DIY Friday: Old Dish Signal Booster

 

 

We’ve blogged about the "cantenna" and repurposing old parabolic dishes for boosting WiFi signals. With people switching from direct-broadcast satellite TV (DISH and DirecTV) to Verizon FiOS, AT&T Uverse, back to cable TV or just cutting all pay television services and using free over-the-air HDTV, you might want to consider using your old antenna for something else.

Birdbaths and Spartan shields are OK ideas, but using it to boost cell phone or WiFi signals might be more useful. We’ve got a place up in the mountains and finding a good cell signal can be tricky.

Via Instructables, here’s the solution:

While working in my yard one afternoon I noticed an old satellite TV dish on top of a pole in my backyard. It had been left there by the previous residents. Suddenly a light bulb came on. I grabbed some wrenches, took down the dish and held my cell phone next to the antenna’s horn. I was amazed to find that I instantly got full signal. I could not believe my eyes. I went from no signal to full signal and had not spent a dime or changed anything on my cell phone. Just to make sure I made a call using speaker phone and found that this thing truly did work.

The next test came when I took the assembly inside the house to try it. With aluminum siding on the house I have problems even getting a television signal using a rabbit ear antenna. To my surprise, I got two bars inside so long as I pointed the dish at a double window in my living room. I no longer miss calls and I don’t have to leave home to talk on my cell phone. It isn’t an ideal setup but it works and did not cost me anything. It is also a great way to recycle that old dish antenna that would have ended up in the trash otherwise.

I will try this myself, as I have the two main elements: weak cell signal and an old antenna.

 

 

 

2 Comments

  • Helen says:

    Just as its name said, cell phone signal booster is used to boost
    the weak signals when you get into the weak situation.
    A type of the cheap cell phone booster can block the transmission of signals
    from the phone networks, includin UMTS, 3G, CDMA, GSM and PHS.
    One of the most effective features about this cell signal enhancer is the particular
    fact that you can use your cell phone even when you’re miles away through the kind of
    mobile phone tower.

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