If a salesperson makes recommendations before listening to your problems and is casual about your concerns, chances are that he or she cares more about his or her income than about doing right by you.

On the flip side, there are always going to be people who will buy a cheaper model of a manufacturer's product than is actually needed, thinking that it just might perform as well as the more powerful, more expensive model. The rest of that thought process is "if it doesn't do it, no skin off my nose. I'll just return it for a refund". I get that.

I also get that most people should be able to get a good sense of which type of salesperson they are dealing with. If the salesperson is spending a good amount of time in an effort to determine what the customer's real wants and needs are before making recommendations, there is a good chance that the customer is talking to an ethical salesperson. If that salesperson then explains why he or she is recommending one product over another, you can be pretty sure of it.

Wilson Electronics has a number of cellular signal repeater systems that are engineered and manufactured to solve various cellular signal problems. They range in performance from one that will cover a single room or two in a building to ones that can project a signal through a huge manufacturing facility or big box retailer.

We, at UnwiredSignal.com, go through time-consuming efforts before recommending the products that will solve the customer's problem, without over- selling him or her. We do this for three reasons:

1. It is right for all concerned.
2. It builds good will.
3. It is the way we would like to be treated.

So, don't be offended if we refuse to sell you a product of ours. We may tell you that you will have to get us an outside signal reading before we can sell it to you. We may tell you that what your friend purchased just will not work for you. And, we may tell you that you are trying to get a Camaro to perform like a Corvette and it simply will not do it.

In other words, a $350 system meant to cover a room or two with a cellular signal simply will not cover your 2,000 square foot home with a signal; that it will take the $690 system. Or, that the $340 mobile wireless repeater system meant to project a signal 4 feet will not cover your 30 foot motor home, no matter how strong the outside antenna you want to add to it is; that it will take the one we designed for that job, which costs $660.

But, we will always work with you to solve your cellular signal problems instead of selling you a bunch of “stuff” you don’t need.

And, we will always tell you the truth, even if it is not what either of us wants to hear.

Thanks,

David Jones, Chief Cook & Bottle Washer

Like a lot of things on the internet it gets confusing going from site to site with each one seemingly giving different information and claiming there's is the best. We've taken the time to explain it, wihtout trying to make an engineer out of the reader.

This will allow you to compare yagi's "apples to apples".

The yagi antenna : The most common directional cell phone signal booster antenna is known as the yagi. It is named after its inventor, who created it in 1908. It is the antenna of choice with most cellular signal professionals when needing high, consistent performance.

Yagi Antennas are generally used as outside, or “donor” antennas. Yagi’s for cell phone use are normally single band, meaning they are engineered and made to work for 800 MHz or 1900 MHz, but not both. Some Internet sellers claim to have dual band yagi antennas, but the ones tested by two major antenna manufacturers we deal with have found that one of the two signals suffers. This is because antennas for lower frequencies need more surface area than higher frequencies.

A yagi antenna is made with a number of vertical bars, or elements mounted onto a longer horizontal bar. A drawing of a typical yagi antenna is shown below:

Yagi antennas cannot receive or transmit a signal from the side or rear, only the front.

dBi vs. dB: These are designations used in describing the amount of gain an antenna offers above the current signal strength of the device to be used, like a cell phone. dBi is always two numbers higher than dB. Therefore, a 13 dBi antenna has the same gain as an 11 dB antenna. The designation used is simply at the discretion of the user. This is important to know so that you can compare “apples to apples” when comparison shopping.

Gain: Because of the nature of radio frequency signals most yagi antennas generate a maximum of 13 dBi gain. Additional gain achievement quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns.

Example: A typical 800 MHz 13 dBi yagi is about 32 inches long. To achieve a 2 dBi increase, to 15dBi, the surface area (length) has to be approximately doubled.

Therefore, beware of claims of more than 13 dBi for yagi antennas made for use at the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies.

Applications: Yagi antennas are generally pole mounted and elevated, to get over obstacles that block the line-of-sight. One reason they are so highly recommended is that the high gain allows them to be elevated without causing significant gain loss do to the use of longer lengths of coax cable usually needed to pole mount the antenna.

Example: LMR400 coax cable (Wilson 9913) loses four tenths of a dB per ten feet at 850 MHz. So a fifty foot length loses a total of 2 dB’s. 9 dB is still available to the connected device (cell phone, etc.) as the net gain from a 11 dB gain antenna.

The extra gain of the yagi is necessary for many rural and remote applications. Most repeater systems use this cable to get as much signal to the amplifier as possible.

Your Frequency : To determine whether you need a 800 or 1900 MHz yagi, go to UnwiredSignal.com and click “Find Your Frequency”.

Your Tower Location: Since the yagi antenna needs to point towards your service providers tower, you need to know where it is. There are three easy ways to find the location of your tower. They are:

1. If the location where the yagi is to be used is not blocked by trees or taller buildings around it, just walk around the building’s perimeter with your cell phone. The side of the building with the strongest signal reading is usually the direction of your tower.

2. Call your service provider’s customer service and ask. If they won’t give it to you, don’t argue. Simply hang up and radial. The next person is likely to say they are happy to give the tower location to you.

3. Mount the antenna, connect it into the cell phone or laptop air card’s external antenna port, if it is equipped with one. Then turn the yagi in 10 degree increments until you have the strongest signal. To do this you will need the correct adapter that allows the antenna’s cable to plug into the cell phone or air card.

To find the correct antenna adapter or to view examples of cell phone external antenna port locations Click Here.

NOTE: You cannot hold a yagi antenna to attempt to tune it in. To tune the yagi antenna, it should be mounted on a metal pole where you plan to permanently use it. You must completely remove your hand each time you turn the yagi and wait 5-10 seconds before looking for a signal strength change.

Phone Test Modes : Many cell phones can be put into “field test” mode for signal strength testing. This allows you to read the signal strength in decibels instead of bars. You can get to “field test” mode with just a few key strokes.

NOTE : The signal strength is shown as a negative number; it will have a minus sign in front. Therefore, the lower the number, the stronger the signal. So -75 indicates a stronger signal than -85.

To find the menu to put your cell phone or PDA into field test mode click UnwiredSignal.com , then click “Technical Support”.

Signal Distance : If mounted properly, with line-of-sight to the signal (not necessarily the tower) you seek a high gain yagi antenna will send and receive signals for miles.

You can expect even higher performance when a high gain yagi antenna, like the 13 dBi gain Wilson 301111 is used with a Wilson direct connect 3 watt amplifier .

Example: Our customers successfully use the type applications 25-30 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and for numerous other remote applications.

Yagi antennas are often the antenna of choice when using a wireless repeater system like the Wilson 801245 Small Office Home Office System and the Wilson 801106 wireless repeater system for large and/or weaker outside signal applications .

Type of Coax Cable Needed: The type and length of coax cable that should be used with any cell phone signal booster antenna, air card and/or amplifier is dependent upon the frequency that the antenna operates. The factors to determining the type and length of coax cable that should be used are as follows:

1. RG8X Coax should not be used in 1900 MHz applications. It should not be used in lengths of over forty feet when used at 800 MHz. It is double shielded, is considered low loss cable, but it still loses 7.7 dB per one hundred feet at 800 MHz.

LMR400 Coax should be used with all 1900 MHz applications, most wireless repeater (booster) systems and lengths of over forty feet at 800MHz.

If you have questions about cellular signal booster antennas, amplifiers or wireless repeater systems go to UnwiredSignal.com or call us at our store, located at 1902A Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75206 214-774-2588 or toll free 888-713-1243.

That's one of the things that makes us dffierent. We want to know what your signal problem is. We want to know a number of other things about your current signal, your building, where you live and more.And we want to know what you'd like the end result to be.

We've got to know about these things because we can't recommend the correct products to solve your signal problem without knowing.

I'll add to this on a semi-regular basis, once or twice a week, to help clear up some things that shouldn't have been muddy to begin with.

But, the Cowboys will start beating up on the Giants in about 15 minutes, so bye for now.................

David Jones

214-744-2588 CST - M-F

888-713-1243 toll free

Cell Phone Signal Booster Yagi Antennas

A directional antenna is one that must be pointed toward the signal it is seeking.  

The yagi antenna:  The most common directional cell phone signal booster antenna is known as the yagi.  It is named after its inventor, who created it in 1908. It is the antenna of choice with most cellular signal professionals when needing high, consistent  performance.

Yagi Antennas  are generally used as outside, or “donor” antennas.  Yagi’s for cell phone use are normally single band, meaning they are engineered and made to work for 800 MHz or 1900 MHz, but not both.  Some Internet sellers claim to have dual band yagi antennas, but the ones tested by two major antenna manufacturers we deal with have found that one of the two signals suffers.  This is because antennas for lower frequencies need more surface area than higher frequencies.

A yagi antenna is made with a number of vertical bars, or elements mounted onto a longer horizontal bar. A drawing of a typical yagi antenna is shown below:

Yagi antennas cannot receive or transmit a signal from the side or rear, only the front.

dBi vs. dB: These are designations used in describing the amount of gain an antenna offers above the current signal strength of the device to be used, like a cell phone.  dBi is always two numbers higher than dB. Therefore, a 13 dBi antenna has the same gain as an 11 dB antenna. The designation used is simply at the discretion of the user. This is important to know so that you can compare “apples to apples” when comparison shopping.

Gain:  Because of the nature of radio frequency signals most yagi antennas generate a maximum of 13 dBi gain.  Additional gain achievement quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns.

Example:  A typical 800 MHz 13 dBi yagi is about 32 inches long.  To achieve a 2 dBi increase, to 15dBi, the surface area (length) has to be approximately doubled.

Therefore, beware of claims of more than 13dBi for yagi antennas made for use at the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequencies.

Applications:  Yagi antennas are generally pole mounted and elevated, to get over obstacles that block the line-of-sight.  One reason they are so highly recommended is that the high gain allows them to be elevated without causing significant gain loss do to the use of longer lengths of coax cable usually needed to pole mount the antenna.

Example: LMR400 coax cable (Wilson 9913) loses four tenths of a dB per ten feet at 850 MHz.  So a fifty foot length loses a total of 2 dB’s.  9 dB is still available to the connected device (cell phone, etc.) as the net gain from a 11 dB gain antenna.

The extra gain of the yagi is necessary for many rural and remote applications.  Most repeater systems use this cable to get as much signal to the amplifier as possible.

Your Frequency:  To determine whether you need a 800 or 1900 MHz yagi, go to UnwiredSignal.com and click “Find Your Frequency”.

Your Tower Location:  Since the yagi antenna needs to point towards your service providers tower, you need to know where it is. There are three easy ways to find the location of your tower.  They are:

1. If the location where the yagi is to be used is not blocked by trees or taller buildings around it, just walk around the building’s perimeter with your cell phone.  The side of the building with the strongest signal reading is usually the direction of your tower.

2.  Call your service provider’s customer service and ask.  If  they won’t give it to you, don’t argue.  Simply hang up and radial.  The next person is likely to say they are happy to give the tower location to you. 

3.     Mount the antenna, connect it into the cell phone or laptop air card’s external antenna port, if it is equipped with one.  Then turn the yagi in 10 degree increments until you have the strongest signal.  To do this you will need the correct adapter that allows the antenna’s cable to plug into the cell phone or air card.

To find the correct antenna adapter or to view examples of cell phone external antenna port locations  Click Here (1).

NOTE:  You cannot hold a yagi antenna to attempt to tune it in.  You cannot mount it on a PVC or wood pole to do it.  To tune the yagi antenna, it should be mounted on a metal pole where you plan to permanently use it.  You must completely remove your hand each time you turn the yagi and wait 5-10 seconds before looking for a signal strength change.

Phone Test Modes:  Many cell phones can be put into “field test” mode for signal strength testing.  This allows you to read the signal strength in decibels instead of bars.  You can get to “field test” mode with just a few key strokes.

NOTE:  The signal strength is shown as a negative number; it will have a minus sign in front.  Therefore, the lower the number, the stronger the signal.  So -75 indicates a stronger signal than -85.

To find the menu to put your cell phone or PDA into field test mode click UnwiredSignal.com, then click “Technical Support”.

Signal Distance:  If mounted properly, with line-of-sight to the signal (not necessarily the tower) you seek a high gain yagi antenna will send and receive signals for miles.

You can expect even higher performance when a high gain yagi antenna, like the 13 dBi gain Wilson 301111 is used with a Wilson direct connect 3 watt amplifier (4).

Example: Our customers successfully use the type applications 25-30 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico and for numerous other remote applications.

Yagi antennas are often the antenna of choice when using a wireless repeater system like the Wilson 801245 Small Office Home Office System (5) and the Wilson 801106 wireless repeater system for large and/or weaker outside signal applications (6).

Type of Coax Cable Needed:  The type and length of coax cable that should be used with any cell phone signal booster antenna, air card and/or amplifier is dependent upon the frequency that the antenna operates.  The factors to determining the type and length of coax cable that should be used are as follows:

1. RG8X Coax should not be used in 1900 MHz applications.  It should not be used in lengths of over forty feet when used at 800 MHz.  It is double shielded, is considered low loss cable, but it still loses 7.7 dB per one hundred feet at 800 MHz. 

LMR400 Coax should be used with all 1900 MHz applications, most wireless repeater (booster) systems and lengths of over forty feet at 800MHz.

If you have questions about cellular signal booster antennas, amplifiers or wireless repeater systems go to UnwiredSignal.com or call us at our store, located at 1902A Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75206  214-774-2588 or toll free 888-713-1243.

David Jones,

Owner

UnwiredSignal.com

What do an MP3 player, a GPS navigation system, digital cameras, e-mail, video games, and browsing the Web have in common? They are things you can do on a cell phone other than talk. Well, here's another to add to the list: airline boarding pass.

According to a story I spotted at USA Today's Web site, Continental Airlines says it will begin allowing customers to substitute paper boarding passes with a cell phone-based boarding pass system.

For the next three months Continental will test the system out of the Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. It won't be the first, according the news report. Since September Air Canada has been using the system and allowing user to board aircrafts with their cell phone or PDA - sans a paper pass.

The Paperless Boarding Pass program, as it's called, was devised by the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA says the chief advantages of the cell phone-based boarding passes are that they are harder to forge than the paper equivalent and that they will reduce the number of lost paper boarding passes it has to deal with.

Here is how the program works: The airline sends a message to the air traveler's cell phone at time of check-in. Next, when passengers go through a security checkpoint or boards their plane instead of pulling out a paper boarding pass all they have to do is present their cell phone and the electronic boarding pass message they received at check-in. The message, which includes a cryptic code, is scanned by a TSA agent using a handheld scanner.

By Scott Nichols http://www.pcworld.com

Oil company Chevron and leading carriers AT&T, Verizon want to join the bidders, which include Google.

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

Wednesday, December 19, 2007 6:30 AM PST

AT&T and Verizon Wireless want to go up against other current mobile operators and some possible future competitors, including Google, in next month's auction for 700MHz wireless spectrum around the U.S.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday released lists of accepted and incomplete applications for the auction, in which it will sell licenses to frequencies that are set to be vacated by analog TV stations. It has accepted 96 applications and reported 170 as incomplete. The latter need to be completed by Jan. 4.

AT&T and Verizon are not surprise entrants but are the country's biggest mobile operators. If either carrier won a portion of the spectrum that has been designated for use by any device and any service, it would have to open up its network more than any big U.S. operator ever has. Verizon has already unveiled part of a plan to further open its network.

They were on the list of incomplete applications, along with smaller mobile operators Alltel and MetroPCS. Cable operator Cox Communications, an archrival of the telecommunications giants, is also preparing an application. And cellular technology giant Qualcomm, which is already building a mobile entertainment network on vacated TV channels, is also gearing up to bid. Would-be bidders with incomplete applications have until Jan. 4 to complete their paperwork.

Google earlier this year offered to participate in the auction in return for the FCC imposing open-network requirements. The booming Internet company's involvement could drive up bids all around, helping the government reap its hoped-for $10 billion payday for the spectrum. Google's application has already been accepted, the FCC said Tuesday. So has that of Towerstream, a wireless broadband provider to businesses.

One surprise applicant yet to complete its papers is oil giant Chevron.

Participation by Chevron in the auction comes "out of the blue," said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. However, oil companies and utilities are big wireless users, so he can see why Chevron might be interested.

Chevron, like Google, is unlikely to actually build a network, though, he said. "I can see them potentially winning but then becoming landlords, renting it out," he said. For both companies, that decision wouldn't be based on the cost of building a network but on the experience required: Neither company has any history of constructing and operating a wireless network, a complicated undertaking.

Sprint's New Modem Air Card Adds GPS and Removable Storage.............. 

A cellular modem that plugs into your laptop's USB port is one of the easiest ways to get Web access almost anywhere. However, Sprint's Ovation U727 from Novatel Wireless does more: It also adds GPS and removable media storage. (The list price is $130, but rebates may be available.)

The modem supports Sprint's EvDO Revision A network, which promises average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second to 1.4 megabits per second and average upload speeds of 350 to 500 kbps. If EvDO is out of range, the modem should connect at CDMA 1xRTT speed, averaging 50 kbps.

Sprint offers two service plans: $40 for 40MB of data usage per month without a contract, or unlimited usage for $60 per month with a two-year contract.

The modem's embedded GPS receiver and software worked great; it identified my laptop's location, so I didn't need to enter my address manually in an online mapping tool. By default, the app launches Microsoft Live's maps on your browser automatically, showing both your location and those of nearby points of interest. If you prefer, you can use Google Maps, MapQuest, or Yahoo Maps instead.

The U727, which is about the size of a small pack of chewing gum, includes a slot for a microSD memory card (you must buy that separately; a 2GB card is about $40). The device works like an external drive when shuttling files between your phone and your PC.

Would I buy this product? Absolutely. It's an easy way to get a broadband connection anywhere Sprint's network is available. It's also a good option for folks who want to browse the Web during a long commute.

For external signal boosters for many air card models, UnwiredSignal.com.