YX-510 Cellular Repeater Antenna Help

[crsouser]

Hi,
I have been trying to setup a wireless repeater in my house as I have little cellular coverage and I believe I may be missing something or done something wrong. I would love some feedback if there is anything obvious.

My Setup:
Wi-Ex YX-510 zBoot Repeater (Pcs/Cel Dual-Band Cellular Phone Signal Booster)
Original Wi-Ex YX-022 Outdoor Omni-Directional Signal Antenna upgrade (6 dBi)
Wilson Electronics Dual Band - 700-2700 MHz 75 Ohm Directional Wall Mount Panel Antenna 75ohm
Wilson Electronics 700-2300 MHz w/F female connectors 75ohm
Wilson RG-6 30ft LowLoss Cable 950630 75ohm
Wilson RG-6 50ft LowLoss Cable 75ohm

The Wilson Indoor Antenna is mounted 20 feet directly above the repeater in a large open vaulted ceiling room. The Original YX Yagi style is mounted 30 feet to the north, and 25 up on the exterior of the building below the steeple of the house but above the garage.

My house typically has 2 or 1 bars on my iPhone upstairs and 1 or 0 downstairs. Outside when on the roof next to the Yagi style YX-022 outdor Antenna I have 4 or 5 bars.

I first started with a Interior Antenna and saw no cell 'bar' gain on my iPhone 4 or my wife's iPhone 3.

The repeater unit according to the manual seems to be functioning as it should based on the light activity (I think). This has gone on for a couple years.. this weekend I installed an exterior Antenna; used a wilson splitter to have both the interior and exterior antennas coming into the unit, upgraded the cabling on both antenna to low-loss RG-6 and I am having the same result.

This is what I have documented is happening:
-When the unit is sitting idle and no call is in place the green power light is solid. (as it should)
-When a call is placed the signal light blinks green and sometimes amber; the install light I never see blink.
-I see no change in bar reading in my house even when right next to it or if I unplug the unit.
-In field diagnostic mode on my phone "*3001#12345#*" the highest number I get is -109db and the lowest I get is -91db 1 foot from the unit.. with or without the power on for the unit.
-When I place a call.. the signal light flashes green, the power solid green, and then in between the signal goes dark and the power goes solid amber.
-Same behavior if I connect just the internal antenna or just the external antenna.

So basically the unit seems to be detecting my call but not actually helping it or gaining anything from the unit. I thought about maybe 75ohm to 50ohm conversion or something like that.. but I believe all of the equipment is 75ohm.

The units manual:
http://www.wi-ex.com/files/YX500.510_user_guide.RevE.pdf

Any thoughts or ideas or other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Christopher

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9780; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.8+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0.0.600 Mobile Safari/534.8+)

In this type of set-up you MUST have proper isolation between the indoor and outdoor antenna. If you do not you will cause the amplifier to 'hear' itself, causing a feed back loop, the same effect as putting a microphone up to a speaker, effectivly rendering the set-up useless. One question I have is what does the amber LED signify? My Wilson BDAmplifier will auto sense feedback and will sut itself down and tells me by lighting a red LED.

 

[popnokick]

Why not femtocell?

Do you have an Internet connection in your house via DSL or cable modem? If so, why not use a femtocell, which is a "mini cell tower" located right in your house? It will provide coverage not only for voice calls, but also data connection (3G in most cases). The generic term is "femtocell", but the carriers have different names for them (Verizon "Network Extender", AT&T "Microcell", etc.). Most of the carriers only have a one-time charge to purchase the equipment and no recurring fees. Installation is pretty simple... plug it into your Internet router, use the web page to set it up, and you're on. Needs to see a GPS signal, but that is usually available near a window, and some of the units come with a GPS extension antenna.