Telecommunications market offers a great bunch of ways to improve mobile signal reception on your cell phone from special mobile phone covers to mobile apps, but this article is for those who prefer to rely on themselves. If you’re technically savvy and enjoy crafting something with your own hands, we’d suggest you trying to design a homemade cell phone repeater. Feel excited? So let’s proceed with some interesting recipes:
Boost cell phone signal – make a passive repeater
Increase cell phone signal – improvise a homemade cell phone repeater
Increase mobile signal – use an active mobile signal repeater
Boost Cell Phone Signal with a Passive Repeater
Under a passive repeater, we do not literally mean a repeater, but two antennas connected with a cable. You need to install one antenna inside your house or office and the other outside it. Both antennas can be of any kind, though we’d suggest using two high quality J-pole antennas and it’s necessary that they support the frequency of your mobile operator (e.g. GSM 900 MHz to improve calls or WCDMA 2100 MHz to boost 3G signal). Bear in mind that it’s crucially important to install the outdoor antenna in some high point where you can pick up more or less strong signal and do not forget too direct it toward the nearest cell tower.
After you mount the antennas, connect them with a cable. Ordinary coaxial cable that you can find in any electronics store will be suitable. Also pay attention that the thicker the cable the less signal loss.
Make a Homemade Cell Phone Repeater
You can always move along. If the abovementioned method involved a ready-made antenna, here we offer to try to build a homemade 3G antenna to boost cell phone signal. To manage this you’ll need the following things : a wire coat hanger or a piece of iron wire (length 35-40 cm, wire diameter 2-4 mm), 2 connector blocks, a wireless antenna, a high quality coaxial cable of at least 10 m or an ordinary TV cable, pliers, wire cutter and a screw driver.
Step 1. Build indoor and outdoor units
Straighten the wire coat hanger with pliers and bend 4 cm in the center at 45 degrees. Measure 9 cm on both sides from the center and bend wire inwards at 90 degrees. Then measure 8 cm at both ends of the wire and once again bend inwards at 90 degrees. The last bending will be 4 cm at 45 degree of both wire ends. Here install a connector block, e.g. 20A, and secure it with a screwdriver. The antenna you’ve made should be placed inside your structure approximately in the center of the room where signal reception is the worst.
Make one more unit for outdoor use. If you use a coat hanger, one item is usually enough for two DIY antennas
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Step 2. Mount the wireless antenna
Now take a wireless antenna and remove about 15-20 cm of plastic from it. Under plastic jacket you’ll see metallic shield. Cut it off and then place it in the connector block and tighten firmly as shown on the photo below.
Now let’s proceed with a coaxial cable. Cut off the dielectric insulator from it carefully and use its center core for building the wireless antenna. Measure about 5cm from the edge of the center core and bend it round (make 5 turns clockwise) with a screw driver, and then straight it at the end. Now it’s necessary to fit this wireless antenna on the indoor antenna unit. Join the edge of the center core wire with the iron wire and tighten.
Step 3. Connect antennas with a cable
Both indoor and outdoor antenna units should be connected with a coaxial cable. Take the cable long enough to ensure at least 5-meter distance between antennas and mount one indoors and the other outdoors. Just like in case of a passive repeater, it’s important to have at least 2-3 bars in the point where you’re going to fix an outdoor unit to get some signal improvement.
Use an Active Mobile Signal Repeater to Increase Cell Phone Signal
Just in case your efforts weren’t crowned with success, why not to rely on professional engineers? At the end we decided to offer a let’s say more traditional way to increase cell phone signal. You can purchase an active HiBoost mobile signal repeater and to add some DIY craft install it on your own. We’ll tell how to do it in the best way.
Step1. Fix the outdoor antenna in some high point outside your house where you can gain best signal reception (e.g. on the roof, outside the window, etc.). You can determine signal reception quality with the help of LCD screen on the HiBoost booster. Just connect the outdoor antenna to the booster’s outdoor port with an original coaxial cable that comes in a kit and power on the booster. Fix the outdoor antenna outside the window or on the top of the building and point it to the nearest cell tower. Then have a look at output power value displayed on LCD. The outdoor antenna receives the strongest signal when the booster’s output power reaches its full value.
There’re two possible kinds of installation – pole and wall mounting.
If you choose to mount the outdoor antenna on the roof, you need to fix the antenna on the pole with an L-bracket and screws. To perform wall mounting, place the antenna directly on the wall with an L-bracket and screws.
Step2. Mount the indoor antenna in the room where you have the poorest signal reception. Place it on the wall or in the corner.
Step3. Select a location close to a power outlet. You can put the booster on the table near it or mount it on the wall in the same room with an indoor panel.
Step4. Plug in the booster to a power supply and self-adaptive system will automatically adjust best performance in 30 seconds.
NB! Before you plug it in, make sure all the cables are connected firmly!
