Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Any electronics experts here?
  • robinbetts
    Free Member

    Hi all,

    Don’t know if anyone here can assist with some advice… About a year or so ago I bought a GSM signal repeater from eBay for about £70. It has an external aerial that connects to an internal box with a small aerial. It works on 900mhz I think, and for ages it worked great and gave me full signal in my flat, where it was very patchy before.

    Recently it seems to have “lost power” considerably, in that it’s still on, but it’s effective range had dropped to about 2m or so. If you’re right next to it you get full signal, but it drops off rapidly as you move away. This gives me the impression that it’s not completely dead, but I don’t really know enough about this technology to guess at what’s gone wrong, or know if/how if might be fixable.

    Any advice would be great!

    Thanks, Robin

    MartynS
    Full Member

    silly question, hows it powered?

    If its battery then swap them in the first instance.
    If its mains powered the adapter/power supply might be on its way out or the unit itself might just be knackered. We use radio mics at work. The older ones have limited range now, the crystal in them goes off and drifts frequency resulting in worse performance.

    Could be someone close by has got something similar to you and the two frequencys are interfering with each other.

    I know that within the next year we have to change our Radio mics (channel 69 850mhz) because the govt have sold off that channel to telecoms companies. Maybe something is being tested in your area.

    Might just be knackered though….!

    funkynick
    Full Member

    Firstly, if you are in the UK, you do realise these are illegal don’t you…

    As to why it’s lost power… to be honest it could be a huge number of different things. I’d probably try taking it apart and cleaning all the dust and stuff out for a first thing. If that didn’t work I’d check for any component damage on the board or try a new power supply.

    It could always be interference, but that’s harder to sort out. What happens when you turn the unit off?

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    jam-bo
    Full Member

    Unplug the external aerial. Does anything change?

    robinbetts
    Free Member

    Thanks for the replies. I wasn’t aware they’re illegal… they seem quite readily available on legit looking uk websites.

    Anyway, it is mains powered with a 12v transformer. I’ll try taking a look inside and trying a different transformer if I can find one. Turning it off and on again doesn’t seem to have any affect.

    robinbetts
    Free Member

    When the phone’s next to the unit, the signal drops from 5 bars (full) to about 3 (what you get without the repeater in that spot).

    funkynick
    Full Member

    Yeah, it’s not illegal to sell the kit, just use it without a licence. They do seem to like to ignore that on the websites though.

    See here

    Stoner
    Free Member

    I a) didnt know you could get GSM repeaters and b) didnt know theyd be illegal in this country.

    But it’s interesting to see just how cheap they are on eBay and also this bit of over-bearing law.

    Repeater devices transmit or re-transmit in the cellular frequency bands. Only the mobile network operators are licensed to use equipment that transmits in these bands. Installation or use of repeater devices by anyone without a licence is a criminal offence under Section 8 of the WT Act 2006. Any person found guilty of installing or using such devices without a licence would be liable on conviction to a fine of up to £5000 and/or up to 51 weeks’ imprisonment (Six months in Scotland and Northern Ireland)

    http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/spectrum-enforcement/jammers/

    Why cant there be a general exemption for repeaters of a certain strength?

    robinbetts
    Free Member

    Found a multi voltage transformer with a variety of plug sizes, so gave that a try and hey presto, it’s working! Signal strength is right back up. Thanks for the advise.

    Obviously, given funkynick’s information I’ll be turning it off mow and removing it! 😉

    robinbetts
    Free Member

    I didn’t know they existed or were illegal either, till I got so fed up with poor signal inside my solid wall property, and did a bit of googling for solutions.

    With the power supply problem and legality issue aside, I’d recommend them as it’s worked great, especially as I work from home and need to be able to make/receive calls easily.

    I’m supprised there is no exemption as I’m sure Vodaphone have something called suresignal or something that runs off your broadband I think, and then provides a mobile signal in your home. I expect they can run these things for their customers under their license…??

    Stoner
    Free Member

    I have a vodafone sure signal which we got from them for free because their local signal is rubbish and our HTC legends have a tendancy to fall over when hunting between GPRS and HSDPA. I would imagine they can treat sure signal as their own reinforcement hardware under their own licence as you say.

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Why cant there be a general exemption for repeaters of a certain strength? [/quote[

    I suppose because there’s all number o things that they can cock up which may be required for general use, emergencies etc.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Don’t worry about it being illegal, they are pretty much undetectable if it’s working fine and no one really cares. Worst case they’ll just confiscate it.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Plus Ofcom have laid off most of their enforcement staff to save costs..

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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