Cell phone accessories questions.

Saw another ad for those cell phone antennae boosters on ebay. You know the ones that you attach to the battery. Do they really work? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif reason I ask is that I was gonna save a few bucks and get a car charger on ebay and there was a travel kit w/ a wall charger, a car charger, and the antennae booster for $5.95! What a deal compared to the $30 factory charges for car charger alone. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Oh, and all those flashing batteries and faceplates and antennaes, do they eat up the power and deplete run/stand by time? Also saw Lith-io batteries too, they worthwhile to get?

I live in a concrete laced apartment complex. I'm on the bottom floor, and the top floor is concreted as well. There's no reception whatsoever when I'm in the apartment...

Bought 2 of these boosters for $10 (special), and slapped them both onto the battery...

Squat... Diddly. No improvements whatsoever. Inside the apartment, the cell is a good as dead...

Now, the only improvement I do pick up is a noticeable clarity in the transmittance of voice when I DO get a reception.

So the moral of the story behind these thin "boosters" is: it ain't gonna get you reception if you're in the middle of the ocean... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif Don't expect to see a signal where there's no signal in the first place... If there is a signal to begin with, then the booster will give you a better clarity in transmittance... Quite frankly, I think it's worth maybe $.50...

One came with something for free a while back, and it was barely worth THAT. Don't go out of your way, but if it costs you nothing, there is no harm in sticking it in - unless you have my problem of a REALLY tight fitting battery. I couldn't actually fit it between the battery and the phone without holding the battery on with my hand. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Li-Ion batteries are fantastic, typically. Wish I had them in one of my cars.

I just bought a Li-ion battery for my Nokia 3390. It is well worth the $10 shipped.

Yeah...ebay is great for accessories. I just got two car chargers for $10 shipped...same thing at radio shack would have been $30 each! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

It seems to me that Nokia, Motorola, and others have an interest in producing a phone with good RF performance. If sticking a vaguely TV antenna shaped piece of foil between the metal batteries and the metal case back of the phone would improve the phone, it would be there. I got one free with an ebay charger and threw it in the trash. The only problem is my waste basket keeps waking me up with wrong numbers.

The booster things are about as worthwhile as the little screens they sell to block the signal going into your head /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif The reality of how CDMA phones work is like this. Several times a second while you're talking the tower is constantly measuring your received power and sending back adjustment information. Your phone only uses as much power as is absolutely necessary and it adjusts as you turn around or walk in and out of rooms and what have you. So if you boost your reception or transmission efficiency the phone will just reduce the amount of power it sends out, so it won't actually improve your reception at all. It can't.

The same, but opposite holds true for those signal blocker things. If you really blocked the output, the phone would just up it's broadcast power until the same amount of power was received by the tower. All it would do was run your battery down faster /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

That being said I have MUCH better results with the LiIon battery in my cellphone than the NiMH one. Those are definitely worth the money. The receiver things are not.

What I learned about those stick on antenna's. NONE OF THEM WORK!

Some of them are not even metal, people have taken nail polish remover and can remover all the "metal" on the sticker with a cotton ball!

Do you know there are people as wierd as we are, on Cell Phones?????:

Howard Forums - A GREAT Forum for Cell Phones!

.wirelessadvisor.com ANOTHER GREAT DISCUSSION GROUP!

.sprintusers.com

A Quick WORD about Sprint PCS service. For years, I thought that Sprint PCS was HORRIBLE. I had, what I thought was the best phone I could buy, a Motorala TimePort (I had three, beacuse I lost the phone, and had insurance).

When my last motorola died, I bought (after researching it extensivly) SANYO 4900, and I LOVE IT! SPRINT did not suck, my old phone did. This phone is GREAT. While the color display is nice, the CLARITY, reception, battery life, and everything else is just incredible. I wanted a flip phone, but this phone is just awesom. So I can't be Captn Kirk anymore, I can use this phone like I can my house phone. And it has a speaker phone built right into it, so I can use it hands free, in the car.

Real antenna Boosters!

MORE REAL Antennas for Cell Phones

wilsonelectronics.com - MORE serious Antennas

More Antenna's

I got one of those "cellphone antenna boosters" free after buying some s**t on ebay awhile back, and never got around to putting it in. And I probably never will either, since the only bad reception I've ever had was in and near the elevators at the hospital. Every once in awhile, I'd get "No Service" displayed on my phone at the nurse's station, but otherwise I'd get 3 or more bars on the 5-bar signal strength meter. And around here, I get 4-5 bars showing all the time.

Stick-on cellphone antenna booster... what a bunch of horse puckey. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

[ QUOTE ]
BuddTX said:
Do you know there are people as wierd as we are, on Cell Phones?????:

Howard Forums - A GREAT Forum for Cell Phones!

.wirelessadvisor.com ANOTHER GREAT DISCUSSION GROUP!

.sprintusers.com

A Quick WORD about Sprint PCS service. For years, I thought that Sprint PCS was HORRIBLE. I had, what I thought was the best phone I could buy, a Motorala TimePort (I had three, beacuse I lost the phone, and had insurance).

When my last motorola died, I bought (after researching it extensivly) SANYO 4900, and I LOVE IT! SPRINT did not suck, my old phone did. This phone is GREAT. While the color display is nice, the CLARITY, reception, battery life, and everything else is just incredible. I wanted a flip phone, but this phone is just awesom. So I can't be Captn Kirk anymore, I can use this phone like I can my house phone. And it has a speaker phone built right into it, so I can use it hands free, in the car.

Real antenna Boosters!

MORE REAL Antennas for Cell Phones

wilsonelectronics.com - MORE serious Antennas

More Antenna's

[/ QUOTE ]

That's funny...I'm a member of all of those forums as well. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif I just got sprint service with a sanyo 8100...I LOVE it.

I hate to admit it but I bought 10 of the boosters a while back. I have two on my phone now. I won't tell you they work but I will testify to the fact I have an area near my house where I dropped the call every single time. I put on the antennas and now I lose the call 1 out of 10 times. It gets very weak but it hangs on.

I can't help but think of these when I see those stick on signal boosters-

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

Egghead... Conehead...

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif