The goal of a cell phone signal booster is to take an existing cell signal, typically found outside your home, office or vehicle, amplify the signal and then broadcast it to an area which has weak or no signal. A cell phone signal booster system consists of an Outdoor Antenna, a Signal Boosting Amplifier and an Indoor Antenna, with Coaxial Cable connecting all of the components.

 

1. Capabilities of a Signal Booster

Cell phone signal boosters are designed to take an existing signal, amplify it, and broadcast to a space that is receiving weak or no signal. In order for the system to work, there must be an existing, stable signal to receive and amplify. Cell phone signal boosters are not able to create signal, they only amplify and transmit cell phone signal.

 

2. Coverage Area

We organizes cell phone signal booster by the area that they are able to cover in ideal circumstances. An ideal circumstance is defined as having a very strong signal for the external antenna, the internal antenna is placed in the best location possible, and there are no major obstacles to prevent the signal from being transmitted to the entire space that needs coverage.

Unfortunately, most situations are not ideal, so it's often necessary to choose a more powerful signal booster to compensate for a weak outside signal or inside obstacles that inhibit cell phone signal.

 

3. Signal Strength

The strength of the cell phone signal where you plan to mount the external antenna directly determines how large of an area you're able to cover inside of your home, office, or vehicle. If you have a strong external signal, you'll be able to cover a larger area. If you have a weak external signal, the inside coverage area will be much smaller, which may require that you move up to a stronger system to obtain adequate coverage.

Understanding what the bars mean on your phone is also important to gauging how strong the signal is where you're going to be placing the external antenna. While there's no official standard for displaying cell phone signal with bars on a phone, and some phones have more or less than the traditional five bars, the rule of thumb still exists that each bar of signal is roughly 5 to 10 times the power of the previous bar. This is why it's important for people with low signal strength, such as one or two bars, to consider a stronger cell phone signal booster.

 

 

4. Outdoor Antennas

There are two different types of external antennas, omni-directional and yagi (directional).

Omni-directional antennas are designed to send and receive signal in all directions, so you're able to reach multiple cell phone towers at the same time and boost cell phone signal for multiple providers. If you have a moderate to strong signal in the area that you're going to be placing your external antenna, then an omni antenna is good for you.

Yagi antennas are designed to send and receive signal in a specific direction, so while you're not able to cover a broad area, you're able to reach significantly greater distance to cell phone towers that you would not be able to with an omni antenna.

 

 

5. Indoor Antennas

There are two different types of inside antennas- dome and panel antennas.

Panel antennas are designed to broadcast and receive signal in one specific direction, and are best suited for either long, rectangular spaces or multiple floors in a house or building. They can be mounted on the wall facing down a space or mounted facing downwards at the top of a space and broadcast down and out through multiple floors.

Dome antennas are designed to cover one floor with signal in all directions and are meant to be mounted on the ceiling the center of the space in order to broadcast and receive signal equally in all directions.