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 their 800mHz yagi for Verizon and the 1900mHz PCS panel for Sprint. It is designed to boost the outside signal. 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.
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