said by tviles :

I was wondering about this. Watching a amplifier that is forsale and they quote this: Frequency: 824 MHz-894 MHz, 1850-1990Mhz band
Gain: Cell Site Controlled, Max 10/10
Max Output Power: up to 3 watts (Cell Site Controlled)

In real simple terms can you explain the Cell Site Controlled part to me? If I shoot a strong signal to a tower does it say: he is close don't send much signal back to him?

said by ChoP :

Ok Fellows, I have been running a little test the last few days with a HyperGain 900 MHz 15 dBi Die-cast Grid Antenna. Let me explain the conditions in which the test was run.

Tropical Storm Fay has been sitting right over the top of my house for two days. We have had 74-mph wind gust with sustained winds of between 45-mph to 25-mph. The Cell tower is 9.89 miles away. We have had 21 inches of rain in the last two days.

I tuned the sucker in on the tower Thursday afternoon. Without an outside antenna hooked to my pc5750 card I get nothing. With an omnidirectional antenna with ground plane and without the amp inline the best RSSI I can get is –87 to –93 most of the time it runs –89. With the amp inline I get around –78 to –81.

I installed the HyperGain 900 MHz Grid Antenna with 50 feet of LMR400 and peaked the dish with no amp inline and the RSSI was between –78 and –80.

For the last two days during the storm it has maintained a –79 to –83. I think I lost signal maybe three or four times today, but usually it only lasted maybe ten to fifteen seconds and it would pop right back. I figure it was the 74-mph wind gust whipping things around that made the signal drop.

You don’t have to have a line of sight for this Antenna, and I must say I am sold on it from the little experience I have had with it. It’s the best Antenna for 900 MHz I have used yet. It’s light and easy to put together but you would need to use it in a base station setup because it is 23.5 in deep x 39.3 in wide and is for 870 - 960 MHz but works well with the Alltel service I have.

Hope this helps, it’s easy to get confused when you first get into this stuff, as I found out!

said by tviles :

OK it's northwest, best reading I can get standing on the roof with yagi on a pole is -95. I am currently getting -90 using a mobile antenna in front yard four feet off the ground. Maxmost yagi, Sprint aircard. Cellgear mobile antenna. The 33 feet of coax concerns me at these freq's. The aircard can't be putting out much power and I wonder if it's getting burned up in 33 feet of RG-58 ???

said by Rural Installer :

I've got a question, so far I've had the Ec228 for about 3 days and have been extremly happy with it. Mainly because it picks up EVDO out where I live!! woo no need for Hughes. Now the other thing is, I just picked up Rev-A the other day!! but, the RSSI that Ive been getting has never gone below -80db, and that includes right at the tower itself with a 100% signal and I went up to DC today and picked up Rev-A there also and it still only gave a -80db RSSI. What gives? Even when its on DO and 1x the lowest it gets it -80... is there something wrong? anything I can do to get it lower as in a booster or amp/antenna. I was wondering only because with trying it right at the tower and even in Washington DC and still only getting -80 if there was something wrong.

said by leon007 :

Which kit are you referring to? From Alltel? Or the ones you sell?

I just got UM150 from Alltel and there is no 'great antenna'; the built in only works in 'city areas'.

Had to buy external yagi antenna to make it work (out in the sticks).

Still getting RSSI around -95dB, so still looking for clues on how to improve it...

said by ssjeb50 :

I just picked up the UT150 to test in my home. I also was getting a RSSI level of about -90 to -100. Instead of going with an expensive signal booster, I picked up a yagi antenna (maxmost.com), which you will need with your booster anyway, mounted it in my attic (comes with 33' of cable), pointed it in the direction of the tower, and my RSSI level dropped to -78 to -83. My connection is solid and I am very pleased with the performance of the service.

You will also need an antenna adapter to go from your card to the external antenna. I picked mine up at mycellularsolutions.com