Customer Reviews

Wilson Cellular 806-894 13Dbi Yagi Iden Antenna

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I purchased a Z-Boost YX 545 and installed it with the supplied antenna and cable. The antenna is just a wire that goes up from the connector and is omni directional. It worked ok for cell phone - it gave me 2-3 bars in the 2600 Sq. Ft. home. But I also wanted to hook up the home office computer to Verizon 800 MHZ service. It provided a signal using my 760 usb modem, but only at a speed usually of 120 kbs which is about double dial up.
I did a lot of research and found the Wilson yagi cell antenna 301111 had better reviews than the Z Boost (WI-EX), so I purchased it and then bought the best low lost cable - a LMR 400 low loss 50 Ohm Coax. I got that on the roof and pointed it toward the Verizon Tower 6 miles away. I can see the flashing red light on the tower at night and that helped in the pointing. I then hit a glitch that delayed the hook up a few weeks on how to resolve the fact the the YX 545 used 75 Ohm cable and F connectors. I saw there was an impedence mismatch as well as a connector compatibily probem. I called Wilson Electronics and they were not much help. I called Z Boost and the were rude and just said it would not work. More reearch on the internet found that Wilson made a Converter 75 Ohm tp 50 Ohm and it had a connector of N type that went to the antenna cable and on the other side of the converter if had a F connector to hook up a jumper cable -75 Ohn- required by the YX 545. I ordered that and it came in a couple days (many sources carry it but I used the cheapest - $25.00 - from Prime Direct Cell Phone Assessories.) I hooke up the new antenna to the YX 545 and Wow! It solved my problem. I now get internet speeds on Verizon Wireless ranging from 500 kbs to 1000 kbs which is great for rural mid-Michigan. This Wilson Antenna is constructed very solidly and I mounted it on a 5 ft. metal pole on a tripod. My cell phone has 3 to 4 bars all over the house - ranging from about -40 db at the desk where the repeater is setting on lower level walkout basement and -67db in kitchen stairs and -67 db in living room - all good signals for using my Droid 2. The total cost of all the equipment was high, but being in real estate I needed to do something to get a better internet and phone service where I live. The process in getting a repeater (cell booster) up and running will be frustrating and results will vary depending on the variables of line of site, distance, height of antenna ( my is up 22 feet) - so good luck!

I'm hooked this antenna to a cellphone-mate cm2000-wl 62 db Sure Call SOHO amplifier and it gets me 5 bars. I am over 5 miles from the Verizon cell tower and its not line of sight. I live in a hilly area with lots of thick trees. I highly recommend this product.

50 ohm antenna/cables will not work well with 75 ohm boosters... 50 ohm antenna equipment generally uses the N-type or TNC connectors while the 75 ohm antenna equipment generally uses the F-type (think cable tv) connectors. also, if the 50 ohm antenna / 75 ohm booster combo works at all, it will probably be significantly degraded due to standing waves caused by reflections from impedance mismatch. in some cases, these reflections may even damage the signal booster amplifier. lookup those terms in wikipedia for more info.

I replaced the antenna that came with my cell phone extender with this antenna because they said it would be significantly better. Not only is it no better, I ended up spending another $20 on connectors to get it to work and wasted 3 weeks finding those. If I felt like taking it off the roof I'd send it back.

Haven't tried the antenna yet.. still figuring out how to connect the N-Female jack to a coax cable...