Cell phone boosters

[keymaker]

Do they do anything? You know, the sticker things you see on tv?? People are paying $5 all day to me for these, yet I don't see how they work.. Do they?

[L. Daniel Rosa]

You've got my curiosity up. What sticker things? What company makes them? I only get two channels, KVOS and KVCR. Without seeing one I can only guess that at five bucks apiece they're a reflector to keep power from going where you know there's nothing there to recieve it.

[Chris Smith]

Do they work? I Haven't ever used a hand held cell phone, and I never will. The principal or theory is called Harmonic Capacitance. The nearest I would define it as being would be a "Tank" circuit that boosts power by creating a "Fly wheel" like effect using electrons in harmonics.

[keymaker]

Here are some pics..
http://www.cellularwaveboosters.com/boosterpictures.htm <p>Are people ordering due to curiosity or are they stupid?

[Chris Smith]

I doubt they could sell them [continue] if they didnt work some what? Are they worth the 20 bucks?No, they cost a few pennies to make. Buy one or sketch one, and silk screen it and reproduce it for almost nothing.

[josmith]

"I doubt they could sell them [continue] if they didnt work some what?"<p>You're kidding right?!<p>Herbal remedies,Miss Cleo,stomach exerciser of the week,roto zip tools....<p>P.T. Barnum was WAY right!

[jollyrgr]

I spoke with techs that helped develop the Motorola Flip Phones (from the mid 90's) about that phone's antenna. Many claimed that the antenna was a piece of "pyscological" engineering; people would not buy a phone without an antenna. Seeing that most new phones do not have an extendable antenna, this could be true. But the claim that makes me laugh at this commercial is how it makes your antenna like a four foot (or five foot on some commercials) antenna. YOU WOULDN'T WANT AN ANTENNA THIS LONG FOR A CELL PHONE!<p>For the person that does not know what we're talking about, the Cell Phone reception enhancer is a sticker with a laminated/printed conductor coil on it. (It is like those flexible conductors you find on the latest keyboards.) The coils apparently enhance the received signal to prevent dropout.<p>I didn't believe the AM Loop antenna things worked either until I saw the circuit published in Nuts & Volts a few years ago. But apparently these things do work rather nicely. In case you have never seen these, they are a device that sets next to the AM radio that improves reception. This thing amounts to nothing more than coils of wire and a tuneable capacitor. No batteries or external power supply. You tune the radio in to a weak station. You place this device next to the radio and tune it to about the same frequency (as indicated on its dial). Then move the radio and the loop antenna next to each other until reception improves. Look for Select-a-tenna athttp://www.ccrane.com/radios_and_antennas_index.asp for a picture of this device.

[Chris Smith]

As I said in my post, its called Harmonics, and the tank circuit is the heart of all radios. The real joke is placing any cell phone against your head, and trying to fry your brains a little at a time. Like Jolly said, they work on others radios, they MAY work on Cell Radios also. I have no reason to check them out because I dont place micro wave ovens against my head.
JOE, perhaps a basic coarse in Radio is in order. The principals were first discovered by tesla more than 100 years back and they are sound. Does the item work? Perhaps. No Cleo needed here, Just common sense.<p>[ January 17, 2002: Message edited by: Chris Smith ]</p>

[JdOwNj]

You arent THE Jolly Roger, are you?

[HomeBrew]

Those "so-called" cell phone boosters don't hardly work as well as they show them on TV. From tests I have read about and done myself, about the most you can expect to get is one bar more of signal on most phones. But if you are really in a bad signal area, one bar might mean the difference in whether you get through or not.