I've been spending more time on EVDO lately, what with highway-speed availability and in-car use. Cellular is supposed to cover the city and highways that we drive on most. But due to mountains, hills, and buildings, dropped calls are still common. Having a weak signal is particularly frustrating while using cellular internet because it means s-l-o-w-e-r speeds. That's where a cell amplifier can come in handy. I took a look at a few different applications and different amplifiers and wrote up this "How 2.0" for Popular Science.

By the way, to really see the signal on your cell phone (or RSSI) check out this PDF for your phone's field test debug mode. It doesn't list some phones like mine. So if you have a Palm Treo 700w type "#*#33284" and press the green Send/Phone button. Memory hint: You might notice that 33284 spells out DEBUG on a touch tone keypad.

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