Antenna Boosters any good ?

What's my best option for increasing my signal on a Motorola V262 and V400
phone ? In some case, I the V400 can get just enough signal to get a text
message through, but no voice. My dad's V262 gets a 5 bar in 1 location, but
about 500 feet later, no signal.

I was looking at the internal antennas, but I haven't read any good reviews
of them yet, though I guess if they could give 1 bar, that would beat no
connection at all.

The external antennas aren't really a good option, has the phones need to be
fairly mobile. Are some of the retractable Antennas any better ? Even if
they are retracted ?

Thanks

Dale "Cell Phone Noob" White

Have you tried using a headset and holding the phone away from your
body? That will sometimes help the tower hear your phone a bit better.

royc

No, haven't tried the headsets. The main goal is just to get enough signal
to at least know a call is coming in and stuff. Whether they have to switch
over to a LAND line is not as important. For Dad's case, he has to remain
mobile while he works in his shop, but it has so many dead spots, we're
trying to figure a way to get him at least 1 bar's worth of a signal.


"royc" <clouston@sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:1133315864.760511.241730@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> Have you tried using a headset and holding the phone away from your
> body? That will sometimes help the tower hear your phone a bit better.
>
> royc
>

On Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:35:57 GMT, "Dale White"
<dale.white@noinsightbb.com> wrote:

>What's my best option for increasing my signal on a Motorola V262 and V400
>phone ? In some case, I the V400 can get just enough signal to get a text
>message through, but no voice. My dad's V262 gets a 5 bar in 1 location, but
>about 500 feet later, no signal.


I've seen some improvement with the extendable antenna in SOME areas,
but absolutely no improvement with the internal antenna (just had to
try it at $2). Antennas can be found cheap at cellphoneshop.net.

HTH
Bill

carver33@bellsouth.net wrote:
> I've seen some improvement with the extendable antenna in SOME areas,
> but absolutely no improvement with the internal antenna (just had to
> try it at $2). Antennas can be found cheap at cellphoneshop.net.

I bought a couple of the internal/extendibles from cellphoneshop.net.
I think it improved my v551 reception a lot. My wife commented about the
change, and I didn't even tell her that I had made the switch on her v220.

The internal/internal things that look like a piece of cellophane are
probably about as effective as a piece of cellophane.

I only paid $1.50 for the extendibles.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 12:49:35 GMT, "Dale White"
<dale.white@noinsightbb.com> wrote:

>No, haven't tried the headsets. The main goal is just to get enough signal
>to at least know a call is coming in and stuff. Whether they have to switch
>over to a LAND line is not as important. For Dad's case, he has to remain
>mobile while he works in his shop, but it has so many dead spots, we're
>trying to figure a way to get him at least 1 bar's worth of a signal.
>
>
>"royc" <clouston@sprynet.com> wrote in message
>news:1133315864.760511.241730@g14g2000cwa.googleg roups.com...
>> Have you tried using a headset and holding the phone away from your
>> body? That will sometimes help the tower hear your phone a bit better.
>>
>> royc
>>
>
The only thing an antenna booster is good for is lightening your
wallet by removing the weight of money. He probably needs a 'car' kit
which provides an external antenna outside the car. That is likely to
be helpful, in just about any external antena is likely to be helpful.

Maybe you just need a different service provider. If your provider uses GSM
technology it does not penetrate buildings nearly as well as CDMA. IIRC,
Sprint and Verizon use CDMA while the other providers use GSM.

Thanks MrJJ.

Probem here is that the carier is a local Hometown carrier called Bluegrass
celluar, the other option is Cellone, which in this case isn't much better.
It's the downside to living in rural KY

"MisterJJ" <idts@noway.com> wrote in message
news_ujf.707$SM5.142@dukeread02...
> Maybe you just need a different service provider. If your provider uses
> GSM technology it does not penetrate buildings nearly as well as CDMA.
> IIRC, Sprint and Verizon use CDMA while the other providers use GSM.
>

If there is a hotspot then what about a docking station like:
http://omnicellcommunications.com/id22.html
put the cellphone where it has the best reception, connect to the
docking station and use a cordless phone to access the cellphone.

Dale White wrote:
> No, haven't tried the headsets. The main goal is just to get enough signal
> to at least know a call is coming in and stuff. Whether they have to switch
> over to a LAND line is not as important. For Dad's case, he has to remain
> mobile while he works in his shop, but it has so many dead spots, we're
> trying to figure a way to get him at least 1 bar's worth of a signal.
>
>
> "royc" <clouston@sprynet.com> wrote in message
> news:1133315864.760511.241730@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>
>>Have you tried using a headset and holding the phone away from your
>>body? That will sometimes help the tower hear your phone a bit better.
>>
>>royc
>>
>
>
>

Dale White wrote:

> The external antennas aren't really a good option, has the phones need to
> be fairly mobile. Are some of the retractable Antennas any better ? Even
> if they are retracted ?

I took Clarence's advice & got an extendable antenna frome
cellphoneshop.net. Actually, I bought two, in case something happened to
the first one. I still get some effect where I live of fading if I move
the wrong way -- that's inherent to the locale. But signal strength is
much better & return to usable signal much quicker. My only quandary, now,
is why some locations (such as at or around my home or parts of my office
building & places outside it) do better with the antenna extended, while
other locations (such as other places in my office building or other spots
outside it) seem to handle sigmal better with the antenna down. Haven't
figured that one out, yet.

Bill K

I bought a cell booster for my home and I really haven't had any problems with reception. I was frustrated with the same problems as you, I tried switching my phone company but then I would have poor reception at work. So the cell booster has completely solved my problems at home. My current phone company gives me good reception at work but I know of people who bought this machine for their business. there are lots of companies out there, I bought mine from www.cellboosterstore.com and I am pretty happy with them, don't know much about other companies. Hope this helps