Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
I live in Alaska. Our poplulation does not allow for a huge cellular network. At least not enough to cover half ot our highways. Ive fought with reception for years. I even started buying 60 dollar 9db boost antanaes. Ive had decent luck with these.
I have found something wonderful. Any of you ever use one of those old suitcase phones. It didnt matter where you were you could still call out. Those phones transmitted at 3 watts. BTW that is the max allowable by the fcc. If you boost beyond 3 the cell tower will ignore you. I had heard of this product called smooth talker. It is a little spendy. About as much as a new cell phone in fact. I mention it to my dad and he says he has one and does not use it. I grab it and put it in my car. I cannot begin to tell you the difference. These do not work well in the city. Out of the city it is night and day.
I went to a place I knew had no service and had a crystal clear phone conversation with my dad. It went from no service to 3 and 4 bars. For me in alaska this thing is a miracle. My dad paid 180 dollars for it. I went and bought a 9db boost antanae to go with it for an additional 70. I do a lot of offroading and boating in places that could take a day to hike out of to make a phone call. I believe this will work in those places.
Around my little town there are many little holes that you cannot call out of. MANY. This completely eliminates them. I drive for a living so this is a tax write off and will make my job a lot easier. It is worth every cent for me.
When my truck got torched last year it took over 15 minutes for me to get a good line to the police.
The only caveate is that if you are around several towers it is possible that more than one can grab you. This will cause interference and nullify any gains. I have not noticed this in my semi rural area but in a city it would make it counterproductive. This is more pronounced if you are moving while making the call. Increasing the likelihood of overlapping towers. Normally as you drive one tower will drop you as you approach another. It notices that your signal strenght is dropping. Problem is your signal strength is still strong so the first tower doesnt drop you even after you are acquired by the next. This in itself wouldnt matter but when a tower has you acquired it gives you a pass key. This has a frequency dedicated to you. The next tower could already have handed out that frequency to someone else knowing your transmission strength would be too weak to reach the second tower. Wrong.
Why do I know all this you ask. There was a write up in the paper about using it for rural areas. Alaska is 95% wild. So we have many rural areas. The paper interviewed a man over the phone and there was no question his nearest tower was 35 miles away. The phone call was crystal clear. The company claims you can grab a tower at up to 60 miles. Perfect conditions I imagine. In extremely rough terrain Ive found about 15 miles if you are down in a hole. I was surrounded by mountains in a river bed.
For me. This is the best thing since sliced butter. I thought I would share this as a lot of you travel and this device could save your life.
I have found something wonderful. Any of you ever use one of those old suitcase phones. It didnt matter where you were you could still call out. Those phones transmitted at 3 watts. BTW that is the max allowable by the fcc. If you boost beyond 3 the cell tower will ignore you. I had heard of this product called smooth talker. It is a little spendy. About as much as a new cell phone in fact. I mention it to my dad and he says he has one and does not use it. I grab it and put it in my car. I cannot begin to tell you the difference. These do not work well in the city. Out of the city it is night and day.
I went to a place I knew had no service and had a crystal clear phone conversation with my dad. It went from no service to 3 and 4 bars. For me in alaska this thing is a miracle. My dad paid 180 dollars for it. I went and bought a 9db boost antanae to go with it for an additional 70. I do a lot of offroading and boating in places that could take a day to hike out of to make a phone call. I believe this will work in those places.
Around my little town there are many little holes that you cannot call out of. MANY. This completely eliminates them. I drive for a living so this is a tax write off and will make my job a lot easier. It is worth every cent for me.
When my truck got torched last year it took over 15 minutes for me to get a good line to the police.
The only caveate is that if you are around several towers it is possible that more than one can grab you. This will cause interference and nullify any gains. I have not noticed this in my semi rural area but in a city it would make it counterproductive. This is more pronounced if you are moving while making the call. Increasing the likelihood of overlapping towers. Normally as you drive one tower will drop you as you approach another. It notices that your signal strenght is dropping. Problem is your signal strength is still strong so the first tower doesnt drop you even after you are acquired by the next. This in itself wouldnt matter but when a tower has you acquired it gives you a pass key. This has a frequency dedicated to you. The next tower could already have handed out that frequency to someone else knowing your transmission strength would be too weak to reach the second tower. Wrong.
Why do I know all this you ask. There was a write up in the paper about using it for rural areas. Alaska is 95% wild. So we have many rural areas. The paper interviewed a man over the phone and there was no question his nearest tower was 35 miles away. The phone call was crystal clear. The company claims you can grab a tower at up to 60 miles. Perfect conditions I imagine. In extremely rough terrain Ive found about 15 miles if you are down in a hole. I was surrounded by mountains in a river bed.
For me. This is the best thing since sliced butter. I thought I would share this as a lot of you travel and this device could save your life.
