Cell phone boosters

[Wildabeest]

Just wondering if folks on here have much experience with cell phone boosters and whether they are worth the investment. Specifically, I’m looking at a home system, not a mobile system. I recently purchased a cabin in WY. It’s about 20 miles from the nearest cell tower. Not 100% line of sight to it, but the tower is about 200’ higher and there’s no major peaks in between. Most of the time, I have no signal at all, but occasionally I’ll get one bar and be able to send/receive some txt messages. My hope is that an external booster antennae would pick or more of a signal, and then the booster could amplify it and, at a minimum, get me still weak but more consistent signal. Would be awesome it could get me 3-4 bars and a 3G or LTE signal, but that may be too optimistic.

I’ve done some research and the WeBoost Home Multi-room seems to be one of the better rated ones. At $500, though, I’d like to get a little more certain that it’s actually going to work. I’m confident that it can adequately boost a signal if it can get one, I’m just not sure how much better the external antennae mounted on the roof of my cabin will perform in obtaining a signal given that it’s so weak with my phone.

Any advice appreciated!

 

[Sam Colt]

20 miles is a long way. Line of sight is critical. You have to get the directional above the horizon.

I use one for my camp. For our application, we're seeing solid improvement. Our problem is the steel building. From 1 bar to 5 inside and directly under the repeater omni antenna. At the sides of the house, the signal drops to 3 bars, but it's still better than before.

The last one I bought was DOA, but Amazon took it back without a problem. Consider getting one and trying it out to see if it meets your needs. Make sure to get the right band, GSM or CDMA.

 

[cowboy]

Any chance you have internet at your cabin? If you do then your cheapest and most reliable bet is to use wifi calling. Totally 100% reliable. We've been using it for years at our cabin.

 

[Wildabeest]

No. It’s totally off grid. I did some more research tonight. The closest tower is 16.7 miles as the crow flies. I found a cool website where you can select two points on a map and it will plot a line between them on an elevation axis. Signal would just barely need to skim across the tops of 3-4 peaks between me and the tower. Verizon seems to be the only carrier on that tower, and unfortunately I have AT&T. But AT&T does have off network service showing on their coverage map (Verizon shows in network coverage), so I assume AT&T is using the Verizon coverage. No extra cost to roam on Verizon, but will limit my data to 100MB/mo (assuming I can even get a connection that supports data).

I’ve also considered Hughes Satellite Internet, but not sure I want to shell out $75/mo for that. So I think I’m going to give the WeBoost a try and see if it works. Has 30 day return policy, so if it doesn’t work then I’ll just send it back. Will let y’all know how it turns out.

 

[Finngo]

20 miles is a long way. Line of sight is critical. You have to get the directional above the horizon.

I use one for my camp. For our application, we're seeing solid improvement. Our problem is the steel building. From 1 bar to 5 inside and directly under the repeater omni antenna. At the sides of the house, the signal drops to 3 bars, but it's still better than before.

The last one I bought was DOA, but Amazon took it back without a problem. Consider getting one and trying it out to see if it meets your needs. Make sure to get the right band, GSM or CDMA.

+1

 

[Mallardsx2]

WilsonPro 70 Plus Cell Signal Booster 1 Inside Antenna

The WilsonPro 70 Plus with one interior antenna is an excellent option to improve cell signal in a small office, a commercial building, or a large home.

powerfulsignal.com

weBoost Cell Phone Signal Boosters & Repeaters

Shop our weBoost cell phone boosters, the best known name in signal boosters. Get better signal in your home, business, car, truck, RV or boat. Our signal experts are standing by to help you find the right solution for your needs.

www.wilsonsignalbooster.com

If you go with a Wilson and it doesn't work, you will be out of luck. IMHO they are the best.

 

[3855WIN]

I have one for my camp and one for my truck. You must get a signal to boost a signal. I think it’ll work for you, at times.

Be careful unpacking it and test it out. If it doesn’t work, return it.

 

[Wildabeest]

Here's the elevation profile from my cabin a 7,700' on the left to the tower at 8,000' on the right. Fair amount of dark timber over the first mile or so from the cabin, but pretty open after that. Keeping my fingers crossed that the signal can skip across the tops of those hills! I'm going to try to get the antennae as high as I can, but reluctant to go too high due to high wind and lightning.

Thanks again for all the great feedback. Ordered the unit last night and will let you know the results.

 

[Sam Colt]

Can you put up a mast? Looks like even 50-70 feet of elevation would help you. Shouldn't be that hard. Weld a base and buy the segmented pole. 3 fence posts, some wire and turnbuckles and viola.

 

[ntodwild]

My experience has been that the only way to know is to purchase, set it up and hope for the best. Our every year hunt camp is 7 miles back off the grid (old logging roads) and we set camp with 3 trailers (4hr pull in). My good friend spent 600+ on a cell phone booster (home unit) because he runs a business and needs phone reception. Coverage in the area is spotty at best but it is there. Calls are not always reliable and drop. He figured it would be a great investment for everyone in camp to be able to T off this booster. Do your research for sure as these boosters work "specifically" with certain cell channels. Long story short is that they do work and are very dependent on your specific situation. Worth the $600 he paid???? I believe in the correct situation IF it works even a $1000.00 could be worth it. In our situation I would say it's OK at best. Technically we do get a "boosted signal"l but still drop calls.......The Antenna is on a 30ft pole extension as well.

Reviews on these boosters are so dependent on personal situation (location, line of site, so on as you seem to be doing your research) so be careful when someone is gaga over a specific unit. In the end it sounds as if you are in research mode. When you get ready to purchase do so from a reputable source so you can return if it does not work for your specific situation. It's the only good advice I can give.

Hopefully you are in a situation where you can purchase, setup relatively easy without a ton of work (customization and so on), figure out if it's gonna work or not and move on one way or the other.

 

[Wildabeest]

Can you put up a mast? Looks like even 50-70 feet of elevation would help you. Shouldn't be that hard. Weld a base and buy the segmented pole. 3 fence posts, some wire and turnbuckles and viola.

A mast is definitely a possibility. I don’t have a welder, so I’d probably need to hire that out if I need to get it higher. There’s an existing TV antennae and satellite dish on the roof. So my initial plan is to mount to one of those masts and see how it works.

One concern is that the unit I’ve ordered (WeBoost Home Multi-room from Wilson Amplifiers wants there to be 50’ of horizontal or 20’ of vertical separation between the outside receiver antennae and the inside transmitter antennae. That’s tough to accomplish if your plan is to mount on the roof of a cabin. So I may need to take it further up on a longer mast, or move the external antennae to the roof of one of the other buildings not the property and bury the cable.

Good news is that I can try different things to see what work. Start with the easiest and then go more complicated if that doesn’t work. I’ll have 30 days to figure it out and still be able to return it if nothing works.

 

[Sam Colt]

I have the yagi (outside) on a mast at one end near the shop and the omni (inside) in the attic over the living area. Probably 50 feet apart. It's not ideal, but it's sufficient.

 

[Wildabeest]

The major deciding criteria on the one I ordered were:

• Has a directional vs. Omni-directional antennae. Directional seem to get better pickup than omni-directional if they are aimed right. Since I know exactly where the only tower I have any hopes of connecting to is located, I felt like that was the best option.
• Supports all major US carriers. I have AT&T, one of my kids is on Sprint and the other is on Verizon. So being able to connect to all of those was important. Albeit that it appears the only “real” signal available from that tower is Verizon. Also supports a plethora of signal frequencies and types.
• It has decent amount of gain/boost (65dB) and 21dBM uplink and 12dBM downlink.
• Has decent transmission of the inside signal up to 2500sqft.
• The next version up was 2x the cost, and mostly seemed geared towards higher boost to cover a larger area not the boosted signal transmission vs. improved reception of the raw signal. I’m more concerned with the latter.
• The next version down was $200 cheaper, but had an omni-directional antennae and much less area of coverage for the boosted signal - you essentially needed to be with 15’ of the internal antennae and in the same room.
• It seems like there were quite a few “cheap” options on the market in the $200-$300 range, then just a couple of options in the $500, and then it jumped to $1,000+ from there. So it seemed to me this one was the best value for the money.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

A mast is definitely a possibility. I don’t have a welder, so I’d probably need to hire that out if I need to get it higher. There’s an existing TV antennae and satellite dish on the roof. So my initial plan is to mount to one of those masts and see how it works.

One concern is that the unit I’ve ordered (WeBoost Home Multi-room from Wilson Amplifiers wants there to be 50’ of horizontal or 20’ of vertical separation between the outside receiver antennae and the inside transmitter antennae. That’s tough to accomplish if your plan is to mount on the roof of a cabin. So I may need to take it further up on a longer mast, or move the external antennae to the roof of one of the other buildings not the property and bury the cable.

Good news is that I can try different things to see what work. Start with the easiest and then go more complicated if that doesn’t work. I’ll have 30 days to figure it out and still be able to return it if nothing works.

If you go an antenna route, I would highly recommend an grounding loop with a couple rods if you are able to drive them in your dirt. Won't guarantee protection for lightening transients, but it will be your best bet. If it were me, I'd go #6 bare stranded copper in 20ft circle with at least two 10'x5/8" copper clad steel grounding rods, connected to the loop. That will give you a good grounding plane.

 

[Wildabeest]

There’s no lightening in WY, so no need for grounding...

I was actually looking into that last night and most of what I found said that you shouldn’t run new ground rods, but instead tie it into the existing grounding on the electrical system. Didn’t really explain why, but I would have thought just driving a new ground rod and tying into that would be the way to go.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

There’s no lightening in WY, so no need for grounding...

I was actually looking into that last night and most of what I found said that you shouldn’t run new ground rods, but instead tie it into the existing grounding on the electrical system. Didn’t really explain why, but I would have thought just driving a new ground rod and tying into that would be the way to go.

If you have a grid you want to tie your new grid into it to ensure an equipotential grounding plane. If you have two different grounding networks you could have either touch potential, or circulating current on your ground grid. Either of those aren't too big of a deal in a home application, those come into play for substations, and larger industrial applications.


More than likely your home has one or two grounding rods close to where the electric meter is, it's ideal to tie in with those if feasible. If it is a fair distance apart, you wouldn't have to, but still advisable.

I could guess that the current grounding system, wouldn't handle lightening that well since its probably just two rods, a grounding loop with rods is far more efficient for strikes.



But like with most things, better grounding means more expensive so you always have to keep that in mind.

 

[Wildabeest]

No electric meter. It's off-grid with solar. I assume the solar system is grounded somehow, but I've not really inspected it that closely to see where/how. That'll be job #1 next time I'm up there.

They get some wicked lightening storms up there, so I'll definitely err on the side of over-protection. Thanks for the insights -I really appreciate it.

 

[hank4elk]

I finally got a Wilson system a few years back when the excellent verizon reception left. Worked OK off a very far repeater that was not clear line of sight,then they upgraded towers.
Now service in whole SW NM sucks big time. But we have a huge 5g towers now...lol a effing joke.
Have hughs joke net too so I get internet service equal to 20 yrs ago. Takes forever to watch a netflix film................

 

[Wildabeest]

Yeah, I've read mixed reviews on the Hughes Satellite Internet. Most of them bad, but I can't tell whether it's because they are comparing it to what they are used to on fiber connections in the urban jungle or if it's really that bad. When it's the only option, anything is better than nothing. Just not sure yet whether it's worth $75/mo year round for the amount of time I'll spend there. It'd be nice to be able to work from there some though, and that would require a fairly decent internet connection.

 

[VikingsGuy]

Yeah, I've read mixed reviews on the Hughes Satellite Internet. Most of them bad, but I can't tell whether it's because they are comparing it to what they are used to on fiber connections in the urban jungle or if it's really that bad. When it's the only option, anything is better than nothing. Just not sure yet whether it's worth $75/mo year round for the amount of time I'll spend there. It'd be nice to be able to work from there some though, and that would require a fairly decent internet connection.

Satelite has really bad "ping" times which means every interaction is SLOOOOWWWWW. Bandwidth is limited and expensive. Maybe better than nothing, but definitely sucks even compared to old copper DSL, let alone modern DLS, cable or fiber.