Interesting Ideas: The “Passive Repeater”
While futzing around the Internet yesterday, I came across an entry from “Joe’s Hobby Electronics” blog. He had a problem with getting a cell phone signal in his home. According to Joe, his “…village is in a bit of a dip and the population density just isn’t really high enough to warrant better coverage.” According to his post, it is illegal to use cell phone repeaters in the UK (and while doing followup research, apparently most if not all of these repeaters are illegal in the US).
In an attempt to legally overcome his signal issue, Joe is in the process of setting up a “passive repeater” (he calls it a “Waveguide” but that term means something different in the US). The theory is simple — you put up a directional antenna aimed at the cell tower and another omnidirectional antenna in your home. Both antennas need to be tuned as close as possible to the target frequency and connected by the shortest possible length of the best possible feedline that you can get. Antenna tuning and quality feedline is critical because this system is entirely passive — there are no amplifiers or powered components in the system at all. Here’s how it works:
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