Fixed and Portable Cell Phone Signal Boosters
Aug 26, 2021
Most wireless reception amplifiers are designed for a fixed installation, i.e. once they are installed, they stay in that location and are not moved around. This is because they have an outside and inside antenna that is mounted to the roof or walls, while cables are run to connect the components. It is important to note that wireless amplifying kits designed for indoor home or office building use cannot be used inside vehicles because they usually exceed the vehicular mobile repeater 50 dB Gain limit placed by FCC in USA for simultaneous all-carrier boosters, and other mobile telecommunication standards governing agencies across the world in various countries.
There are however situations where a portable cell phone signal booster is useful and can be used indoors inside homes/offices as well as outdoors inside vehicles. For example, emergency portable cell phone signal booster kits can help first responders to set-up cell phone booster practically anywhere within seconds. This can help for firefighters, police, and other emergency personnel that require smartphone coverage within structure of a news developing location scenario.
Various other cellular boosters are available that can be moved from vehicle to vehicle, or even from your home to your vehicle because they provide 50 dB Gain or less which is sufficient for all practical purposes. With some of these models, an amplifier is actually built into the exterior antenna, while with others, care has to be taken to prevent oscillation by separating the exterior antenna from its interior antenna.
Plug & Play Portable Cell Signal Amplifiers.
Plug and play movable signal boosters can be moved from vehicle to vehicle, or vehicle to home/ office & vice versa within seconds because they require minimal installation time. Simply unplug and remove the hand held cell booster from car, truck, or RV and transfer to home or office by plugging it back in. Obviously, transfering from vehicle to vehicle requires no additional parts. However, transfering the mobile repeater from vehicle to building will require an AC to DC converter power supply accessory.
Both the FusionTrek (For 1 Device) and the N-Range (For 1 Device) are called cell phone cradle boosters. They have been designed for use in vehicles and can boost the reception of one cellphone or cellular device like Mi-Fi / mobile hotspot for all carriers in both US and Canada.
These lightweight and handheld signal repeaters can be carried in one hand. Therefore, they can be moved from vehicle to vehicle easily. This set-up won't cause oscillation or feedback because its repeater is built into the exterior antenna itself and its amplified signal passes through to the phone cradle holder.
In fact, the FusionTrek does not have an external antenna at all. Although the N-Range does have an external antenna, the quick 3-step installation process makes it easy to move between vehicles because its amplifier is built right into that exterior antenna.
For more detail on how to install the FusionTrek, watch this short In-Vehicle Portable Phone Signal Repeater Installation Video.
Drawbacks of Plug and Play Kits.
While these can be great for those looking for low cost and convenience of transfering the unit to wherever needed, it has a major drawback when compared to the next type discussed below. Unlike the type that will be discussed below that boosts reception of multiple mobile devices simultaneously within range of internal antenna, these can only improve reception of one single device at a time like your Smartphone or MiFi mobile hotspot, whichever is placed in the device holder.
Quick & Easily Installed Portable Cellular Signal Amplifiers.
Quick and easy-install cell phone boosters that can be moved from vehicle to vehicle or from vehicle to Home/ Office & Vice Versa require roughly 5 minutes removal and re-installation time because antenna separation is required. This means that something needs to be placed between exterior antenna and interior antenna to prevent oscillation or feedback between the two which may cause it to reduce amplification automatically.
Cellular repeaters are normally designed to work with a specific power supply, either for use in buildings with a 110VAC supply, or in vehicles with a 6 – 15 VDC supply. This often makes it impossible to move the phone amplifier kit between a building like your home or office, and a vehicle.
However, both the Fusion2Go 3.0 and the Drive 4G-X can overcome this problem by using separately available AC power supply adapter making it possible to move these signal repeaters between your home and vehicle. It should be noted that the AC adapter is included in RV versions of those kits, but RV amplifier kits are way more expensive than buying AC wall adapter separately.
However, that is not the case with the non-RV versions (a lot cheaper kits than RV version kits). Since non-RV vehicles such as cars and trucks do not have an AC 110 volts power outlet, such non RV dedicated cellphone repeater kits require AC adaptor to be purchased separately as an optional extra (link to buy AC adapter shown at both Fusion2Go 3.0 and Drive 4G-X product listing links above).
Moving the mobile amplifier kit between your home and vehicle may cause oscillation or feedback if the exterior antenna is not separated properly with something in between the wireless repeater and its outside antenna when the boosting kit is used in your home. One easy way to achieve this is by placing the exterior antenna outside a window and closing the window.
Drawbacks of Quick & Easily Installed Kits.
Please note that unlike our fixed cell boosters such as home and office signal booster kits designed for larger areas inside homes & offices, with these vehicle kits being used indoors, you will only improve reception within approximately 4 feet of interior antenna. This distance would suffice within a vehicle cabin area but when used inside building, you will need to keep the phone within this small range for it to receive calls and make phone calls.
Which are more powerful - Plug & Play or Easy Installed Ones?
Please be assured that both these types of cellular amplifiers are powerful enough to boost reception inside homes and vehicles even in remote areas and rural countryside places as long as there's some signal they can amplify exponentially, many times over. However, Easy Installed Ones are twice as powerful because they offer almost twice as much Gain (increase in signal strength). They are twice as much more expensive as well, for this reason. Try our phone booster selection tool and give us your feedback below.
Quick note: If you need a portable phone booster battery pack, we do carry it as well. Interestingly, that same phone backup battery charger also serves as a wifi booster.
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5 comments
It’s obvious that cell phone signal boosters have evolved when there are boosters that you can put in and remove as needed. Portable cell phone boosters may have some disadvantages (such as being limited to one user), but overall, it’s a good option for some people.
Plug and play is so awesome. Remember the old days when you had to call the phone company to put a phone in your home? Now, you take a phone out of the box and plug it in. Same thing with our home electronics like TV’s and Blu-Ray players. Plug them in and play away. I think it’s a cool you can now have a cell phone signal booster for home, unplug it, and use the same cell phone signal booster for your car. I know this article says it’s even better if you take the 5 minutes to uninstall the higher grade one, but I’ll stick to plug and play. Besides, my experience is that “5-minute installations” are pretty rare.
For me, it’s never been a question about getting a cell phone booster. I’ve had cell phone reception problems for years because of where I live and my travel through areas where it’s hard to get a good cell phone signal. It’s not a case of getting a cell phone booster for home or getting a cell phone booster for the car, it’s always been which one I need more. That’s not a problem now thanks to the portable cell phone boosters. I am delighted to see this and just need to look at some reviews.
I don’t know about these claims. For years I’ve read that you can’t take a cell phone booster for your home and use it in your car. Do these portable cell phone antennas work well in the vehicle and the car? I just am unsure after all I’ve read. If they do work, they’re obviously a great thing to have, but I want something that works equally well at home and in my vehicle. I guess I’m being a bit of a Missourian with this one.
OMG, I wish I’d seen this earlier. Someone was asking me about cell phone signal boosters for home and they wanted to know if portable cell phone signal boosters exist. I didn’t know about this. I haven’t seen any boosters like this at Wal-Mart or at Best Buy. The concept of a portable booster from home to vehicle is fabulous because I use my cell phone as my home phone and I like using it in my car too. Will have to tell people about these portable cell phone signal boosters.