Is there anythin that actually works to boost reception?  I have seen various antannes and things for cars.  Do they work?  Or only for installed car phones?   Carrier is Alltel.

Thanks

THe only thing that will improve recpetion is an antenna that attaches directly to your phone.

There are a few ways to boost cellular reception.   An external antenna is a primo way to help increase your reception dramatically.  Since the cell phones generally operate around 800 MHz, an ideal antenna (that is one wavelentgh long) would be about 14 inches long.  The higher your antenna, the better your line of sight is going to be.    So get a cellular external antenna that you can leave permenantly mounted and mount it as high as practical.    The cellular amplifiers are a good investment if you are not able to get a cellular signal at all.  I used to have a good source for them surplus but it dried up a few months ago, I'll see if they have any more.

Try a different phone - Motorola has notoriously poor reception, while my Nokia 6230 shows 2-3 bars at home where my wife's phone has no signal.

Quoted: Try a different phone - Motorola has notoriously poor reception, while my Nokia 6230 shows 2-3 bars at home where my wife's phone has no signal.

Really? My cheapo Motorola rocks on signal and sound quality. It blows my old SonyEricsson T226 away.

Quoted: Really? My cheapo Motorola rocks on signal and sound quality. It blows my old SonyEricsson T226 away.

My previous Startac sucked compared to my current Nokia, but there is really no figuring it...

My LG rocks.  My Kyocera 7135 gets terrible reception, but I need to have a PDA sometimes.  

The provider in my case provides crappy reception, Cingular had great reception until AT&T took them over, now my reception on the same phone sucks. An external antenna helps to make it a little better though.

What kind of external antenna?

Quoted: Try a different phone - Motorola has notoriously poor reception, while my Nokia 6230 shows 2-3 bars at home where my wife's phone has no signal.

I'll + 1 that.
I've owned two Motorolas. Neither had close to the
reception capabilities of my wife's Nokias. We both
use Cingular service.

I use a little amp hooked up to a external antenna. reception sucks in the boonies