Cellular/WiFi Passive Booster

[quacksawbones]

Hi All,

Looking for a comfirmation of whether a project will work (I am about 55% sure it will, but as you can see, unsure).

I have sketchy mobile phone reception in my house, so I have an old satellite dish I am going to repurpose into a cellular phone antenna. Everything I have seen, however, shows the antenna being directly plugged into the device. What I am wondering is if I take the lead from dish pointed at the tower (uni directional) and plug it into an omnidirectional antenna (which will be in my roof cavity), will this have a passive net increase in the mobile signal in my house?

I was looking to buy this (or very similar) as the antenna in the roof space:
http://littlebirdelectronics.com/products/quadband-wired-cellular-antenna-sma

I have attached a rough diagram of what I am trying to accomplish (I am aware that the broadcast will be for an area, not just direct to the phone directly).

Happy to clarify any points taht don't make sense (I assume there will be a few)

 

[davenn]

it will work
you need the cable between the antennas as short as possible ... a preferably less than 5 metres. the signal levels are going to be very very small

tis worth a try for a relatively small outlay in cost. the other way is to by a multiband bi directional amplifier to go between the antennas. a google search will bring up lots of hits

cheers
Dave

 

[quacksawbones]

Thanks Dave. So while technically it will work, you think the signal boost I will get is probably going to be insignificant?

(Just noticed my awesome use of language "...not just direct to the phone directly", oops!)

 

[(*steve*)]

The advantage is that it won't hurt

I have considered something very similar for my phone, but I eventually got a femtocell from my service provider for $5 per month. Since it gives me free calls and they support it, I didn't bother going the passive route. I estimated I'd only get coverage within a tiny area and the femtocell covers the whole house.

That, and it would need another antenna on my roof. The neighbours already think my roof has some terrible ailment which causes it to grow whiskers