Jeff Thies wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Jeff Thies wrote

The rental house is on the downside of a hill and the cellphone coverage is poor. Up the driveway it is fine.

Any experience with any of the cell phone boosters?

They arent legal in my country.

I see some are tethered to the phone, in which case an antenna would be just as well.

Yes, those are used a lot in RVs.

You do need a cellphone that can have an antenna attached, most modern ones cant anymore.

Some rebroadcast both ways. I'd like to spend less than $200, but you know how that goes!

I'm halfway thinking of a Pringles can (or some such waveguide
antenna) facing the tower, but elevated, connected to a half (or
quarter if there is a ground plane) wave dipole. Seems like the can
would have a ton of gain. Crazy?

Nope, it can work, but its not as easy to do as you might think.

What's the problem?

You clearly dont know much about antennas. Not that that is
a major problem if you can find a decent set of plans for one.

It's mostly that I need to go up about 5 feet.

Whats that based on, where the driveway is ?

I still think that if your cellphone can accept and external antenna,
and most cant, that it makes a lot more sense to just buy the sort
of antenna thats designed for a car or RV instead and use that.

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

That looks like: a 4 1/4" (for 1900 mHz) can at least that long.
Perhaps a 1/4" hole 1.63" from the bottom, with 1.63" of wire sticking
both into and out of the can mounted in a bit of plex. Orient the can
vertically and point it at the nearest cellphone tower, which is visible.

Am I missing something that you know of?

Yes, thats a wifi cantenna, not a cellphone cantenna.
The frequencys are completely different.

Your original shows that you dont understand the basics with the
bit about the dipole. That cantenna doesnt use anything like that.

Corse you do need to check that your cellphone can take an external antenna first, most cant.