Improving signal strength for Optus mobile hotspot

[native pepper]

Anyone tried one of these or similar, find they work pretty well when the signal is weak.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3G-4G-Signa ... gi-Antenna

[Busman]

hotspot.jpg

[T1 Terry]

Terry at one stage you could get an external antenna that 'connected' to your phone by wrapping around it like velcro. Not sure if they still sell them now?

Hadn't though about a passive connect antenna. This mob have an aerial that will give between a 4.5 and 6.5 dB gain on any carrier frequency and they say the best passive connection is via a specific designed cradle to suit the phone. https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/rfi-cd ... le-antenna
So the cost of the aerial and a suitable cradle brings the cost down to around the $300 mark, much better, might even get a second aerial and mount it on that old TV aerial at the house, that should get it up in the air high enough to clear the shadow from the hill.

T1 Terry

[BruceS]

Hang off for a couple of weeks Terry as I've been told there will be a day or two with no, or little, internet while improvements are made to 'infrastructure'. Might make a difference if it's enlarging backbone capacity.

[Noggins]

You say you and margaret have Samsung phones.....?

With Some of the Samsung when you take the back off there is a very small pin connection point that's supposed to be for data loading etc just above the battery.

If you were to use this pin connection and add a 6Db aerial as high as you can above anything metal if there's any signal to be found it will be there.
Jaycar used to stock the antenna connections, on my old S3 I drilled a small hole in the case and had a peice od a bandaid over the hole and put it into a shell type case.
When I wanted extra reception I take it out of the case , flip back the bandaid and plug in aerial, being VERY Careful not to damage the motherboard in the process.


Ron.

[T1 Terry]

You say you and margaret have Samsung phones.....?

With Some of the Samsung when you take the back off there is a very small pin connection point that's supposed to be for data loading etc just above the battery.

If you were to use this pin connection and add a 6Db aerial as high as you can above anything metal if there's any signal to be found it will be there.
Jaycar used to stock the antenna connections, on my old S3 I drilled a small hole in the case and had a peice od a bandaid over the hole and put it into a shell type case.
When I wanted extra reception I take it out of the case , flip back the bandaid and plug in aerial, being VERY Careful not to damage the motherboard in the process.


Ron.

I read about that port and it is there apparently on my S5 dual sim phone, but they mention the connection is very flimsy so it would require a cradle to hold it in place anyway. My phone lives in a protective cover, something required to save its life because my phones tend to get a rather rough life. I just realised the whole cradle idea won't work anyway because of this protective cover so I'd need to remove it from the cover each time to put it in the cradle .... just asking for a phone killing fatality when I'm involved in the process
Maybe I can drill a hole in the protective case and the back cover of the phone so the plug can be lined up and a Velcro attachment much like Bruce mentioned would hold it all in place. That would do away with the need for a cradle so I'd only need an aerial and extension and adaptor for home, the motorhome(s) and maybe the workshop.
I'll wait a while for the home and workshop ones to see if we really need them, but one that will do both Telstra and Optus on the motorhome would be good.

T1 Terry

[Barboots]

Late to thread, but my experiment with the port inside a spare Galaxy S6 we had lying around was disappointing. I bought a lead to run from the phone port to an RF connector and an antenna and then leader with a matching connector. It was SMA I think...

Anyway I managed to secure the slightest improvement. A signal strength app put it in the vicinity between 1dB and 2dB absolute maximum. I think the losses in the connectors and thin coax cable ate up most of the gain from the antenna improvement. Perhaps "base station" grade wiring would be better... however it would have been impractical for the usage case.

I also bought an inductive mount for my HTC at the time, and it provided at best 0dB gain [emoji849] with the same antenna above. To achieve this required the phone to be half hanging out of the cradle for optimum coupling. Most times reception was worse than when unassisted.

We now elevate one device and access it with another, then swap over. I find that selecting a handset with the most appropriate frequency support for your carrier and area makes a bigger difference than anything.

Cheers, Steve

[Barboots]

Anyone tried one of these or similar, find they work pretty well when the signal is weak.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3G-4G-Signa ... gi-Antenna

The link is now dead but 99.99% of these are illegal. If anyone (like me) finds one being used... which would be to the detriment of all others... they would be fully documented for follow up by the Regulator.

Cellfi or whatever it's called is the only product which doesn't impact other's reception. They're expensive.

[native pepper]

Anyone tried one of these or similar, find they work pretty well when the signal is weak.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/3G-4G-Signa ... gi-Antenna

The link is now dead but 99.99% of these are illegal. If anyone (like me) finds one being used... which would be to the detriment of all others... they would be fully documented for follow up by the Regulator.

Cellfi or whatever it's called is the only product which doesn't impact other's reception. They're expensive.

Been using mine for awhile, never had a complaint from anyone, other than to ask of they could use it where there wasn't a good signal and know quite a few other real travellers who have them and never received a complaint. Checked their legality before buying and they are fine, just like lots of cellular phone repeater/boosters you can get on ebay and many other places. Sounds like wouldn't want to know somwone like you, who would go out of their way to cause trouble for those who travel almost full time and like to have decent reception wherever they go.

[BruceS]

OK, cool it people please?
I don't think that comment was called for really.

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