well enough then try putting the tower up. You might be fine without it so don't bother getting a huge tower unless it is necessary. And make sure to have everything properly grounded. Put up some pictures of this tower if you get it. It sounds pretty serious.

 

I think we are talking about 2 different types of amplifiers, yours seems to be like a 3 watt booster, where I am talking about a traditional BDA.

 

No confusion here I am talking about bi directional amplifiers ( signal amplification is my business). There are certain brands of Wireless amplifiers that require a good signal Outside ( Wi-Ex , ZBoost ) . But any direct Connect amplifier does not have this requirement . Also better brands of wireless ( Cyfre or Wilson)do not have these requirements either.

 

A good place to get cable is EUR-AM -- Antenna Outlet Store . He has good low loss cable at reasonable prices. The cyfre amplifier will compensate for RF loss in the cabling and connections so it is not necessary to sell the farm and use LMR400. As far as grounding that depends what antenna you are using .

 

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order for any amplifier repeater to be effective, you must have at least 2-3 bars of signal on the outside of the building. If there is little or no signal outside, the amplifier repeater will not radiate enough signal inside. In these cases, you might consider a Wilson DirectConnect Power Booster that you attach to your phone.
This is from the link below
Wilson Direct Connect Cellular Power Booster Amplifier


The DirectConnect you are talking about is a 3watt Booster.
This is from the link below
Wilson Direct Connect Cellular Power Booster Amplifier

Depending on what you are trying to get coverage for would be the deciding factor in which product to use.

 

Wow , what I was telling you earlier about direct connect amplifier not requiring a strong signal to amplifiy it . By the way our wireless amplifiers do not require a strong signal outside as these ones do

 

Consider using a Wilson SOHO amplifier... their new model has 50dB of gain and Wilson has the highest receiver sensitivity of all the amps out there. Also, their engineering is much better and their amps microprocessor controlled so they do not cause any interference with cell sites or other cell users. Some claim that; but don't back it up with their performance. What I can tell is the higher the antenna the better your opportunity for picking up a weak signal. Definately use a 9913 low loss cable and a lightning surge protector with a good grounding circuit. As said above, the omni directional Trucker has good gain and you won't have to mess with "tuning" the antenna to the cell signal, which can be tricky when putting your phone in test mode and taking signal readings while hooked up to the Yagi with a pigtail... then what if the wind blows it loose? However, the Yagi does give you better gain; but if you are not in Death Valley, then you should be fine with a Trucker or Wilson's new Marine Antenna, which is made for outside and has the same gain as the Trucker and also a built-in ground plane. Check out PowerfulSignal dot com for their SOHO kit... antenna included for around $459. and talk with Lee about upping the cable to a 9913. Thats my opinion! Good luck.

 

Like MaxSig (Gordon) said, use a 9913 or similar low loss cable and consider using a lightning surge protector (859902)... see the Wilson accesories on their web site. Be sure to run a good copper ground wire to a grounding rod in the ground... pick up one at Home Depot in the Elec. dept. The higher up you place your antenna the better... like Allan said, I'd go with a Yagi... but the set up can be a little tricky. Sounds like you're up to it though. ;-)

 

As a veteran member of this forum, I invite you to visit wpsantennas dot com for all of your Wilson Cellular reception enhancement equipment. We have been linking to www.wirelessadvisor.com since its inception and use it in addition to our own contacts with each carrier to ensure proper frequency matching.

We are an established business with a retail store and a full staff of support and customer service personnel located in Rochester MN.

We are the largest Wilson Cellular dealer in the USA and have the ability to make a custom solution to fit your needs. We have a full cable assembly department which allows us use various cable sizes and configurations specified by our customers, and the inventory to fulfill the order to world wide points on the globe the same day.