Cellular Phone Reviews

Wireless Extenders YX510-PCS-CEL Dual-Band Cell Phone-Signal Booster

The Wi-Ex zBoost cell zone signal booster is a revolutionary, patent-pending new product that improves indoor cell phone coverage. zBoost captures the wireless signal outside, brings it inside and enhances, or boosts it - extending a cell zone in your home or office or your car. Satisfy all your cellular phone needs with the Wireless Extenders YX510-PCS/CEL zBoost zP Wireless Booster, which works with both cellular frequencies (800 and 1900 MHz) and can extend cellular coverage up to 2500 square feet. This unit can handle signals from all the major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Alltel. The package includes everything you need: amplifier base unit, power supply, base unit antenna, low-loss SATV coaxial cable (RG6), signal antenna and mounting hardware. The omni-directional signal antenna receives signals from multiple cell towers.

Improve your cell signal with the dual-band YX510-PCS/CEL–perfect for boosting the signal of AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon frequencies up to 2500 square feet.

Using a revolutionary, patent pending technology that protects the carrier network, the YX300 improves indoor cell phone coverage by capturing and repeating the outside signal, bringing it into the building and enhancing it. This process creates a “Cell Zone” in your home or office. The Wireless Extenders zBoost system includes:

• Outdoor antenna (repeats the signal) can be installed outdoors above the roofline or indoors in the attic or near a window
• Coax cable (RG6- ultra low-loss, DBS satellite) connects from the outdoor antenna to the base unit
• Base unit: Sleekly designed, it amplifies the signal and provides oscillation detection/correction which protects the carrier network using patent-pending technology.
• Indoor antenna connects to the base unit to repeat the signal and create “Cell Zone”–no physical connection to the phone is needed.

Installation
Choosing the best location for installation of the Signal Antenna provides the best performance and the largest area of improved signal. Determine the location that provides the strongest signal using the signal strength indicator on your cell phone. For the best reception, find the location that provides the most bars of signal strength and locate the Signal Antenna at that location.

Specifications

• US PCS 1900 MHz band
  • Uplink: 1850 - 1910 MHz
  • Downlink: 1930 - 1990 MHz
• US Cellular 800/850 MHz band
  • Uplink: 824 - 849 MHz
  • Downlink: 869 - 894 MHz
• Network formats: CDMA, GSM, TDMA, AMPS, GPRS, EDGE, 1xRTT, EVDO, HSDPA
• Total Signal Gain: 60dB (adaptive)
• Output Power: less than 0.5 Watt EiRP (w/ included antenna)
• Unit weight: 1 pound
• Unit size: 5 x 7 x 2 inches
• Power input: 100-120 VAC 60 Hz
• Power output: 5VDC, 1.5A
• Signal antenna cable: Outdoor rated 75 ohm DBS satellite coaxial cable, Type-F male
• Base unit antenna: 50 ohm, TNC male

Note: If you need coverage for only one cellular carrier, check out the YX500/PCS (1900 MHz; Sprint and T-Mobile) or the YX500/CEL (800 MHz; AT&T and Verizon).

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great Product
We had to stand outside of house in a certain spot or we would lose the call before zboost.

After installing the unit, we now can make calls from inside the house in any room, and the internet speed (aircard) has increased dramatically.

Well worth the money, we can now cancel the home phone and save $600 a year.

5 Stars No bars to five bars!
I am ecstatic! No matter what I tried, I could not get reliable coverage for my iPhone here in my house in Chicago (Wicker Park). Complaining to AT&T didn’t help, so I was relegated to talking on my outside deck. I used to be lucky if the phone would even ring inside the house, and I could rarely actually talk from inside. With this device installed, I now get five bars throughout my entire house!

I installed my antenna on the roof, three stories up, using coax from a television antenna that was no longer in use (which the instructions say will give sub-optimal performance). Presto! I now have 4-5 bars throughout the house. No dropped calls, and very good audio quality. The total distance of my coax is about sixty feet and flows through three coax couplers, which is sub-optimal. Still, it has worked extremely well for me. I have the unit mounted in the utility closet, surrounded by metal pipes and duct work, with no discernible impact.

The three LEDs on the front have a lot of intelligence built into them — the rate of the flash and the pattern of the lights tell you how well the unit is receiving a signal from the phone and the tower — which was helpful in confirming things are working.

3 Stars Not A Magical Solution
I bought the $300 ZBoost 500 series dual band….I now have a functional cellular signal on the main floor of my old wooden home when I could not get one reliably prior to purchasing a cellular repeater box. It’s my understanding that this product does not “amplify” a cell signal from the antenna on the roof (or other location) to the box, it merely repeats an existing signal from the antenna you install to the location of the repeater box you are purchasing. Don’t be misled, the “amplification” talked about is once the signal gets to the repeater box, it is “broadcast” (maybe the manufacturer calls it “amplifies”) in some area around the location of this box. Prior to purchasing this ZBoost, I had a 1 to 2 bar marginal cell signal on the main floor of my home in a rural Michigan location. The signal was better on the second floor of my home. I installed the antenna as high as I could on the roof where the signal was strongest and ran the wire to the repeater box on the main floor. I now get a signal on the main floor of 2 to 3 bars and this works. It usually is best near the repeater box–just as others have reported. This box does not repeat the signal very far–nothing like what is advertised. Presumably more expensive repeaters will broadcast the signal farther.

5 Stars Went from 2 bar to 4-5 bars - AT&T
Installation can be complex - need to run an antenna across the house. Total install time with hiding the cable is about an hour.

But after I was done…across a 3600 sq ft house I went from 2 bars at best - to 4-5 bars.

Excellent product so far (been about a day).

5 Stars Works very well
My office is in the basement of my home. I only had one bar on my cell phone which is used for all long distance communication. It was not possible to use it in this location.

I placed the antenna, for this device, above my roof, where I get 4-5 bars.

The Signal booster in in an adjacent room. I now get 4 bars in my office.

It was easy to install and is well constructed.Wireless Extenders Cell Phone Signal Booster Dual Band YX510 PCS/CEL

Buy/More Info

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