Signal Repeaters Active And Passive Versions

By Author: Stefan Michalak
Total Articles: 1
Comment this article

Don't you just hate it when you are in the middle of an interesting or an important conversation and your phone hangs up on you due to poor cellular signal? Almost everyone has experienced this in one place or the other. With the extensive use of mobile phones cellular signals tend to get jammed at times and sometimes the signal at a particular location is low due to the nature of the materials you are under. Your building might have rigid concrete walls or heavy duty metal walls that might prevent consistent mobile signal to reach your phone or the signal gets simply inaccessible when you are in the basement. Signal repeaters were thus devised to solve this problem to a certain extent.

We have two types of signal repeaters amongst which one is the active repeater while the other is the passive repeater. Active repeater is also known as Mobile repeaters. Although the concept used in both these techniques is similar, the functions performed are different. While the passive repeater transmits the signal from an exterior area to the phone in the interior area, the mobile repeaters are known to amplify the signal before it ...
... transmits it. Both these devices are equipped with two antennas, one that is installed on an outside location that receives maximum signal and the other placed in the interior of the same location where you normally reside. A cable connects these two antennas that might be of any convenient length of the transmission line.

The only physical difference with mobile repeaters and passive repeaters is that mobile repeaters have a bi-directional amplifier connected between the antennas for amplifying the mobile signal while in the passive repeaters there is no amplifier. While the former increases the mobile signal indoors multifold it is essentially banned from use in the UK according to the Section 8 of Wireless Telegraph Act 2006. If you need to install it anyway, there are a few rules they are to follow and also a special license to be acquired for the same. Network operators are licensed to use the equipments that allow transmission in these amplified bands but regular handset users, if caught using mobile repeaters without license are subjected to a huge fine of £5000 and/or up to 51 weeks imprisonment.

On the other hand, passive repeaters can be safely used; however, you cannot expect to acquire a cellular signal in a place that has poor or no coverage at all. An added advantage of a passive repeater would be the fact that it can transmit signals from any network and can function for your 3G, broadband and other wireless needs. Before installing the antennas you could personally test the area that receives the maximum signal outdoors and place them accordingly, while the indoor antenna can be fixed in places like windows and so on. You could get lucrative advice from your network provider or repeater provider on the same.

The author of this article has expertise in mobile broadband. The articles on 3g signal booster, mobile repeater reveals the author's knowledge on the same. The author has written many articles on LTE, WiMAX, 4G and antennasonline as well.