iPhone signal repeater

[nb Innisfree]

They are illegal but at the power level the small ones chuck out and being inside a steel shell they won't trouble anyone.

[Guest]

I bought a mobile repeater for use at home. It is the type where you have an external aerial plus booster (with internal aerial) connected to power inside. Works very well, illegal but due to location and range not really likely to ever be a problem.

 

I bought from ebay and the website looked like a UK one, however item was shipped from China. It works ok (boosts 1 bar signal outside to 5 bar inside), however the unit gets very hot sufficient for me to be concerned about fire risk (so I have taken precautions - plenty of space for this at home though).

 

Hope this helps

[nb Innisfree]

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/devices/summary

 

Worth noting in section 1.2:

 

"Under the section 8(4) of the WT Act, we are required to exempt the establishment, installation and a station or apparatus if it is not likely to involve undue interference"

Edited September 27, 2013 by nb Innisfree

[smileypete]

 

Thanks for the suggestion but which networks will work inside a steel boat with just a few portholes?!

 

My problem is the signal is fine outside, I want to use the phone inside the boat!

 

D'you get signal at the portholes or up in the pidgeon box if there's one.

 

If so how about using a bluetooth headset?

 

If you're having trouble finding a solution, couple of other options would be a phone with antenna input and external 3G/GSM antenna, or a 3g router with PSTN telephone output and external 3G antenna.

 

Sitefinder website should tell which cells are nearest the boat and how powerful.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited September 27, 2013 by smileypete

[Up-Side-Down]

 

Thanks for the suggestion but which networks will work inside a steel boat with just a few portholes?!

 

My problem is the signal is fine outside, I want to use the phone inside the boat!

 

MtB

 

Ah ok, so you have. Thanks!

 

MtB

 

I have used an iPhone in an all porthole tug for a couple of years now and a dumbphone for 10 years before that in the same boat - on the dreaded vodafone at that. Going with the simple solution I just prop the handset up in the porthole, turn on the loudspeaker setting, and stand there talking into the device. If I have an overwhelming urge to slob out, reclining on a bed/chair/whatever, I use a cheapy bluetooth hands-free thingy stuffed into my ear. Both are simple, cheap, cheerful and have worked everywhere in GB for me.

[notaminga]

I've just been researching this very issue - i.e. signal boosters. Things didn't look quite right to me and each website I tried seemed subtly similar. When I googled the sales numbers I was led to some very dodgy characters who have been implicated in a number of internet scams. The company postal addresses turned out to be dodgy mailbox addresses covering for offshore companies. Some of the research pointed to individuals who have been involved in downright illegal activity.

 

If you search the web there are many dissatisfied customers who complain of not having received their device, that it didn't do what it was supposed to do and that the company that sold it has gone strangely quiet on the subject of recompense.

 

Then there was the fact that none of these devices are approved by Ofcom. Now regardless of the rights and wrongs of Ofcom not approving such devices. apparently none have been submitted for approval, which does make you wonder of the manufacturers are worried they will not pass the stringent tests. Then of course, if you are caught using one you could be liable to a £5000 fine and up to year in clink.

 

So, you are being asked to cough up as much as £500 for a device which may or may not work, which is illegal to use and for which you are unlikely to get your money back.

 

I know that some of the networks are supplying their own approved devices, but my own network, Three, do not.

 

I've ordered an external antenna from Boaters Phone Co.