Sure Call Cell Phone Booster question

Status
Not open for further replies.

kas1263

Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2007
Messages
111
Location
Boons Camp, KY
I have had a Sure CAll Cell Phone Booster since 2018 and it has worked great in my home that has a tin roof. Recently my cell phone hasn't been working so good at home and I noticed the LTE-A light blinks and the Cellular Light is off. I have turned off the device in an attempt to reset it to no avail and am wondering if anyone has any hints out there?
 

RaleighGuy

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 15, 2014
Messages
13,125
Location
Raleigh, NC
I have had a Sure CAll Cell Phone Booster since 2018 and it has worked great in my home that has a tin roof. Recently my cell phone hasn't been working so good at home and I noticed the LTE-A light blinks and the Cellular Light is off. I have turned off the device in an attempt to reset it to no avail and am wondering if anyone has any hints out there?

And, just curious, how is this a general scanning question?
 

Walter0954

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
26
Location
Elkins Arkansas
I’ve had the some issues with my signal also.it goes in and out.I think AT&T has issues with their tower we have called them and explained to them that the service has declined dramatically in the last few months.I just reset the unit some times that works.we have better service in the early morning.which is strange.
 

mmckenna

I ♥ Ø
Joined
Jul 27, 2005
Messages
23,617
Location
Hiding in a coffee shop.
I have had a Sure CAll Cell Phone Booster since 2018 and it has worked great in my home that has a tin roof. Recently my cell phone hasn't been working so good at home and I noticed the LTE-A light blinks and the Cellular Light is off. I have turned off the device in an attempt to reset it to no avail and am wondering if anyone has any hints out there?

Which model are you using, and did you read the manual describing what the LED's indicate?

Usually the common problem with these is either damage to the coaxial cable. That could be physical damage, or water intrusion from incorrectly sealed outdoor connections.
The other common problem is self oscillation. Self oscillation will result in the system shutting itself down, as required by the FCC. Self oscillation is when the outdoor antenna and the indoor antenna are too close and there is essentially a feedback loop going on. The fix for that is to increase separation of the antennas.
 

amcferrin90

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Mar 11, 2015
Messages
267
Location
Pickerington, OH
@kas1263
The flashing light on those usually means oscillation or attenuation. From there it depends on the color. It's normal to flash yellow, that means that it's using attenuation to reduce signal. If it's flashing red then there's too much signal present or if it's flashing yellow/red you have an oscillation problem. I dislike Surecall for the overall general assumptions they make with their hardware and the fact they're broadband amps. You really need something to check signal levels to help you out. What's the chance you have a SDR device? Which device do you have?

A couple recommendations: Turn off the bands you're not using. It's creating noise to the macro towers. If you have a flashing red LED on LTE-A then turn the gain down some. After a period of time flashing red, it will just turn off the band and go solid red.
 

Walter0954

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2018
Messages
26
Location
Elkins Arkansas
I think the one I have is the fusion4home.the LTE-A light always links yellow.LTC is set on 45.cellular is on 45.PCS is off and AWS is off.LTE is on 54.
 

Bustergrn

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
45
Location
396' AGL
There are so many factors that could affect repeater performance. First is the quality of the unit. Being your unit is 4 years old, its safe to say the quality is/was above average. Many commercial repeaters (read: Amazon-able) can cause really bad interference issues for RAN networks due to poor quality and poor installation. In your case, it seems to be installed correctly and safe as you've not had a visit from the field engineer or FCC.

From the carrier side, it's not out of the ordinary for physical, mechanical and electrical tilts to be adjusted based on coverage/capacity needs. Much of these tilts, especially electrical, would be unnoticed as they don't require a tower crew. Some of our newer SON tools can manage this functionality automagically based on real time subscriber needs. Even azimuths can be changed based on network needs.

Carrier-management could also be a culprit. Depending on the carrier being used for data flow from the donor site, changes to carrier aggregation methods (ex: 2-way to 4-way MIMO upgrades), band utilization, bandwidth changes, addition of 5G low band aggregation, etc can change the user-experience.

There are so many things that could affect the way your static, directional repeater antenna and 4 year old repeater unit operate. Unfortunately, I only know the operation of the repeater units we deploy. We also don't normally deploy single household repeater units aside from a product we offer, up to BDAs and In-Building small cells. We will rely on our internal network performance information, sourced from all connected handsets in real-time and historically, to make site tilt changes and direct decisions for site upgrades/new site deployments (capacity/coverage).

Hope you get it sorted out.
 

Bustergrn

Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
Messages
45
Location
396' AGL
Sorry for the double post, didn't see this post and wanted to discuss...

@kas1263
It's creating noise to the macro towers.

While I doubt this is an issue at this point because your unit has been in operation for 4-years without a visit from a field engineer or FCC letter, Oscillation can cause interference back to the donor site. Macro sites aren't the only sites susceptible to it. Small cells are more and more common in neighborhoods to deal with directed, specific coverage/capacity issues. 5G small cell deployment also enables the carrier to dual-load the 5G site with 4G to help with 4G coverage/capacity gaps.

@kas1263
You really need something to check signal levels to help you out. What's the chance you have a SDR device? Which device do you have?
Your phone is a perfect signal meter. Most Android phones will let you lock the band as well. IOS has less functionality, no band-locking, but can still help determine if you're having low-signal or signal quality issues. Functionality and instruction for both Android and IOS are widely available on the internet.

Most carriers want to work with their subscribers to root out these types of coverage issues. It's kept me gainfully employed for about 18 years. Learn how to read the signal levels and take note of any call drops, audio issues, data slowness with date/times. Reach out to your carrier and submit a support ticket for the network performance engineers to look into it. They should be happy to jump on it because if it's a network issue affecting you, it could be affecting others.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top