Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Cell Phone Antenna Booster

This is topic Cell Phone Antenna Booster in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 12-18-2002, 04:13 PM:

Has anybody seen these things? They're like a sticker or a thin film of coiled wire that susposedly will "boost" the signal of your cell phone. Your susposed to put it on the back of the phone between the battery and the back of the phone.

My question is.... do they work?

I've got a Nokia 5165 phone with a fixed length "stubby" antenna, and get pretty poor reception when I'm down at the theatre site.

Any comments would be good......

Posted by Joe Beres (Member # 678) on 12-18-2002, 04:29 PM:

Barry, I got one of those things for free when I bought a battery for my Samsung phone on Ebay. I never actually stuck it onto the phone, but put it into place to try it without unneccesarily gumming up my phone. It didn't seem to do a damn bit of good, but I didn't test it too extensively.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 12-18-2002, 05:35 PM:

They tested these on KOMO-TV4 in Seattle on their "Buyer Beware" segment of the 5:00 o'clock news a few months ago. They don't work!

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 12-18-2002, 05:59 PM:

If they're selling it at 3am, if there's a 1-800 number to call, and if it's $19.95-but-wait-theres-more, then it probably doesn't work! [Razz]

=TMP=

Posted by Barry Martin (Member # 1376) on 12-18-2002, 07:59 PM:

One instance I was very glad for my employee discount at an electronics store. These things retail for 8-10 bucks, but cost me one dollar. I don't have a cell phone but had a friend who was always having troubles with his so I bought him one thinking "What the Hell, I'm out a soda if it doesn't work." Everyone is right, they don't work. I would love to see one example of good outcome, but have never heard of one.

Posted by Ray Brown (Member # 1449) on 12-18-2002, 07:59 PM:

I did a search on Google about a year ago when this so called miracle product came out and all the reviews pretty much said it was a piece of [bs]

.

I remember it was advertised on TV and sold at the local Staple's for $20. A quick Google search shows they are now running for under $5.

I have that same same phone (along with just about everybody else around here) and it works great even when I'm not in site of a tower. You must be alonnnng ways away from a tower.

Posted by Nate Lehrke (Member # 1460) on 12-18-2002, 08:22 PM:

I have a Motorola phone with Verizion( [fu]

). I bought one last year for $10 at Target( [thumbsdown]

) . I worked in brick theatres and usually had 1 or no bars. Once I put it in ,I had 2 bars most of the time. But, about 2 weeks later, the reception was back to normal.

All in all, it was worth about as much as a bag of [bs]

Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 12-18-2002, 11:23 PM:

I found a box of these for $2.00 (Canadian) at a surplus store and was looking at it (thinking "what a joke") when a fellow picked one up and talked about how he was an engineer and that flat printed antennae could be very effective and he thought it might actually work... so I got one.
I stuck it on my ancient (for cell phones) phone - a Qualcomm thing that does both the analog and digital American standards.
I don't know what increments the little signal level bars represent but within a stone's throw of a cell tower I got 1 or 2 bars and lost connection going into any building. I peeled off the "miracle signal booster" and immediately got 4-5 bars as had been normal.
So it definitely does something to the RF field and may actually help some phones - not this one though.

Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 12-19-2002, 05:35 AM:

Snake oil! [Mad]

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 12-19-2002, 09:08 PM:

I tried one of these things once.

Best bet, try a real cell phone provider.

They don't improve anything, and yes they could even interfere with your reception.

If the engineers who design the phones didn't put them in, they probably don't help. After all, they are designing phones that get better reception, not worse. It is not to thier advantage considering that the competition in the cell phone market really is tight and wide open.

Dave

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-19-2002, 10:09 PM:

Here's a good one:

a clothing manufacturer is planning to market pants that have a special pocket just for the cell phone. They even put "special shielding" in the fabric to prevent the radiation from causing damage to the wearer's gonads.

When asked, the manufacturer (Levi Strauss) denies claims they are selling snake oil produtcs that prey on consumers fears. They say, "We are only selling products that people want to buy."

THINK, man, THINK!

If you put a cell phone into a shielded pocket, wouldn't that make it so you can't receive any calls?

If you can't receive any calls, wouldn't it be easiser just to turn the phone OFF?

If you turn the phone off, why do you need a shielded pocket for your phone?

Of course, all of this presupposes that their stupid shielding actually WORKS! [eyes]

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 12-21-2002, 05:20 AM:

Some 3am 800 number " But wait theres more " products work. My friend has one of those "SET IT AND FORGET IT" rotisserie chicken things and it makes darn tasty chikun'

That should be the slogan for the Christie CA21 Automation "Set it and forget it!"

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-22-2002, 11:00 AM:

I'll admit we are a proud owner of a Set it and Forget it machine by Ronco...the damn thing has worked flawlessly and effortlessly. Go figure.

Steve

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 12-22-2002, 12:10 PM:

Don't forget the George Foreman grill! One of the most-hyped consumer appliances of all time, and actually a very good product! [thumbsup]

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 12-23-2002, 04:17 AM:

Of course it is Dave it "KNOCKS OUT THE FAT!"

I can never sleep when getting home from the theatre and see these damn things over and over.

Sometimes I wonder what people who meake these infomercials are thinking like why have an australian guy trying to sell a Wok???

Posted by Matthew Bailey (Member # 601) on 12-23-2002, 12:28 PM:

Need a high quality cell phone antenna? Try a C.Crane cell phone antenna. www.ccradio.com