Answer first: the CD1000 is a self-contained dual-band licence-exempt commercial repeater that an owner, facilities manager or installer can deploy without an RF contractor, a drilled roof panel, or a paid frequency licence, because a 1000 m2 footprint starts with one outdoor omni, one or more indoor server antennas, a 10 m outdoor cable, a 5 m indoor cable and a standard UK mains socket, with up to four indoor antennas added for separate zones. The whole job breaks into ten factual stages: (1) confirm a usable outdoor 4G reading on your network's band, between -97 and -105 dBm, plus a usable 2G voice reading where calls matter; (2) choose a window, fascia or roof mounting point for the 5 dBi omni at 3 to 5 m height with a clear path to the serving mast; (3) keep the outdoor omni and every indoor antenna at least 10 m apart vertically; (4) connect the included 10 m outdoor coax to the BS base-station donor port; (5) connect the included 5 m indoor coax to the MS mobile-station server port; (6) extend the outdoor run to 20, 30, 40 or 50 m only when the chosen point cannot be reached with 10 m; (7) plan up to four indoor antennas across the zones rather than trusting one whip to cover 1000 m2; (8) connect every antenna first, then power on through the AC 100-240 V to DC 5 V adapter into a UK mains socket; (9) read the LED indicators for 3 to 5 minutes while the automatic gain control locks onto the donor cells; (10) test a voice call and a 4G speed session in each zone before calling the job finished.

CD1000 Snapshot Before You Touch a Screw

The CD1000 is rated for up to 1000 m2 (10,764 ft2) of indoor coverage across a large office, retail floor, hotel or guest house, warehouse, factory unit, pub or cafe, and for up to 100 simultaneous active phones. It ships with a 5 dBi omni-directional outdoor antenna, a 3 dBi whip indoor antenna, a 10 m low-loss outdoor coaxial cable, a 5 m low-loss indoor coaxial cable, and an AC 100 to 240 V 50/60 Hz adapter stepping down to DC 5 V with a UK 3-pin plug. It delivers at least 70 dB uplink gain and at least 75 dB downlink gain on both Band 20 (800 MHz) and Band 3 (1800 MHz), with a maximum output power of at least 20 dBm held at the Ofcom ceiling, and a noise figure of no more than 5 dB. It supports up to four indoor antennas for zone-by-zone coverage, holds UKCA, CE and RoHS certification and Ofcom licence-exempt status, and needs no frequency licence, annual fee or formal installer sign-off.

The dBm ranges the CD1000 expects at the outdoor antenna

Walk the boundary of your property with the phone screen visible and read the received signal strength in field-test mode. The CD1000 amplifies two independent services, Band 20 4G plus Band 3 4G and 2G voice, so read the band your network actually uses rather than trust the subjective bar count on the home screen.

-97 dBm on 4G is a healthy reading the omni turns into a loud indoor signal once the >=75 dB downlink stage restores wall and concrete loss. -105 dBm on 4G sits at the edge of the recommended band but still produces a stable LTE session once amplified, because the commercial >=75 dB downlink margin absorbs plasterboard, brick, double-glazing, floor slabs, warehouse racking and a factory concrete shell more comfortably than a mid-size unit. -112 dBm on 4G is the practical floor: below roughly -112 dBm the LTE receiver loses the control channel, the phone falls back to a slower service or shows no service, and no booster can manufacture a donor the outdoor antenna never receives. The >=70/75 dB gain recovers a weak donor better than a mid-size chassis, but it cannot invent a band the survey never picked up.

How to read dBm rather than bars

Phone bars are subjective and differ between iPhone and Android; the dBm figure is the measurement the amplifier actually sees. On an iPhone, enter field-test mode from the dialer and watch the RSRP value while standing still, then move around with the screen visible. On Android, use the engineering or network diagnostics menu under About Phone, or a free field-test app that lists RSRP by band. Hold the phone away from your body, because a hand and head absorb 3 to 5 dB, and read the value on the road-facing side rather than the rear yard if the mast sits on the road side.

Where to survey: front, rear, sides, upper floors and each facade

Stand at the main entrance, the rear yard fence, each side wall, the upper guest floor or mezzanine, the workshop bay, and at the proposed window or fascia position. Record the reading at each spot for your own SIM and a colleague's SIM on a different network, because the strongest combined spot is where the omni goes. On a rural farm or factory the field-side gable usually beats the wall sheltered by a hedge or loading yard; on a high-street hotel or shop, survey the street-facing door and front window during trading hours, because interior metal shelving, lifts and stocked racks absorb signal even though the tower itself does not move.

Survey warning: if your band reads below -112 dBm at every outdoor position on your land, the CD1000 cannot manufacture that band indoors. You may still improve voice on the other network's service, but the missing band stays missing. In that case raise the mounting point, add height, or aim the directional aerial supplied with full kits directly at the serving mast rather than driving twice.

Why 3 to 5 m height matters across 1000 m2

The omni should sit at 3 to 5 m above ground level on a wall bracket, drainpipe clip, fascia rail, low roof edge or chimney stack side, whichever gives the shortest clean run back to the chassis. Three metres clears fences, parked vans and hedge tops; five metres lifts the antenna above a single-storey extension, a flat warehouse roof or a pub function room where a ground-level window reads weak. Extra height helps only up to the point the donor becomes visible; beyond that the cable route back grows longer and adds passive loss without changing the received band.

Window frame, fascia bracket, drainpipe or roof edge

A window-frame bracket suits a rented or listed wing where drilling is limited; a fascia bracket suits a shop or hotel frontage; a drainpipe clip suits a party wall; a roof edge or side gable suits a rural farm and factory. Keep the omni away from metal guttering, satellite dishes, air-con units, steel chimney pots and lift shafts by half a metre or more, because a metal object within the near field absorbs the 5 dBi pickup.

What to avoid at the mounting point

Do not mount the omni inside a sealed metal box, behind a solid stone chimney breast, under a tiled roof overhang that blocks the horizon, or on the rear wall facing a solid yard or stock wall when the mast sits on the road side. Do not let tree leaves grow within a foot of the antenna at summer fullness, because deciduous canopy at 800 MHz still removes several dB.

Why vertical beats horizontal separation on a large site

UK building geometry usually provides vertical separation cheaply: the omni on the front first-floor fascia and an indoor antenna on the ground-floor reception naturally sit more than 10 m apart through the floors. On a single-storey warehouse where vertical distance cannot reach 10 m, place the omni at one extreme end and the server antennas at the far opposite ends, route the donor toward the street, and keep racking and steel shelving between them.

What commercial gain means for the separation rule

Higher amplification makes feedback slightly easier to trigger, so the 10 m separation rule is not relaxed despite the >=75 dB gain. Point every indoor antenna toward its own zone, never back toward the omni, and never mount two on the same elevation within a few metres. If a band LED begins to flash rapidly during the AGC warm-up, separation is the first suspect, followed by a reversed BS/MS port or an indoor antenna placed too near the donor.

The 10 m outdoor cable goes to the BS port

BS stands for base station donor: this port faces the outdoor omni and carries the weak tower signal into the amplifier. The included 10 m outdoor coax runs from the omni down the wall, through a drainpipe or under a window sill, and into the chassis BS socket. Only the outdoor run is ever extended, because the outdoor antenna distance from the building varies; the indoor server distance is fixed per antenna zone.

The 5 m indoor cable goes to the MS port

MS stands for mobile station server: this port faces the indoor antennas and carries the amplified signal out to the users. The included 5 m indoor coax leads from the chassis MS socket to the first whip. Keep each indoor lead short rather than daisy-chaining one extremely long cable to a distant zone, because every extra metre of passive indoor cable removes radiated field without reaching the users efficiently; the upgrade ladder applies to the outdoor donor run.

BS and MS labels and swapping them

Swapping the two produces no coverage: the weak donor signal would be sent to the whip as if it were output, and the amplified output would be fed back toward the omni. The chassis and connectors are labelled on the unit itself; match the cable from the omni to BS and the cable to the server antenna to MS before tightening the adapters.

20, 30, 40 and 50 m outdoor upgrades

Every extra 10 m of outdoor coax costs roughly 2 dB of passive loss that the >=70 dB uplink and >=75 dB downlink budget absorbs but never returns. Measure the physical route along the wall, downpipe and corners, not the straight-line map distance, and buy the length that matches rather than the longest available.

How to divide a 1000 m2 site into antenna zones

Walk the floor plan and split it into natural sections: reception and open-plan desks, meeting rooms, the guest-room floors, the warehouse sales floor and stock mezzanine, the bar and dining extension, or the workshop bays. Place one server antenna in the centre of each section, keep each lead short, and keep every antenna 10 m clear of the outdoor omni. A small office or retail floor may need only one or two; a multi-floor hotel or large warehouse uses all four.

Where each of the four antennas sits

Antenna one covers reception and the ground-floor desk cluster; antenna two covers the meeting or dining wing; antenna three covers the upper guest floor or mezzanine; antenna four covers the stock room, warehouse racking or workshop bay. Each radiates vertically upright through open ceiling space rather than inside a metal cabinet or lift shaft, and each points toward its zone's users, never back toward the donor omni.

Why placement beats a long daisy-chained indoor cable

If a distant zone stays weak after the first placement, the answer is another server antenna in that zone, not one long indoor lead stretched from the chassis. Daisy-chained cable steals field from every antenna on the line and accumulates passive loss; the commercial gain recovers the donor, but it still expects short, direct indoor runs to each zone.

3 to 5 minute automatic gain control

After power on, the CD1000 runs a 3 to 5 minute automatic gain control routine that listens for the donor cells on Band 20 and Band 3 and sets stable gain on both bands. During this window the LEDs settle rather than reach final brightness; do not adjust cables or unplug during the warm-up, especially on a multi-antenna site where the AGC balances all server points at once.

Reading the LEDs

A steady green band light means the band donor is locked and stable. A flashing band light means the donor is weak, the band is searching, or the unit is backing off from feedback. A rapidly flickering light across both bands points to separation too close, a reversed port, or an indoor antenna placed too near the omni. After 5 minutes, confirm a steady green on the band your network uses before starting the zone test.

How >=70/75dB gain interacts with AGC and the >=20dBm cap

The automatic gain control still controls radiated output at the >=20 dBm ceiling; the >=70/75 dB rating describes how strongly the weak donor is recovered before that controlled output, not a fixed loud setting. When the donor is strong, AGC backs gain off automatically, so the commercial amplification never overshoots into interference or oscillation even across a 1000 m2 building.

What success looks like

A steady 3 to 4 bars and a clear call in the furthest guest room, stock corner or workshop bay proves the >=75 dB downlink margin carried the signal through concrete, brick, floor slabs, metal racking and a bar counter. Test a second SIM on a different network too, because the dual-band chassis carries O2, Vodafone and Three on Band 20 and EE family on Band 3; a mixed-carrier office, hotel or shop needs both bands locked.

What a weak zone means

A zone stuck at zero bars after the walk needs an added or moved server antenna rather than a re-aimed omni, because the donor side was never the problem there. A whole band absent on the LEDs points back to the outdoor survey rather than indoor placement.

Think of gain as the microphone's sensitivity and output power as the loudspeaker's fixed legal volume. The CD500 already listens well at >=60/65 dB and reaches 500 m2; the CD1000 raises the microphone sensitivity a further 10 dB to >=70/75 dB, recovering a weaker rural or industrial donor and penetrating a concrete or metal shell the mid-size chassis leaves marginal, while the loudspeaker stays at the same >=20 dBm ceiling. That extra amplification, spread across up to four zone antennas, is what covers 1000 m2 and serves 100 sessions. The <=5 dB noise figure stays the same, so the recovered signal arrives legible rather than noisier.

Where the extra gain goes across the 1000 m2

The commercial downlink margin starts at the whip and accumulates loss: plasterboard partitions cost a few dB, an external brick wall costs 10 to 20 dB, a concrete or steel warehouse wall costs more, a floor slab between levels adds its own loss, and metal racking or machinery adds attenuation on top. The >=75 dB reserve absorbs that cumulative loss so the phone still shows bars in the upper guest floor, the stock mezzanine and the workshop bay, where a >=65 dB unit would run dry around 500 m2. The gain does not substitute for a healthy donor; it stretches an already-amplified signal farther through structure and recovers a fainter starting cell, not out of nothing.

Choose the aimed directional aerial when no indoor zone reaches but the outdoor reading is poor; choose a second larger-rated unit when the outdoor signal is healthy but the area clearly exceeds 1000 m2; never solve an oversized footprint with a longer cable or a louder chassis. The directional aerial is a donor-side fix, the second unit is a geometry fix, and the >=70/75 dB gain plus four zone antennas is what carries a good donor across the existing 1000 m2.

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