signal issues.. will a booster help?

[tommy1984]

Hey guys.. So yesterday they turned on a new tower that is less than 1/4 mile from my home, Its strait up the mountain from me.. Now I didnt have a cell phone until today because i had NO service at my house, but i ran strait to verizon this morning and bought the new droid maxx.. I come home and am excited about my new phone until I see my signal stringent.. 2 bars and -96 dbm inside and -93 dbm out side.. WTF??? Im LESS that 1/4 mile from the tower.. Could it be because its strait up the hill that the signal is having issues "settling" down to me? my neighbors that are higher up than me but further from the tower are seeing -72 dbm.. So my question is would a booster help me in my situation and witch one would you recommend? omni directional antenna or directional? Not sire if directional would do any good because I cant see the tower due to trees, But neither can my neighbors... Thanks

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

Your analysis of the location (up from you rather than over) makes sense. Having a place in the mountains myself I can tell you that the distance from the tower frequently doesn't matter as much as you might think. Location is key - relative to your position. I do think a booster would help but it still may not be great unless you find a tall tree for the booster antenna.

 

[AECRADIO]

Hey guys.. So yesterday they turned on a new tower that is less than 1/4 mile from my home, Its strait up the mountain from me.. Now I didnt have a cell phone until today because i had NO service at my house, but i ran strait to verizon this morning and bought the new droid maxx.. I come home and am excited about my new phone until I see my signal stringent.. 2 bars and -96 dbm inside and -93 dbm out side.. WTF??? Im LESS that 1/4 mile from the tower.. Could it be because its strait up the hill that the signal is having issues "settling" down to me? my neighbors that are higher up than me but further from the tower are seeing -72 dbm.. So my question is would a booster help me in my situation and witch one would you recommend? omni directional antenna or directional? Not sire if directional would do any good because I cant see the tower due to trees, But neither can my neighbors... Thanks

There is a distinct probability that the site's panel antennas are actually overshooting your location, the mechanical and electrical downtilt were not optimized to properly cover your location. Even with electrical beam steering, you still have QOS issues that need to be resolved.
Contact your carrier and ask if they made adjustments to the site after it was commissioned.
I have seen people just 'flip the switch' and drive away, that is not what you do when you activate a new site.

 

[IIGood]

I bought the network extender from VZW...granted, it's $250 and uses a broadband internet connection, but it certainly helps. Without the extender, I have zero reception at my house...plug up the extender, and now I can get service anywhere in the house and into the front and backyards.

 

[AECRADIO]

So, what you really bought, was an expensive WiFi adaptor, since it is connected via broadband, and not your actual carrier's signals.
Wilson sells real bi-directional amplifiers for all the carriers in this nation, they supply a tiny 'pickup' antenna on the 'inside' antenna connection, and you supply the external antenna, or possibly both. The amp increases the received and transmitted signals to and from your handset, it is transparent to the cell carriers and provides your handset with increased range due to increased transmit power (1-3 watts). Most GSM/PCS devices are in the 200 milli-Watt power range, so a 30 dB increase is a lot of gain. You can even buy in-car 'boosters' that will work as well, but you will need to learn to use your phone from a rather restricted area, unless you have the desire to carry both the phone and the booster around as you call people, not to mention the antenna the boosters require. China-Mart has these for sale for $89.00.