Cellular Amplifier & Antennae

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I have had an amplifier in the fiver for the past three years. To attach the magnetic mount antenna, i simply glued down a piece of painted steel using lots of Dicor to the roof. When i am setting up, i clumb the ladder, drop the antenna on the plate, and feed the wire thru the slide out bulb seal then complete opening the slides. Mine is totally wireless, in other words there is an inside antenna and an outside antenna. It comes with a power supply so all i need to do is plug it in to 120VAC and turn it on. Generally you will not need amplification if you are close to major cities or along major highways. The times I need it is when we are hosting several miles off the highway or in very remote far west locations. Then i am lucky to get 1G service early in the morning. The closest towers are miles away with lots of mountains in the way. And nothing
Will help in those situations.

Thanks Don. I hadn't thought about feeding it through the pass-through openings. That may be very convenient!

A lot of our camping is in Canada, where we don't have the level of coverage that you do. 1 bar, maybe 2 if I'm lucky. And that's not too far off from the major centres. So I want to amplify to maybe get the signal that's close but not quite serviceable yet.

I've used them in trucks before, and they work great. But I've never used them in an RV before.

You need to make sure you have the required distance between the antenna and the amplifier/transmitter module - 2o feet according to the installation manual. I would call customer service and speak with them. They have been very helpful to me in the past.

Sounds like a plan, and as mentioned do plan on 20' minimum vertical separation. Love ours.

Nice kit. I'm assuming that you stop for periods of time so that aiming the outside antenna is not a problem? You might need longer coax in order to raise the antenna. One pole arrangement that might work well is the Flag Pole Buddy, but there are plenty of poles available. Check HD paint department for example.

Talk to Wilson re:
1. Is there a higher gain outside yagi antenna that is better suited for you.
2. The inside antenna range sounds limited, does it meet your needs and if not what are the options.

Electrical installation is trivial, mechanical may not be so easy. I would never route a wire through a slide gasket because it might leak and I detest seeing wires. Instead drill a hole in the roof, plug it as best you can and then use adequate Dicor - it will never leak. If you are going to raise the antenna then be sure that in all locations you meet the minimum spacing requirements.

I've used my 3G Wilson setup in 2 rigs. Last installation was involved. WD had to be removed to route outside antenna wire. Amp under the bed and hard to see the lights. Route AC wire from bathroom with a switch in the bathroom, there are other outlets but not easy to turn on/off while boondocking and also not on the inverter. You might not have these concerns or use an extension cord.

My antenna is on a back corner roof. The inside antenna points forward and is 20' away. I did pretest the locations and even 15' separation worked OK.

If yours is like mine then it's not for mobile applications and the amp will overload when near a tower, no problem when you are parked near a tower as you won't need the amp anyway.

BTW Our Wilson amp operates both of our phones to at least 30' including outside and our MiFi which gives us WiFi internet access for laptops and wireless printer. Perhaps with home school you would want some flexibility to move around which is why I brought up the indoor antenna capability consideration.

Perhaps my setup worked at 15', actually even less, is likely because my indoor antenna is also a directional panel antenna pointed forward.

Hi John,

Make sure the booster is compatible with the LTE service.

Do you wish to be able to have in motion wobbly wide web? If so a more permanent antenna mount may be desirable.

Do you plan on using a data stick? That technology is becoming obsolete quite quickly with folks having hot spots on their phones.

Unfortunately phones no longer have antenna ports, so you will be bathing your family in radio waves with any booster intended for use with a cell phone.

johninedmonton wrote:
Hi guys and gals;

I'm looking at cellular amplifiers, and the installation process. Specifically, I want reliable and fast LTE internet so that we can home-school/cyber-school our kids on the road.

I think I've identified the amplifier I want:

http://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/wilson-dt4g-dt-4g-desktop-amplifier-kit-4g-lte-aws-3g-2g-all-us-carriers-460101

Now for the installation. I'm no electrician. Far from it. So this is uncharted territory for me! Any suggestions?

Also, I'd like to create some sort of a telescoping pole for the antenna. I've heard that you get a much clearer signal if you can get the antenna up high. The higher the better. So does anyone have any suggestions on how to create a telescoping antenna?

And finally, do you have any experience with cellular amplifiers?

Mount it to a telescoping flag pole.

Thanks all. I will definitely check out the flag poles. It sounds smarter than my jerry-rigged half-brained schematics that were brewing in my head.

I'll be using a mifi type router/hotspot for most of our needs, so the interior range isn't a big issue for me.

The system I quoted below handles all current LTE frequencies.

I looked at omnidirectional antennas, but it's hard to find one that supports LTE and also gives good gain. While a directional antenna isn't ideal, screwing around with it every week or so doesn't sound like fun, it is the best gain option.

I obviously won't be using it while mobile, so that's less of an issue. And I won't even be powering it on unless the radiant signals are too weak.

Yes there will be radiation, but that's almost impossible to escape these days. So it's not a consideration for me.

As far as a pole, this telescoping handle from Lowe's works well. Goes from 4' to 12':

http://www.lowes.com/pd_102924-1003-PO15_4294610211__?productId=1000891&Ntt=aqua+ez&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Daqua%2Bez&facetInfo=

This one goes to 16' long, but is 8' long collapsed:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_112887-1003-PO16_4294610211__?productId=3009169&Ntt=aqua+ez&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Daqua%2Bez&facetInfo=