Wilson Cellphone Booster

Grim Reaper

Expedition Leader
I thought they had it out for several years.

Its really just a wide band liner amp with an inductive coupler to the phone. It does work but in town close to towers it might actually make you drop a call because it will be over powering the site.

When the site cant get the phone to back the power off to its acceptable power level as determined by the signal received at the tower (Phones vary their outputs as directed by the tower to help transmit timing) it may well drop the call. Since it is an inductive coupler there is a fair amount of loss BUT it does work.
 

jg45

Member
Supposedly the Wilson unit adjusts power to not overload the site. Their website says this several times.
 

Grim Reaper

Expedition Leader
jg45 said:
Supposedly the Wilson unit adjusts power to not overload the site. Their website says this several times.


What happens is the phone adjusts its power and the Liner amp reflects that change. Think of it as a Magnifying glass. It just mimics the phone at a magnification of X5.

The problem is on a hand held there is 5 power settings. Setting 5 would be .6 watts MAX normally. That would be a claimed out put of 3watts. The phone Identifies itself as a "hand held" to the tower so the tower is only expecting a max of .6 watts. GSM and UMTS the system is designed for a .6 watt product NOT a 3 watt.

3Watt dates back to Fixed mount Analog and early TDMA and CDMA and all of that will be shut off in February.

So Booster is always multiplying the phones output by 5. The lowest power setting its still 5 times more then the phone would put out normally. We are talking about a couple of miliwats and Granted you would normally be very close to the tower to be on that setting BUT if it was still more then the site wanted to see it would dump the call because it would have a concern of "Co-Channel" interference.



Just so you know where I am coming from...I have been in the cell phone buisness for 20 years. I'm a certified repair tech for Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson. I now support the Guys that do the field work at the tower. I am the guy that gets all the failed tower gear repaired for the carrier I work for. ;)

That said in they way out of the way places....yeah this thing has merit and will get a call out that the hand held product normally couldn't do. If you start dropping calls in town where you have good coverage you "might" have to take the phone out of the cradle if you start dropping a lot of calls.
 

paulj

Expedition Leader
Any thoughts about Wilson antennas? I thought about getting one when travelling through eastern Orgon last May. I don't know if it would have done much good since there were big areas where I didn't get any signal (even on Verizon).
paulj
 

jg45

Member
Ahhh, the good old days of 3 watt analog bag phones using 850Mhz spectrum. ;) I admit to not knowing much about the amps and such. Grim, we are in a the same industry just in different roles. The company I work for creates the coverage maps used by many carriers amongst other things. Lately I've been taking the propagation models network engineering creates and turning them into maps that can go in brochures and the coverage on the interactive mapping tools on the carrier websites using GIS tools. I've also been doing population analysis for several carries using various coverage patterns. I've been in the industry for about 10 years. Started out with Bellsouth Mobility in '98.

I assumed that the Wilson had some sort of electronic circuit to adjust transmit power. They seem to indicate this at this link. Look at the minimum controlled output tests. http://wilsonelectronics.com/Files/Competition/RichardsonElec.pdf
 

Grim Reaper

Expedition Leader
They may have some intelligence built into it but there is no direct connection to the phone so no way for the Phone to send commands to the booster.

The old Nokia booster kits had direct connection and on Analog they would ramp up to 3 watts but on TDMA the booster was turned off. That’s because GSM was designed wit a .6watt product as apposed to the 3 watt products that were common on Analog.

Most of my experience is Analog, TDMA and GSM. I know a bit about the CDMA as to pass Motorola's classes you have to know about them even though I didn't work on them since I worked for a TDMA carrier.

BMI is also where I started if you haven’t already figured that out.

CDMA is very critical of noise floor and has to be above it or it will start loosing data is what I remember from the classes I took 10years+ ago...more so the TDMA. That PDF spoke mostly about lack of out put power on CDMA platforms and how it would be below the Noise floor threshold and not over powering from close proximity. TDMA can handle a lower RSSI (Receive signal) on the tower then CDMA and still function if the phone is a quality one.

In your job you know that the system is designed around 103db Max. Most consumer products can’t do much better especially in the Appalachian foot hills. I am still trying to grasp what Wilson is trying to imply by claiming it is sensitive down to -111db. I guess that’s indicating the signal at the edge of the system and what it can deal with and pump up enough to the phone to get it down to -103 or better that the phone can hold the call at with minimal data loss.

After reading that PDF this product is really more directed at CDMA products and systems.

TDMA and GSM use Burst transmit designs and since that is a linier amp it just runs at a factor of the output on the phone. On TDMA it might be an issue since the transmitter is always pulsing. Any linier amp is going to more or less average the power in that instance so it would probably boost somewhere around a factor of 2.5 times or possibly less unless they have the intelligence to just come on but that PDF does not mention TDMA or GSM at all.
.
 

jg45

Member
Thanks for the insight. The PDF is from their CDMA based product so that may be why it speaks specifically about the CDMA. I am on a CDMA phone and network (Cellular South) now and so that's why I was looking at it. I may have to pick one up for when I am out in the sticks. In the city there are very few dead areas, but get out in the woods and it is a different story all together. I wonder if one of these boosters connected to a Yagi antenna would really gain some range?
 

jeff@work

Adventurer
I'll add my $.02. I like to travel to remote areas but need cell phone and internet access for work so extending my range is really important to me. Right now I'm using sprint (with roaming!) for my cell phone service and verizon for my laptop data card.

An antenna is simply a must have for anyone that travels outside of the city. They make a big difference and there are plenty of places I'd have no signal without my antenna but good signal with it. I have both of these antennas http://wilsonelectronics.com/ViewProductB.php?ID=5
http://wilsonelectronics.com/ViewProductB.php?ID=6

I've been running the bigger one for over a year now and it has been invaluable, I've had cell phone reception where without it I wouldn't have, and I've had it take me from a poor signal to a good signal. I've only had the short one for a little while but when checking it on my verizon data card I saw similar db gains with both antennas.

For amplifiers, well you have to keep in mind they only amplify the signal your phone is getting so no signal, no amplification. I'm not using a wilson amplifier I'm using a different brand, I use a direct connect setup so the amplifier is connected inline with the antenna and then connected to the antenna port on my phone or data card. From what I understand the direct connect amplifiers allow your phone to more accurately manage the power output from the amplifier than the ones that are not direct connect setups.

I have had some inconsistency with my amplifier, I've had problems where it wouldn't let my verizon card connect to the network when it's plugged in but if i connected without the amplifier and then hooked it up to the card it would keep the connection and increase my signal. I've also had people tell me I was coming across very loud/distorted on occasion. Keep in mind this is not with a wilson amp, I'd really like to try a wilson amplifier to be able to compare it someday. The biggest negative with the amp I have is that the antenna doesn't work with the amp powered off, I find that very frustrating as it means if I want to go from using just the antenna to deciding i need to use the amp, i have to disconnect the antenna and phone adapter and then connect those to the amp, kind of a pain, I was hoping I'd just be able to leave the amp hooked up and with it powered off just be using the antenna and then if I needed a boost turn the amp on. That said it has definitely made a difference at several campsites for me and I'm glad I have it.

However by far the best bang for your buck is just the antenna, the antenna and phone adaptor should run $30 or less, it will increase your coverage noticeably where as the amp is going to be $200+ and will only increase the signal, it can't help you out if you don't have a signal at all.
 

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