YES REALLY: 45 feet separation between antenna and booster

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This is SureCall’s Fusion4Home cellular booster. I reviewed it a few months ago and I was incredibly impressed. This isn’t the cheapest booster you’ll find but it’s easily more powerful than boosters costing twice as much. I’ve asked the engineers at SureCall how they do it, and they tell me it’s confidential, but the answer is probably pretty simple: more power. More power to amplify distant signals, and more sensitivity to cell phone signals inside the building. But then again, we’ve all heard that old chestnut…

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

It’s been attributed to everyone from Voltaire to Winston Churchill to the Spider-Man comics. Whomever said it first, it’s true. And if you have a cell booster with great power, you have the responsibility to make sure its power doesn’t shut down the entire cellular grid. Luckily the booster takes care of this by limiting broadcast power when it detects a problem may be starting. Of course, “limited broadcast power” isn’t why you bought this booster, it’s sort of the opposite of why you bought this booster.

That’s why you need to make sure the outdoor antenna is as far away from the booster as possible, By making sure the outdoor antenna is nowhere near the indoor antenna, you’ll develop maximum power and that, dear friends , is why you bought this booster.

In most cases I recommend 15 feet of separation between outdoor and indoor antennas. With this booster, that doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’ve tried this booster with 15 feet of separation and while it does work, it doesn’t do very well. It does… ok… just not very well. And frankly, I don’t know about you but I’m not interested in paying all that money for “ok.”

On the other hand, if you do take the time and use the included 50 foot cable to run the outdoor antenna as far away as possible from the indoor antenna, you will see positively astounding results. You’ll see five bars inside even when there is one bar outside. At least that’s been my experience. And yes, it’s true that long runs do create loss as the signal travels through the cable but between the large log-periodic antenna and the high-quality RG6 cable, loss is kept to the point where it can be easily dealt with by the massive, meaty amplifier that forms the heart of this system.

So, plan on putting that outdoor antenna up as high as possible, and as far away as possible from the indoor antenna (which may be attached the booster. You’ll thank me, really. This really can be the booster of your dreams, if you plan ahead just a little bit.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.