How to strengthen the cellular signal for the Internet in the country

Recommendation points

• Determine the cause of cellular network failures
• Recommended BS removal for different signal types
• Do “folk” methods of amplification work
• Installing the receiving antenna and repeater

Can you imagine modern life without the Internet and cellular communication? How can you conduct home improvement if all kinds of tips and tricks from your favorite construction portal are not available where they are so needed? There are some ways to improve and enhance the quality of signal reception, and today we will tell you about them..

Determine the cause of cellular network failures

Residents of cottage settlements far from the city limits are well aware of the problem of poor cellular coverage. It seems that the area is quite respectable, and the infrastructure is generally good, and mobile communications are constantly failing. This is understandable: the low population density makes the installation of new repeaters unprofitable, and you can’t keep up with modern new buildings?

The situation can be complicated by relief folds, forest plantations, high-voltage power lines and other obstacles that screen the signal or clog it with interference. And the conditions in the subscriber’s dwelling are not always favorable: the house may be in the lowland, the modem / telephone – below ground level. Walls can be thick and dense, and external cladding can be made of metal sheet materials – all this prevents the penetration of radio signals.

Difficulties with reception are also common due to low noise immunity of devices. Microwaves and microwave power equipment can create incredible amounts of interference and jam not only cellular communications, but also local wireless networks.

In rare cases, the problem is with the base station settings. Here it is, within line of sight, but the signal level is still weak even on the street. In this case, the issue is resolved exclusively by a collective (petition) appeal to the cellular company, in response to which the operator reconfigures the station and modulates the signal in accordance with the newly discovered “blind zone” in the coverage.

Recommended BS removal for different signal types

In open areas, the station provides identification by telephones within the range of up to 40-50 km, but reliable reception is possible only within a radius of about 30 km from the tower. There is another subtlety, which is that the station is not just a radio signal transmitter, as for FM receivers. Mobile communication is broadband, that is, the signal can be transmitted at different frequencies, depending on the type of transmission (SMS, calls, streaming Internet), plus the exchange of signals occurs in two-way.

The higher the established connection speed, the higher the transmission frequency should be, and the higher the frequency, the shorter the distance over which the radio wave can propagate in a solid environment. This explains the tolerable quality of GSM voice calls in the absence of 3G coverage, for which the transceiver is forced to work at a higher frequency..

The very first and most obvious way to establish a normal connection is to call the service provider’s call center with a request to optimize the connection parameters. So you can weed out a whole layer of problems associated with incorrect configuration of equipment. If it doesn’t help – welcome to the world of amplifiers, repeaters, receiving and transmitting antennas.

Do “folk” methods of amplification work

Going through the aforementioned technical means for amplifying the signal, one inevitably wonders: is it possible to assemble some kind of improvised device yourself, which is capable, if not of ensuring confident reception and transmission, then at least slightly improve the state of affairs?

Unfortunately, when it comes to a mobile phone, nothing can be done. You may be able to amplify the signal from the base station, but the power of the built-in transmitter of the phone to establish feedback will still be insufficient.

With modems, the situation is somewhat simpler. Their transmitter is less limited in power for the reason that the device is not mobile and there is no point in saving battery power. That is, in theory, the situation can be improved by building a directional antenna, but this is only in theory: there are many modem manufacturers and the details of their technical implementation are very different.

To amplify the signal, you will need a thin copper wire, for example, from a transformer of a household power supply or an inoperative phone charger. One end of it is soldered to the bottom of an aluminum can, the top of which is cut off, and the edges are loosened with “chamomile”. The bank is installed outside the building as high as possible, it is advisable to pin it on a long nail to be able to turn towards the signal source.

From the improvised antenna, the wire stretches along the shortest path to the receiving and transmitting device – a modem and a telephone. The wire should be as flat as possible, without turns and sharp bends – they increase the resistance of the conductor and folds and turns form distorting filters.

In the case of a modem, you need to remove the case and wind 4–5 turns of wire around the standard antenna. The antenna itself can be in the form of a copper strip or a section of a printed circuit board with a zigzag track, do not forget to first isolate the modem from the wire with a polyethylene strip cut from a disposable bag.

Some older generation phones are also subject to this modification. We need to find a GSM antenna that looks like a shiny brass cylinder about 2 mm in diameter with a small hole in the center. The hidden antenna can be either under the battery cover or deep in the bowels of the device. The hole in the center is a diagnostic connector for temporarily connecting an external antenna; you do not need to stick anything into it, otherwise there is a great risk of overloading the transmitter. Instead, tie a self-tightening loop on the wire and throw it over the surface of the metal cylinder..

Of course, such methods, conventionally referred to as passive amplification, do not provide any guarantee of success. They are suitable only as a way of broadcasting a signal from the street, if it does not penetrate into the building for some implicit reason. But there are methods that can provide you with amazing speed even at a great distance from the base station..

Installing the receiving antenna and repeater

The standard active amplifier kit includes three devices:

The receiving (donor) antenna is very similar to a television antenna, but the dimensions of its elements are designed to receive waves with a length characteristic of the cellular frequency. Install the receiving antenna as high as possible and away from strong sources of high-frequency interference. Usually it is mounted on the roof ridge, but always below the lightning rod, because the active amplification complex, as a rule, does not have a galvanic isolation.

The signal repeater (repeater) receives a weak signal received from the antenna, removes all unnecessary from it and amplifies it enough to provide coverage in a small area. The repeater can be installed anywhere in the chain, but usually it is located as close as possible to the terminal of the ground loop, if the function of lightning protection grounding is provided in the design.

The internal antenna is used to transmit the amplified signal from the repeater, as well as to receive the signal from the phone and transmit it back to the base station through the repeater and the donor antenna. As you can see, the scheme is quite simple and clear, but the internal antenna must be located at a sufficient distance from the donor antenna and, preferably, there is no line of sight between them, otherwise the mechanism for suppressing the complex’s own radiation will not work normally.

1 – GSM base station; 2 – external antenna; 3 – repeater; 4 – power divider (splitter); 5 – internal antennas