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May 19, 2005
There is a solution to every problem
Problem: One of the big problems we are having profiling all these phones, is coverage. We get pretty good coverage for T-Mobile in our office, but the Cingular and AT&T(Cingular Blue) coverage is awful. It is so bad that Charles has moved his desk up by the front windows. Our office is on the bottom floor set into a hill and our back walls are cement bulkhead walls. Not great for PCS reception. This makes profiling the phones and making/receiving calls very difficult and it has been getting very frustrating.
Solution: The Model 150 In-Building PCS Amplifier from CSI.
This is a PCS amplifier that amplifies incoming and outgoing mobile band signals. This one has a 50dB gain uplink and downlink. Nice.
I bought one of these from CellAntenna last week and it arrived yesterday. The kit comes with an outdoor antenna, indoor antenna, amplifier and power supply. I went for the more expensive 150 model that handles all PCS frequencies so we can increase our signal for CDMA as well as both Cingular and T-Mobile GSM bands. They have a seperate model for iDEN, and we'll cross that bridge if we need to.
The first thing we did was just connect everything together with the included outdoor coax cables and run the outdoor Yagi antenna out to the sidewalk. We put the indoor omnidirectional antenna up towards the ceiling and plugged it in. Seven bars (out of 7 on my Nokia 3230). Wow! That is at my desk about 17 feet from the antenna. Definitely a good purchase.
After making a paper drilling template, hunting through all my (still packed) tools for the right drill bits, holesaw, drill, and driver, I was up on a latter drilling through one of the aluminum wall panels where the power comes in so we could mount the external antenna outside the door to the office.
Up on a ladder. My favorite place.
It's very important not to drill into the 220 lines.
YAGI Antenna discreetly installed ouside the office.
So now we are set. We are getting really good coverage in the entire office. No more missed mobile calls.
Posted by David Adams at May 19, 2005 03:56 PM
Comments
Is that thing legal?
Posted by: James A. Hillyerd at May 20, 2005 08:54 AM
It has an FCC ID so I am assuming it is.
Posted by: David Adams at May 20, 2005 01:45 PM