Wireless Extenders YX 510-PCS/CEL Dual Band Cell Phone Signal Booster

I work out of the home and needed more peace and quiet in my home office. Part of our basement is finished and the remainder is my work shop. I moved my office into the work shop which is surrounded with cement block wall. I placed the antenna near a small window on the finished side of the basement, ran the RG6 cable into the work shop, hooked up the the base antenna and I went from "1 bar" to "3 bars" cellular phone (Blackberry) . I also picked up an additional 2 bars with my wireless laptop card. Cell and wireless card are both Verizon. Very pleased!
 
Was this review helpful?    

This product works well when set-up properly. Acts just like a repeater. One thing that is a must with this product. Keep the Signal (receive) antenna vertical and keep the Base (transmit) antenna horizontal. If they are both focused in the same plane, your signal will never get boosted as the two signals will fight and cause interference. The price is a little hefty, but, for what it does it totally makes it worth it. I got this one for my house to get coverage in the trouble spots. Since installing, I have canceled my home landline, which means after 6 months the unit will have paid for its self.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I couldn't talk on the cell phone unless I was up against a window before. Now I can talk comfortably in the house. The range isn't as far as I would like, maybe 15 to 20 feet, and I still get cut off once in a while but it makes my cell phone useful agian where I was about to trash it before.
 
Was this review helpful?    

After reading reviews and procrastinating I finally purchased this repeater and with 2 solid bars outside I now have 3-4 bars in the basement where I had zero bars. This unit increased the signal 2 bars throughout the house even with 1 inch plaster walls. I am really impressed and have recommended it to others already. It is really as easy as placing the outside antenna (I used the TV tower and just above my house), run the cable inside to the unit and plug it in and it works.
 
Was this review helpful?    

my house has all wood walls, no sheet rock. When I turn a corner about 15 feet from the booster, the signal disappears.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Excellent Product. I have bought and installed 3 of these units for the company I work for. Need to reboot once and a while but what electronic doesn't need a kick now and then. The main thing to remember is you can't boost a signal that is not there. Don't purchase if you don't have a signal to grab outside and boost. We usually won't try to boost the signal if we don't have about 2 bars where we are putting the external antenna.
 
Was this review helpful?    

My house is single story with taller houses and trees around it. I barely got any reception inside my house and ususally not enough to make a call. Before I bought this extender, I went up in the attic with my cell phone and found the reception better up there. So, I took the plunge. It was a little work to install the antenna (after walking all around the attic to find the best reception in a spot more than 20' away from the extender), but the whole job took less than 2 hours. Now my Verizon Blackberry picks up at least two bars and gets 1XEV reception (which it didn't used to). Best of all, when my boss calls, I can talk to him.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Works very good with verizon wireless, but Tmobile signal appears the same.
 
Was this review helpful?    

We have been using our unit for a couple of weeks are so far we are very happy. We had some initial problems with finding a suitable location for the antenna and base unit but after doing some trial and error, the performance is quite good. Our building is all metal so finding a good location for the outside antenna was tricky. Just follow the instructions and the mfg recommendations and it should work well. Side note: we had NO cell signal inside of our building - now we have 4-5 bars.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I've had the device for about 4 months. My signal is generally stronger, but has difficulty holding connection for more than a few minutes. I've contacted the help service and instituted their suggestions. However, in a single story house, the attic does not provide adequate vertical distance between the unit and the antenna. I've got the antenna at the maximum height (and minimum requirement), but still frequently get interference and dropped calls.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The directions caution against mounting the antenna near metal objects, but we mounted it on our existing UHF antenna tower about 15 feet up and it works! I now can use my cell phone inside my house. It works very well for my Alltel phone, but not so well for my husband's Sprint phone, but since the Sprint is for work, we don't care!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I live north of San Antonio near Helotes. I was not getting AT&T service inside my house. I bought one of these at Buy.com and it really does works. I put the antenna in the attic up by the ridge vents where the radiant barrier ends. I connected the antenna to an existing unused cable outlet I have that comes out in the kitchen. I now can get 3 to 4 bars from inside my house. It only seems to work down stairs but I can live with that. What the instructions tell you to do is get on the roof of your house and see what kind of signal you are getting. If you get 4 bars on the roof you should be able to get 4 bars in the house with this unit. I was getting 4 bars on the roof and 1 bar in the front and back yard.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This beats leaning over the balcony talking on the phone. Hooked it up and it worked fine. There's a lot of colored blinking lights and i don't know what they mean, nor do I care because it works. I have had to "reset" it by unplugging it and plugging it back in on occasion, but it works great in my book.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Was getting 1 to 2 bars and drop calls constantly with AT&T.Now get all five bars almost all the time and no drop calls.Great product.
 
Was this review helpful?    

For years I have wanted to use a cell phone inside my pole barn, but with its metal walls and metal roof the signal couldn't get through. This item solved the problem - now my cell phone works perfectly inside the pole barn. It took about ten minutes to clamp the little antenna to a vent pipe on the roof, run the cable in to the device, plugged into a.c. power and it worked immediately. Plug-n-Play. Maybe I could have saved some money with a single band unit, but I knew this dual band unit would get the job done. I am very pleased with this simple and effective solution.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this for my office in the dungeon (basement) of our office building. Lathe and plaster walls block all cellular signals. Hooked up the outside antenna to the roof where I had a good signal and 5 minutes later, I had a strong signal (Verizon) anywhere within a 90' circle of the unit, even through the lathe and plaster walls. The signal might have gone farther but that is the extent of my kingdom. I highly recommend it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Since moving to a rural location very near Lake Michigan we have had interference constantly, virtually never having even one bar of signal strength. Probably the best ever customer and technical service support helped with exact product selection and installation questions. Booster with external directional antenna accessory now gives me 3-5 bars of signal strength. I have gotten rid of my pager and exclusively use my cell phone now with excellent reliability thus far. I was a huge skeptic before, but I simply had to write this review to share how standing the product has worked for me.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I had zero signla in my basement, thanks to foil backed ceiling tiles, but 3 bars on my second floor. So now I get 4 bars throughout the house, basement and first floor, and I can even walk into and out of my basement without dropping the call. It also gives me the ability to use my cellular data card in my basement even with great speed. Pretty easy setup, just needed to run the co-ax from my attic to the basement.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I put this unit in my house (bought for $50 more than here) and it works pretty good. The comments from the others listed here are all valid and what I found too. I did a few no-no's and still got a good result. I broke the rules and put the repeater-broadcast unit in the basement in a non-optimal area (near conduits and large amouts of sheetmetal ducting, which clearly interfere with my coverage in a couple of areas). My antennae is above the roof, mounted to TV mast... now I get 3 - 4 bars in the basement where I used to have no signal at all, and the rest of the house pretty much went up by 2 bars, except where sheetmetal interferes. Instructions say to get as much vertical difference as you can from the antennae and the repeater... As I experimented, it made a HUGE difference... (gain and feedback were probably the problem as noted in the instuctions that came with the unit). I was also disappointed that it didn't seem to have the power of a WIFI antennae... but still, it's a keeper.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This thing is a dream come true. I seriously just stopped answering calls when I was in my house and just waited until I was either at work or on my way somewhere to call people back. I tried that little sticker signal booster that you put behind your battery but of course that didn't work. My roommate and I don't have a landline because we're in school and move like every year...and didn't feel like fighting over the phone. I promise it really does work. It's amazing. ZBoost has really saved my sanity!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Received the Dual Band booster today. To just check if it would help at my house I placed the outside antenna over my front step hand rail, and the base unit in the middle of my 1st floor. Turned it on, checked both a Cingular and Verizon signal through out my house (including basement) and have 4 to 5 bars. In my area Verizon customers could only make calls by stepping outside on the front steps and then they would only have 1 bar. Now Verizon has 3 to 4 bars. Took the unit into my office (metal building). Placed unit in rear of building and now Verizon has 5 bars any place in the building. Cingular had 5 bars before, so no change with that. This really works, and is very simple to install. If you have signal outside this will boost it and allow cell coverage inside. GREAT ITEM.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I live in woods, there are many trees which broking cell signal, so there is almost no signal strength in my house and only 2 bars at ground level of outside of my house, but I can get full signal strength on the roof of my house. I put antenna on the roof and set the booster in my basement. Now, I can get full signal strength bars in basement and 1st floor, 3 to 5 bars at 2nd floor.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Our cell signal (both Cingular and Sprint) at attic was a 4 of 5, basement was a 1 of 5. Because I was spanning 3 floors, I needed to get a longer and more robust cable. I highly recommend a 75' RG-11 cable from Tessco, already with F-style terminations; cost is about $60.
 
Was this review helpful?    

It works but with a signal range less than expected. I have a T-Mobile and a Cingular phone that both benefit with an increase of a single bar if within ten feet, two bars if within five feet, maximum signal strength within two feet. I am satisfied with my purchase but would be much happier if the device had a better range or was half the price.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this, regretfully not from buy.com. However, installation, configuration and results are far above expectations. I thought I would buy it, try it, and end up returning it. You will not see me sending it back, unless something goes wrong with it! Inside my house before install my phone debug menu values were <p> No signal bars or a half bar of signal. <p> -97 or -99 for RxPower <p> 11db for Rx ec/io <p> 2.7% for Rx fer <p> 117 for Tx adj <p> after install my values went to. <p> -21 to -80 Rx power <p> 16 to 17db for Rx ec/io <p> 1.3% for Rx fer <p> and 127 for Tx adj <p> More importantly, I have a solid three to four bars within my house, no more cut outs and dropped phone calls, and no more text messages dropped or lost! If you have a good signal outside your house, and you follow the EASY and detailed instructions, you will be very happy with this product!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Although the extender does alow me to use my cell phone in my house, it is somewhat limited. I must maintain sort of a line of sight with the indoor antenna.I don't always have the greatest signal outside. Overall I am very happy with the extender.I couldn't use my cell phone in my house, and now I can.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This product really works, but it is not for the timid. Expect to experiment with positioning the external antenna and the indoor broadcast unit, and you may be rewarded with good signal in your home. It worked and worked well in my case. <br> <br> Make sure you can get four bars of signal outside the house, probably the roof. Mount the external antenna as high as convenietly possible at that location. Then experiment with the best location for the unit inside the house, so that you cover all the important rooms with at least two bars. <br> <br> As a comparison, the signal seems to fade much more than wifi for a given distance. My house is about 1200 sq feet, and I got two bars in each room, which was my goal.<br> <br> There is the possibility that you will simply not be able to get a satisfactory signal, so review Buy.com's return policy carefully before buying - the return policy was one of my reasons for paying buy.com's slightly higher price.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Electronics > Phone Accessories