In my quest to get cell reception into my basement, I’ve come across a very interesting phenomenon. The HAM radio guys, and amateur radio technicians, all swear that passive repeaters, when designed well, work as advertised; they allow you to bend radio signals around objects like hills and buildings. I’ve read stories about passive repeaters being used to route signals over hills and allow people tens of kilometers away to hear the signal, with a directional antenna, of cource.
But companies that sell active repeaters (antennas with bi-directional amps between them) all say they will never work. Of course, if you want to give them $500-$600 for something that does work, they would be more than happy to take your money.
So I’ve decided to try to build a passive repeater using two homemade cantennas. Well, not exactly cantennas. I’m going to make them as omnidirectional as possible, and mount them horizontally, one under the eaves of the house, and the other in our bedroom, with the cable coming in where the electricity, phone, and CATV cables enter the house. A well-shielded, low-loss cable would prevent a major signal loss, and I’ll try to tune the antennas to the proper frequencies (1850-1990 MHz).
Expect a nice, long page, including the rather hilarious comments from T-Mobile about my exploits, in the near future.
Of course, that’s what I said about the site upgrade.
Posted by: Paul in Wireless
