YX500-CEL Wireless, Verizon: Works great in..

Overall Rating3.673.673.673.673.67

Verizon: Works great in Colorado!

Yes, this item works well. But yes, it takes some RF and electronics knowledge to make it work right. For me, I have verizon cell phones operating in the 800MHZ cell band in my area. In my house we had zero to 1 bar and could make calls but they were frequently dropped or cut in and out. We could walk down the block and the signal was better. Our house sits in a depression and most of the cell signal was going over the top of our house.

To really make this thing work well I would recommend the following tips:
1) Get cell phone for which you know how to enable DEBUG mode and get an actual NUMBER for the signal strength it is receiving.
2) Go ahead and purchase the optional YAGI directional antenna for this unit.
3) Buy an approximately 4 x 8 ft. piece of radiant barrier ( a type of insulation available at home depot made of aluminum).
4) Mount YAGI antenna in rafters of house or outside on roof.
5) Mount cell extender about 3 feet from the floor in the top living level of your house in a center location of the house.
6) Place radiant barrier in attick directly between the 2 antennas. This will help improve the signal separation a lot and will make this thing work.
7) Power up cell extender. If when you power it up you get ANY flashing amber lights, then your signal isolation between the two antennas isn’t good enough and you must do something about it (move antennas, get YAGI with higher gain, etc.) If you get no amber lights on startup then the device is operating at max or almost max amplification and power output (only 1/2 watt but plenty for a single house).

We now have 3-5 bars all over our house, deck, porch, and even garage! Calls are clear and there is no breaking up or dropping of calls.

We have 2700 sq ft. house with 2 stories plus a basement. I am using a 10dbi antenna from some guys out of New York I found on the internet. I paid $99 for this antenna because they told me it was a 17dbi antenna, but they lied. However, it works and I am happy with what works…

Running continously for 2 months now without a single glitch. Zero maintenance when installed correctly.

There are 2 different models for the 800MHZ and 1900MHZ cell bands. BE SURE TO BUY THE CORRECT ONE FOR THE PHONE CARRIER YOU HAVE.

Update (2/6/2012): This item is currently on sale here for the lowest price I’ve seen. I also found some auctions for this item here.

The featured review for this product, Wireless Extenders YX500-Cel zBoost Cell Phone Signal Booster up to 2500 Square Feet of Coverage for Home or Office 800 MHz Phones Wireless Phone Accessory Dec 17, 2005, was written by L. Arthur.

The average rating for this item is 3.7 out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.

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Reviews (3)

Gregory Friberg

March 11th, 2010 at 12:28 pm    


Overall Rating33333

It works all right, but it is no miracle cure!
I had 1-2 bars of coverage on verizon outside my house, and 0 inside previously. I placed the extender in my attic, and now I can, indeed, make and receive calls from inside the house. The coverage is pretty weak (1 bar or less) and calls drop from time to time, but it is much better than no service at all. My advice for those of you like me (with 1-2 bars at best outside your home) is to consider this as a way to get minimal indoor coverage, but don’t expect miracles. It doesn’t replace a land line!


OC Resident

March 15th, 2010 at 5:27 pm    


Overall Rating44444

It works, but you must be willing to live with its limitations
I reluctantly bought this product after all but giving up on trying to use my cell phone at my house. I would typically get anywhere from no reception to 2 bars at best, and I typically could not hold a call for more than a minute before I got dropped. I was using Verizon 800mhz service.

I knew it had a good chance of it working because I do get very good reception in my attic, so I figured I could place the antenna in the attic and then transfer a strong signal to the rest of the house.

It took me half a day to play with various locations for the antenna and base unit, but I finally got to the point where I could count on at least 3 bars almost anywhere in the house, and even five bars in my kitchen. I have not dropped a call yet since I purchased this.

The down side to this unit is the need to drape a cable from the attic to my bedroom, almost 20 feet away. I did not want to get into lifting up the carpet and trying to hide it, so I just have it running along the baseboards and across the stair case. It looks pretty ugly and it creates a serious tripping hazard. I will eventually have to figure out a way to better hide the cable. It became clear that to get the best reception, the base unit needed to be as far away from the antenna as possible, which forced me to have an exposed cable visible across three different rooms in the house. If you are not willing or able to do this, you may not get the best results from the unit.

All in all, I’m happy that I purchased the unit because I count on my cell phone heavily for business use, and without this unit I was completely unable to count on my cell phone and did not even want to give out my number. It is not for everyone, but if you have a strong signal somewhere in the house and can deal with the cabling issues, it can definitely make a big difference.


L. Arthur

March 28th, 2010 at 1:49 am    


Overall Rating44444

Verizon: Works great in Colorado!
Rated 4 stars.


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