This question came from a rather strange place. I was talking to one of my friends about their cell booster and they had this question. After all, they said, most phones have the antennas on the sides. Wouldn’t it make more sense if the broadcast part of the booster was on the sides?
How do you know the broadcasts don’t come from the sides?
Well, that was a bit of a loaded question. I knew they didn’t. More to the point, if you look at the Drive Sleek that you see at the top, the broadcasts really couldn’t come from the sides. There aren’t really any sides for the broadcasts to come from. But even on other cradle boosters, the broadcasts come from the center. And I’m here to tell you, that’s just fine.
You see, in the long distant past, phones had a physical connector where you could put an antenna. People didn’t use it. Most folks wanted sleeker, thinner phones without visible ports. That’s where we are today. So cell boosters broadcast a powerful signal that your phone can receive the normal way.
Now, I have been told that ideally, the minimum distance between broadcast source and antenna is the length of one full wave. Cell phone signal wavelengths are about a foot long. It wouldn’t really make sense to have a cradle booster where the phone was a foot away from the broadcast antenna. But, it turns out that you get get pretty good results if the phone is about about 1/4 of the wave’s length from the broadcast source. That’s about 3 inches, and that’s very doable. See, just put the broadcast antenna centered behind the phone and the antennas will be about that far away.
The imaginary “best case scenario”
If you really wanted to get the best result from a cradle booster, you’d want to have a real physical connection to the antenna. You do lose quite a bit in that 3 inches, believe it or not. It seems to me that phone makers could probably design an antenna connector that was super tiny. I’m thinking something like half the size of a grain of rice. It could be done. Then, the cradle booster could connect to that and get all the amplified signal right into the phone.
The problem, though, is that not enough people really buy cell boosters to make the whole thing worth it. Luckily, that’s a problem you can fix. Shop for a cell phone signal booster at Solid Signal. Let those phone makers know that you care about good reception. It may take a lot of us, and it may take some time, but they’ll get the message.
In the meantime, you’ll have a great cell booster. But hey, I know that picking the right one can be daunting. That’s why we have experts ready to help. We’re here during East Coast business hours at 888-233-7563. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below! We’ll get back to you, usually within one business day.
