Help understand emission level from GSM booster. Is it safe for health?

[Houseman]

You could also use an external atenna if your phone has a jack for one. Look for a small rubber plug covering it. If so you'll need a short flexible purpose built coax adapter, which is often called a "pigtail" to connect to the antenna.

I would use a coaxial switch or simply connect whichever one works best at that moment.

You might also want to consider buying a cell phone thats specifically meant to be used stationary in a home, connected to a permanently aimed roof antenna.

The kind of antenna I would use (because it covers multiple cellphone bands) is a log periodic antenna, they are triangular and look like a Yagi but a triangle or arrowhead shape. You can also buy one that meant to be kept indoors that is just a bare PCB antenna, these are very cheap. But it would have to be kept indoors and aimed out of a window, and kept aimed. Keep the coax short because there is a lot of loss at higher frequencies.

Thinking about it a dedicated base-station phone sounds like the best idea. You'd have to use it like a conventional phone, in other words, no portability, but it has the best likelihood of being able to both receive and make outgoing calls. In other words, approximate a wired phone in reliability.

If I were you I would put send back the GSM booster unless somebody at your cell network tells you its okay.

Instead, set up a passive system with a directional (I would use a log periodic antenna) connected to an indoor omni antenna, connected with a length of LMR-400 or similar low loss 50 ohm coax cable. Keep the coax as short as you can.

As it does not transmit this is safe and legal. Point the directional antenna at your nearest, strongest cell site.

This will act like a bidirectional tunnel for the signals. It doesn't have to be strong, just give them a way around the obstacle in both directions.

I would not use non-type accepted devices, you might get in trouble. If that doesn't work, ask your cellular network provider if they rent or lend out a cell extender device of the appropriate, legal kind, or have any other ideas. They will appreciate your coming to them and asking. 

I hope that I am making it clear that all this is is two antennas with some coax between them.

Another way to extend signals is using a reflector of some kind to reflect the signals like a mirror, both ways, but like a mirror the placement of that would be difficult at best.

Back in the day some rural areas used setups like this to extend cell phone service to residents down in valleys. It takes no power at all.

CDEV Thank You very much!!, I have already spent money to lay a lossless 50Ohm - 6 GHz BW line (with connectors that has to be with the shielding coax line "combed"  ) from the log periodic antenna at roof to the booster inside the house.
I had already noticed that the signal was increased even with booster powered off.
And in a desperate way during a no-signal-even-with-booster-on moment to I had also tried to lay the coax cable behind the cellphone with no effort. Tomorrow I will try to terminate it with a omnidirectional antenna at the end as you say
Now I am asking You following. Inside our family we have two carriers obviously served by two different BTS located obviously one NORTH and the other WEST with respect to the house. I have two Yagi Antenna, How to combinate them? I have found online a GSM combinator wave guide? thank You

If you want to try you could terminate both the antennas with two omni antennas indoors, but see above for what sounds to me like the best solution. A base station phone thats designed for exactly this kind of condition.

Yes, thanks: which one would you recommend?

• Small Log Periodic Antenna inside a Plastic Housing Declared 9DbI
  
• Shorter Yagi same Bandwidth and 13dBi (declared)
  
• Longer Yagi same Bandwidth and 18dBi (declared)
  

As of specs I do not fully trust the producer but..
What would be your best choice?
thank You

[Lord of nothing]

  I would buy a Router.

[Houseman]

I would buy a Router.

Here in Italy we have not yet the ability to route normal calls to VOiP.
The cellphone is mandatory for my wife's work. She is a family doctor and has to support Covid-ill people from home.
Otherwise she has to stay all day 1-mile away and get calls in the car, and it's the begin of winter.
GSM and sometimes 3G signal is the only available, outside the house on the top of the roof.
No other signals are present. Forget 4G. Inside the house I have complete silence.
Do You really think the router will magically restore the low signal and solve all my problems? If yes please tell me the model name and I will buy it immediately.
Thank You.

[CJay]

I would buy a Router.

Here in Italy we have not yet the ability to route normal calls to VOiP.
The cellphone is mandatory for my wife's work. She is a family doctor and has to support Covid-ill people from home.
Otherwise she has to stay all day 1-mile away and get calls in the car, and it's the begin of winter.
GSM and sometimes 3G signal is the only available, outside the house on the top of the roof.
No other signals are present. Forget 4G. Inside the house I have complete silence.
Do You really think the router will magically restore the low signal and solve all my problems? If yes please tell me the model name and I will buy it immediately.
Thank You.

It does seem pretty bad that WiFi calling isn't available in Italy, is there perhaps a way you can set up a call diversion from the mobile to a landline?

It seems to no longer be available from Vodaphone but in the UK one company I worked for issued femtocells like these when it was important people had a mobile signal at home:

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/network/calling-features/sure-signal

[Houseman]

NOPE.
Both option are here unavailable.
We cannot continually transfer the calling to the landline.
We have Vodafone as carrier. I know in UK there is the possibility, also in Germany with Orange.Wi-Fi call here in Italy was never implemented...
Sorry, we are in the land of Pizza and Sun....

I would buy a Router.

Here in Italy we have not yet the ability to route normal calls to VOiP.
The cellphone is mandatory for my wife's work. She is a family doctor and has to support Covid-ill people from home.
Otherwise she has to stay all day 1-mile away and get calls in the car, and it's the begin of winter.
GSM and sometimes 3G signal is the only available, outside the house on the top of the roof.
No other signals are present. Forget 4G. Inside the house I have complete silence.
Do You really think the router will magically restore the low signal and solve all my problems? If yes please tell me the model name and I will buy it immediately.
Thank You.

It does seem pretty bad that WiFi calling isn't available in Italy, is there perhaps a way you can set up a call diversion from the mobile to a landline?

It seems to no longer be available from Vodaphone but in the UK one company I worked for issued femtocells like these when it was important people had a mobile signal at home:

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/network/calling-features/sure-signal

[cdev]

Hey, your issue suddenly became a matter of real importance because of your wife's plight and although you might not realize this, Italy is a real powerhouse when it comes to RF.

Its also an insanely hilly country. Which is part of its allure in many ways but it also demands a technologically innovative, ultra reliable SOLUTION that can be deployed in hours, not in days or months.   Empower yourself to do that. Its got to be out there. If you are based in Northern Italy start calling universities, that specialize in literally cutting ege telecommunications and RF technology. tell them we all suggested this here, your problem, there has to be help out there with your name on it.

Isnt there some neighbor who you can "see" in direct line of sight who also has great Internet from a cable connection, or similar? You don't live in some huge valley all by yourselves, like Count Dracula, do you? I didn't think so. You should be able to get a connection through any other person who has reliable Internet who is also line of sight. Even if they are several miles away. This is a frigging emergency. (Just saying) Lives are on the line.

This issue is now a national no a global problem. Your issue is. You deserve an "escalation".

This problem in particular is one people have all around the world, and when doctors and epidemics are involved AS THEY ARE it should get bumped up several notches.  Just my lira .02.

By the way, I threw coins into that fountain as a child.

What about satellites? If you keep calls short. (Make liberal  use of text messaging which is faster/cheaper)

Just pretend you are in Bananastan.

Here in Italy we have not yet the ability to route normal calls to VOiP.
The cellphone is mandatory for my wife's work. She is a family doctor and has to support Covid-ill people from home.
Otherwise she has to stay all day 1-mile away and get calls in the car, and it's the begin of winter.
GSM and sometimes 3G signal is the only available, outside the house on the top of the roof.
No other signals are present. Forget 4G. Inside the house I have complete silence.
Do You really think the router will magically restore the low signal and solve all my problems? If yes please tell me the model name and I will buy it immediately.
Thank You.

[CJay]

NOPE.
Both option are here unavailable.
We cannot continually transfer the calling to the landline.
We have Vodafone as carrier. I know in UK there is the possibility, also in Germany with Orange.Wi-Fi call here in Italy was never implemented...
Sorry, we are in the land of Pizza and Sun....

Ah that's a shame, your options would seem to be to break the law, move house or a career change for your wife.

Seems really odd that you can't get a phone divert set up though, that's extremely basic functionality for any cell or phone network, is it perhaps that I've misunderstood and you just don't want to?

One bonus to living in Italy is that the regulations and laws preventing the use of illegal devices like cell boosters seem to be optional and not enforced

[cdev]

Italy's bureaucracy is so notoriously bad and complicated that it seems to create a state of learned helplessness in people after a while.

(Or so at least two Italian engineers who now live in the US both told me).

But even so, there has to be a way. They do get things done after endless fussing, eventually.

Hmm, I just had a thought, I think what the OP is getting at is, this is a TAXATION issue, perhaps one like where the telco is owned and supported by the government, and does not want any other means of communications whatsoever muscling in on their turf.

After all, this is Italy, home of the notorious Mafia.

Just a thought, I don't know what to do in this situation, bizarre as it is. I would try to get scientists into the loop. Maybe science can get a special dispensation from the Pope?

Appeal to a higher power.

[Houseman]

Well it sounds silly but the phone call my wife receives is already diverted!
Patience calls a "simil PBX" and it routes to the doctor's phone actually in service that moment. She cannot make 24hr. a day service.Nor give to everyone her private phone number to call her directly.
She would otherwise be overwhelmed by calls and requests night and day,

Soat the end it would finally be a diverted call from a diverted incoming call. Have tried it already. I-m-p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e. The call simply doesn't get through.
DOH!
Do you in the US have the possibility to divert the call twice?
Regards

NOPE.
Both option are here unavailable.
We cannot continually transfer the calling to the landline.
We have Vodafone as carrier. I know in UK there is the possibility, also in Germany with Orange.Wi-Fi call here in Italy was never implemented...
Sorry, we are in the land of Pizza and Sun....

Ah that's a shame, your options would seem to be to break the law, move house or a career change for your wife.

Seems really odd that you can't get a phone divert set up though, that's extremely basic functionality for any cell or phone network, is it perhaps that I've misunderstood and you just don't want to?

One bonus to living in Italy is that the regulations and laws preventing the use of illegal devices like cell boosters seem to be optional and not enforced

[cdev]

Yes, we call it call hunting, or a "hunt group" where it rings multiple numbers either at the same time, or sequentially, until somebody answers.. Presumably they still don't have that feature which we had here from the beginning of ESS starting in the 1980s.

Honestly, this level of isolation is not really possible, I would think. Unless OP is on some island off the coast or owns their own entire valley or something.

What do mobsters do when they want to be able to speak to their henchmen ? I don't know. But it seems to me as if this, being a matter of substantial importance, OP should not have to go underground, after all lives are being saved and we're not in the midst of warfare, (except against this virus)

Somebody who works with telecom and or community networking a lot would know. Italy is a modern country. 

[Houseman]

What about the "analog hole" ?


What do mobsters do when they want to be able to speak to their henchmen ? I don't know. But it seems to me as if this, being a matter of importance, OP should not have to go underground, after all lives are being saved and we're not in the midst of warfare, are we? (except against this virus)

CDEV.
What kind of antenna of the three do you suggest I should use?
Thank You

[cdev]

It depends on what bands you need to use for your specific application. Your situation cannot possibly be that unique. I suspect that there is a simple answer to your question., What do OTHER emergency personnel do?

CDEV.
What kind of antenna of the three do you suggest I should use?
Thank You

Whatever antenna you get, make sure its a quality one that's appropriate for outdoor mounting and durable enough for professional usage. Because your wife is a professional and this is an important safety essential use. Don't short change yourself or especially, her.

She should not have to sit in a cold car, ever. get a base station phone and mount the antenna on a tall mast on your roof, feed it with LMR-400. Mount and weatherproof the antenna and feedline professionally. get the antenna up as high as is possible, that more than anything else is the key to this situation.

If you need to, buy a tall steel tower so this setup just works.

[Houseman]

they simply live in town. Where the 4G is available.
We cannot move from here in this moment.
It was in order to simply my wife's daily stressful living moment.
Answering inside a car a mile away where she can get calls.
And complicate mine, of course. But this doesn't matter..

[cdev]

If your wife is a physician, she is a VIP.

A top quality log periodic antenna on top of a tower or tall mast should get you cell phone connectivity to anywhere there is a cell site within line of sight. Even if its several miles away.

There is a program, "SPLAT" that can plot out the terrain you are dealing with using high resolution SAR terrain data for your area.

That will tell you how far you need to go up.  You may not need to go up much at all. Here in the US there are cell sites every few meters, seriously. Thousands of them everywhere. Even in the middle of nowhere. Its nuts.

[Lord of nothing]

Do You really think the router will magically restore the low signal and solve all my problems? If yes please tell me the model name and I will buy it immediately.

You put a Huawei Router under your Roof and feet a Antenna Cable with a Antenna on the Rooftop where you have a connection. There are Huawei Router who have 2x (!) Analogue Telephone Port. On this you can put a normal "old" Analogue Telephone and a DECT Device.
If you are insane you can install a PBX on a Rasberry Pi and use an USB to Analogue Telephone Adapter and Voip Phones but that is a future project you dont need think about that now.

to a landline?

If you life in the hell of nowhere forgett about Landline.

We cannot continually transfer the calling to the landline.

Many Operator support to Transfer a Call if a Phone is not available. Ask in an Italian Smartphone Forum if its possible.

[Houseman]

Thanks CDEV,yes she is.
A HERO without overdue, especially in this very difficult situation.
Every day she has to visit ill people without retreating, getting close to the risk to get infected even if wearing FFP2 mask and glasses all day long - a physical fatigue byself, answering phone calls at every moment. A stressful day, every day. She has lost colleagues during last wave, as many of them around the world.
So I am trying my best to help her as much as I can in the daytime.
I will do according to what you suggest.
My concern is only since there are no BTS at my altitude (I am at 600mt above sea level) (other are in the valley (I can clearly see them with my binocular) maybe I have to tilt the antenna pointing it down.
Will let you know
Thanks

If your wife is a physician, she is a VIP.

A top quality log periodic antenna on top of a tower or tall mast should get you cell phone connectivity to anywhere there is a cell site within line of sight. Even if its several miles away.

There is a program, "SPLAT" that can plot out the terrain you are dealing with using high resolution SAR terrain data for your area.

That will tell you how far you need to go up.  You may not need to go up much at all. Here in the US there are cell sites every few meters, seriously. Thousands of them everywhere. Even in the middle of nowhere. Its nuts.

[Lord of nothing]

if wearing FFP2 mask and glasses all day long

well the mask must be change very 30min - x Hour! Its insane to wear one for the hole day! 

[Houseman]

if wearing FFP2 mask and glasses all day long

well the mask must be change very 30min - x Hour! Its insane to wear one for the hole day! 

I was meaning wearing not the SAME mask, but working always wearing A (not ONE) mask is a physical stress itself, since the oxigenation is not so good and you tend to inhale part of the same exhaled air (at least a % of the total volume)...

Officially I knew the filtration efficiency of such FFP2 mask was approx. every 4 to 6 hours.

[cdev]

Whatever it takes to get a phone in the house for your wife so she doesn't have to do that definitely do that.

You should tell her also to look up resveratrol on viruses, (on PubMed) it might help her stay healthy.

It has activity against virus replication, and may be useful as a prophylactic. I keep expecting to see more about this but I have been waiting now almost a year, and so far, very little (go see what is there)

Make sure the resveratrol you buy is good quality. It shouldn't cost much, its quite affordable. get it at a big chain drug store, their generic vitamin products are more likely to be decent than small brands, generally.

Thanks CDEV,yes she is.
A HERO without overdue, especially in this very difficult situation.
Every day she has to visit ill people without retreating, getting close to the risk to get infected even if wearing FFP2 mask and glasses all day long - a physical fatigue byself, answering phone calls at every moment. A stressful day, every day. She has lost colleagues during last wave, as many of them around the world.
So I am trying my best to help her as much as I can in the daytime.
I will do according to what you suggest.
My concern is only since there are no BTS at my altitude (I am at 600mt above sea level) (other are in the valley (I can clearly see them with my binocular) maybe I have to tilt the antenna pointing it down.
Will let you know
Thanks

If your wife is a physician, she is a VIP.

A top quality log periodic antenna on top of a tower or tall mast should get you cell phone connectivity to anywhere there is a cell site within line of sight. Even if its several miles away.

There is a program, "SPLAT" that can plot out the terrain you are dealing with using high resolution SAR terrain data for your area.

That will tell you how far you need to go up.  You may not need to go up much at all. Here in the US there are cell sites every few meters, seriously. Thousands of them everywhere. Even in the middle of nowhere. Its nuts.

By all means if you have to look down and can see where the cell site or internet access point is, point it at that.

Antennas are a popular subject here so one way or another we should be able to figure this out. The point I was trying to hammer home is that being a doctor she really needs this connectivity, it should be a high priority for everybody involved in internet or service provision to get it working for you, fast.