A dielectric-based RF device such as a tower mounted amplifier (TMA),
mast-head amplifier (MHA), or Tower Mounted Boosters (TMB) includes a
housing having a plurality of cavities and an input and an output, the
input being coupled to the antenna and the output being coupled to a base
station. The housing includes a transmission path with a transmit filter.
The housing further includes a receive path with at least one receive
filter and a low noise amplifier. The receive filter includes a plurality
of cavities with a dielectric-based resonator disposed in at least some
of the plurality of cavities. In one aspect, the RF device has a volume
of less than about 155 in.sup.3. The RF device including the
dielectric-based resonators has excellent out-of-band signal rejection
with low loss. In addition, the RF device described herein is small
enough to mount close to the antenna. The dielectric-based RF device has
superior performance characteristics and a smaller footprint than
conventional air cavity-based TMAs.