Cell repeater

Does anyone have experience with cell repeaters? I work on a remote ranch that has little in the way of cell reception. I was previously at a ranch that used point to point internet service over long range. It would seem to me that there should be some sort of private repeater that one could have installed on a property to improve reception over a wider area of the property. I see some inexpensive systems for in home, but I am looking for a small scale system similar to what cell providers use to increase an area's coverage. Any help or ideas are appreciated.

I have a uniden cell booster in my house with a receiver outside which works good but if your trying to boost signal outside I cant help

(quoted from post at 09:30:01 04/12/18) I was previously at a ranch that used point to point internet service over long range. It would seem to me that there should be some sort of private repeater that one could have installed on a property to improve reception over a wider area of the property. I see some inexpensive systems for in home, but I am looking for a small scale system similar to what cell providers use to increase an area's coverage. Any help or ideas are appreciated.

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This is actually fairly difficult and expensive to accomplish.

The cheapest solution: Extended range Wi-Fi routers.

What I suspect your previous ranch had is a Wi-Fi range extending router. This extends a broadband wireless internet connection so that it can be used farther from the router.

Most newer cell phones can place phone calls over a WI-FI network OR the cell phone tower network and can switch back and forth depending on which signal is stronger. So basically if you extend the range of your internet connection, you extend the "phone call coverage" as well.

Now for the bad news. This is still a fairly short range solution. Even if you placed the router way up on a tower, it's still line of sight reception (for the most part) and it's limited in overall range even if you can see the tower.

Now if you have locations around the ranch that have electricity, you could string multiple Wi-Fi extenders together to form your own mini "Wi Fi" network. In theory, you could cover a lot of ground, but you need sites that have electricity and you'd have to get the routers up high to maximize range. Each site has to be close enough to the previous site to link, so to form a good size network to cover say a few square miles, you'd need multiple sites. Each one with a tower and electric connection.

Some cell providers offer "range extender" boxes, but these have a lot of conditions that have to be met for them to work well. Namely, all users have to be on the same cell provider.

I've heard of other commercial solutions, but these are very expensive and in general, only make sense for situations where internet is critical and there are lots of users.

those are the only solutions I know of that make sense within what I think would be a reasonable budget. There may, of course, be others, just what I've heard of and used.

Grouse

You might can go online and check provider coverage in your area.

Possibly a different provider will have better coverage.

If your provider claims to cover your area, and you bought the phone from them, ask why it's not working..

Jim, there "are" cellular repeaters out there. In fact, we wouldn't even have internet if not for a fairly new gov't tower down the road from us. Our nearest cellular tower is 30 miles away, and signals are supposed to top out at around 10 miles or so, from what I've been told.

I have a booster, but I think the problem is with the gov't tower rather than my ability to connect with that tower. I say that because we have continuous glitches in the signal; NEVER a constant, continuous signal. Sometimes it'll glitch out long enough that the PC will consider the signal gone, and disconnect. Used to make it very difficult when we only had 0.5gig data allowance and we'd lose signal, then would have to reload our page again.

To start with, EVERYONE will ask the following question first:
Do you have better reception outside than you do inside? If the answer to that is YES, then a signal booster will work for you.

If the answer is NO, then you may need a more expensive solution. We didn't have the $$$ to go that route when I was researching this, so I cannot be of more help.

The folks at WeBoost (formerly Wilson Electronics) are experts and can answer your questions.
https://www.weboost.com/

I know there are systems out there that are more than just boosters, but the folks at WeBoost can point you in a better direction than I can.

It was a point to point device that the internet provider used. They would bounce a signal from once customer location to
another. They were happy to do the ranch I was on previously as it was one of the highest points in the county and allowed
for greater customer coverage. They could shoot that signal quite some distance.

A cell repeater will not help anything if it does not get a good signal, they are made to be placed in a good area, then allow connection from poorer area nearby.

I have a small system at my house. Consists of roof-top antenna, hooked to a repeater-amp in our kitchen. Cell-phone without it barely gets one bar and never works. With the system we get three bars and good-enough coverage.

we have a cellphone extender. it works well. The more distance, the better set-up you need. Our was just over $400. i would buy local, so if it wasn't strong enuff you could return. OR we have a local electronic's store that installs them. they usually install one size bigger then needed so they are sure it works!

I couldn't get a reliable connection inside the house, often only 3G. Internet was super slow if any at all. I could get a weak 4G signal outside though without dropping calls. I bought a Weboost cell signal booster and have been happy with it. I now have a great 4G signal inside the house and it increased the internet speed too.

I mounted the antenna on a 30ft mast outside, but some people report a good signal with mounting in the attic too. They are pricey but do work if you set it up right. If you have no signal or very poor signal outside you might not get great results, but elevation of antenna could help a lot depending on environment & terrain.

It also matters what type of antennae you have. If it's a wall mount, they actually work best when mounted about 2 to 3 feet under the eave and directly to the side of the house. If you have steel siding or it's not wall mount, it works better to have higher than the eave, and possibly higher than the peak of the roof, if possible.

Most of the antennae's out there are directional, so the more accurately they're aimed, the better the signal.

Large area coverage is a whole different matter than "fixing a one house coverage". As to the one house coverage, I bought & returned for the 'next higher priced unit" three times before I got one that did the job. An extra $100 each step, but at $400, success.