Wi-Ex YX500-PCS zBoost Cell Phone Signal Extender (repeater)

A Wi-Ex YX500-PCS zBoost Cell Phone Signal Extender (repeater) was installed with a directional WX023 PCS panel donor antenna to improve cell phone coverage in our house. It works. We are happy with it. Been using it since April 2008.

We switched from alltel CDMA cell phones to AT&T (formerly Cingular) GSM cell phone service in 2007 when we purchased three Apple iPhones. We knew our voice service would suffer because of AT&T's poor coverage in our county, but we thought iPhone's data capabilities would be worth it. It was worth it but we really miss having acceptable voice coverage as we drive around and when inside our home. The cell phone repeater market has grown in recent years and after some research the Wi-Ex was purchased to try to remedy the signal problem inside our house.

Many forums and reviews claimed the Wi-Ex would work "if the directions are followed". It also seemed that a directional donor (external) antenna would ensure the best chance of the repeater working. The Wi-Ex brand has a good selection of external and internal antennas it also uses standard RG-6 cable with F connectors between the external antenna and the base unit. That would make customizing the cable easy. 

A strong signal (5 bars) is available outside our house in one location. The AT&T coverage viewer says our house is in the "moderate" coverage area and AT&T customer service says our area is "poor to marginal". The nearest tower is about 3 miles away. Inside our house we had acceptable coverage until they built two more houses on our street directly in line with the tower. We started dropping calls and enduring static and garbled voice unless we moved to one particular room beside the window. We had none to 3 bars of signal on the iPhones.

Initial tests of the repeater with the included omni-directional antenna were disappointing. Various locations were tried and much time wasted because we were not using the field test mode of the iPhone to determine the best external antenna location. Putting the iPhone into field test mode is easy per these instructions. It appears the "ST" or station parameter is the tower identifier and the "RX" number is the receive signal strength, probably in dBm on the Cell Information Page. A number like -70 is an excellent signal and -100 is very poor. The idea is to watch a specific ST (tower) and find an accessible location for the external antenna with the best signal, hopefully around -70.

The external antenna was installed in the attic to make it easier to route cables and avoid having to use ladders and fight the neighborhood aesthetic police. A location over our garage had the best signal, even better than a higher location in another part of the attic. Roughly aiming the external antenna resulted in -70 readings inside the house. Before the repeater we were getting -92 inside the house. This is a tremendous improvement because the signal strength numbers are logarithmic. The iPhone signal indicator went to 5 bars. The first floor of our house is about 1600 sq feet. This repeater works well for us. It wouldn't cover much more though. It loses a lot of signal with each wall it has to penetrate.

Data service is improved by the repeater also. According to the iPhone Network Test, our average data rate improved from 88Kbps to 166Kbps. There are many other factors affecting data rates, like network congestion but tests with the repeater off and on always showed an improvement. Sometimes as much as a factor of 4. We use Wi-Fi on the iPhones in the house so data rates were not really an issue.

Summary

• Use the phone test mode to display accurate signal strength when locating the external antenna and comparing with and without results.
• Buy a directional external antenna, don't bother with the omni directional one. Purchase enough (up to 70 feet) RG-6 coax cable and use rated couplers. If you don't have these at home, order them with the repeater unit to save shipping.
• Be sure to purchase the correct repeater for your cell phone's frequency. Check out the Buyer Guide for help.
• Cycle power on the repeater after any antenna disconnects.
• Follow the directions.