Cell Phone Reception In Steel Building

Bingo. Home run. Nothin' but net from behind the three point line. GA.

Cellular repeater.

I should clarify the building is presently used as a machine shop but was a farm building at one time. There is only one tenant and no internet or other modern communication devices. He just would like to amplify the signal enough to be able to leave the cell by the window or other location to receive or send phone calls. I was hoping that there was some sort of outside antenna that would suffice. The $300.00-555.00 for a Wilson system is out of the money range at this time also from my reading they require a system installed and attach to the router or ????? to boost the signal.

A cell phone uses radio waves.

The building is steel and is blocking the signal.

The easy fix is an appropriate cell 'repeater' with an antenna, picks up outside signal, repeats them inside and vice versa. It has an amplifier, and costs $100 to 300. Maybe another $100 for parts and pieces.

If your friend can stand outside the building in front of a window and get reception, there may be a cheaper fix in the simple cell stick-on antennas you see on cars.

$10 bucks will tell.

No routers, no high speed data lines.

But the easiest method by far is put an old school 'land line' (read phone) into the building and forward the cell to the land line when he comes to work and unforward when he goes home.

Back when I was looking at a similar problem with a house, I remember dimly an entirely passive antenna you could poke through the roof (isolating it from steel and things) that ran about $100, had ~some success, but I have lost the links now.

There is of course the low-tech solution...

Its called PSTN or land-line! :)

i.e. a telephone handset with a cable attached all the way back to the telephone exchange (or Central Office - depending on your nationality).

They work great in a building, no matter what its clad with!

The service provider will recommend a picocell solution. It is a local celltower, so to speak, in the building, the size of a small pocket book. It connects your cellphone to the provider via a landline. It works every time.

Many years ago in Tech Drawing class our teacher gave us a problem with a small prize for the best answer. His mother had arthritis in her hands and was having difficulty opening her car door which was of the old type with a fixed handle to grab and a button to press in with your thumb to unlock the door. We designed some marvelous things - mine was to be chrome plated. The 'winner' turned the metal hook on a wooden coat hanger through 90degrees and glued a 2" wooden rod to one end. The hook went over the door handle and the rod would press against the button when the other end of the coathanger was pulled.

The lesson I took away from that? Always resist the temptation to over-engineer. Simple works.

You don't need a building cell. You don't need a picocell or a powered repeater. Go with answer #6, get a car antenna kit. The aerial can be stuck on the outside, anywhere that's convenient for the inside location and where you can drill a hole, plug your cell into the other end. 15 minutes, one drill hole, $10, done.

Evan, how many people do you suppose work with our OP, in the same building? If I leave my assigned work area, wouldn't it be nice to have my functional mobile communucation device along?

Wouldn't it be nice if a visitor (customer) could receive a call while in the building?

This is not over-engineering, a repeater is the correct solution.

I know that my age is showing, but I don't want to be in communication reach for eight thousand seven hundred sixty eight hours of every year on average. I agree with Evan that a simple car coupling antenna will likely do the trick for the lowest cost. But if Roy's friend only works at this machine shop, it is the owners of this machine shop who decide if an improved reception is a good idea. Maybe they don't want their machinists to be distracted by a Tweet or Facebook message. Also, why is Roy asking about this and not his friend? The reception problem may not lie with Roy's friend and his work site.

More good points in what you say. The original question is about a phone for Roy's buddy, not the facility in general. It is also possible this building is not a 'facility', it may be a 20' X 24' machine shed, and Roy's buddy is one of two occupants.

I agree, it seems that a cellular phone is more like being gripped than being in touch. In my circle of professional associates, most consider their mobile communication devices their most important tool. It should be noted most of them could not figure out how to load nails into a nail gun, drive a skid steer loader, change the blade on a bandsaw... you get the idea.

As well, a reinforcement of your previous point about this being the shop owner's decision. There may be a policy in place prohibiting personal calls while on shift, and we are helping this guy to defeat that policy.

If you have a land line already, just set up your cell phones to pass all calls along to the land line. That is until you get a repeater inside the building anyway!

YES I also thought on same lines but I understand that call charges will be doubled.It is called call transfer facility on land line phone.I dont know if it same in the other countries.Also you will need individual line for each person and you will have remain on your land line instrument. Plus you may need EBPX with cute receptionist..

If the service is not abused, iots a good stop-gap until the repeater is fitted....

I thank you kind people for the info and I will get the auto antenna system and give it a go.. Very much appreciate your time and knowledge that was passed on. There is no land line due to Bell Canada being very expensive for small business. Cheers.

Just had a similiar conversation with one of my contractors and he swears that if you lean your phone against a large HVAC duct or water condenser you can get cell reception in any building. I don't know if there is any truth to it but it couldn't hurt to try...

I will suggest this.. thanks

In summary, everyone is correct -- which means there is probably no ideal solution.

Those who suggested a picocell or femtocell (which acts as a mini tower within the building and generates its own signal) are right on target. There are two issues with them. First, picocells are not cheap. A cell carrier is not going to be willing to foot the bill for one for a few customers. Likely the landlord or tenant won't want to either. Even if they all share in the cost, it will likely be expensive. A femto cell is smaller, cheaper version and would likely be an ideal solution for this situation. But both picocells and femtocells require back haul -- getting the message traffic from the picocell to the regular telephone network. Normally, this is done over a phone line or high speed internet connection. Neither of these exist in this scenario and if they did here would be no need for the picocell or femtocell, right?

Repeaters are another solution but are also a mixed bag. It seems that the cheap ones don't work well and the ones that work well aren't cheap. Still it is a one time cost. When you get it, just make sure to save your receipts in case you need to take it back. One thing to consider, most repeaters do not boost the signal. If you are getting 2-3 'bars' outside the building (generally around -85 dBm to -95 dBm), that's all you will get inside the building.

It would be interesting to hear how the 'heating duct' solution works. Please report!

NOPE. You summarized well. This is it!

Does a cellphone have clear reception standing in front of the large windows?

Are you able to string phone cable to a standard "wired" phone from the window to the work area?

If both answers are "Yes", then how about use of something like Cobra PhoneLynx™ Cell Phone to Home Adapter with Bluetooth Wireless Technology see https://www.cobra.com/detail/cobra-phonelynx-cell-phone-to-home-adapter-with-bluetooth-wireless-technology.cfm

The Cobra PhoneLynx lets you make and receive cell phone calls on any phone in a home or small office. Using Bluetooth® wireless technology, Cobra PhoneLynx pairs your cell phone to your home phone. When your cell phone rings, all the home phones ring, and when you place an outgoing call on your home phone, the call goes through using the cell phone connection.

There are other devices, such as cordless phone systems that also allow pairing with a bluetooth enabled cellphone then using the interfaced signal to talk throughout the house/office. the Phonelynx costs $60 retail. I've been considering buying it because I desire a phone with man-sized buttons and a "real" handset I can hook over my shoulder and slam down without breaking it. Yeh, I want my old desk phone.

Maybe this device can work for Roy.