Boosting Cell Phone reception

MrWizard wrote:
I think the RV traveler, that needs a cellphone crucial for business
Is not hiking down into canyons, and does not need to worry about where a SAT phone may not work
Even if he is having cellphone coverage problems, the SAT phone should work, in just about any location he is able to drive his RV to

having used a sat phone, along with others I do some traveling with, Our experience is don't expect a sat phone to work anywhere you can drive an RV to. Globalstar is the worst, if you don't have a clear view of the southern sky E.G. can't get Sat TV, you likely won't get sat phone reception, they use GEOS sat's. Irridium is better, with worldwide coverage via LEOS sat's, but in dense terrrain, or in mountains, you can be without reception for up to around 20 minutes or so out of an hour until the phone sees at sat in range.

And for decent reception you'll most often need to be outside. reception in a RV or trailer is often marginal or non existent without an external antenna for the phone.

Using irridium systems your likely to have much better luck overall than with a cell phone, but no guarantee of 100% coverage 100% of the time.

Myself and some others I know that have tried sat phones have switched to the Garmin/Delorme Inreach as an alternative. Text only, but uses the irridium sat system and will keep looking for a sat then send or download SMS text messages.

But it is text only, and also like a irridium phone can have time delay or reception issues.

Now back to the OP's delema. We have been in many places where ATT (GSM) phone work and Verizon/sorint (CDMA) don't and vice versa. One option is to find out from the campground if one has good reception and get that carrier with a tracphone or similar.

And find out where the spotty reception comments are coming from. I've been to campground where my ATT or verizon phone will get 5 bars and the other 1 or 2. And I'll hear comments about poor cell reception. Well it is if you have the carrier with poor coverage in that area.

And if the reception is "spotty" it's highly likely a good cell phone booster will give you a decent signal. Or try your car phone system if your car has a built in phone system. Ours often works when handheld cell phones won't. they have more output power so a better chance of connecting to a cell tower. Basically will give you performance similar to a cell phone booster.