Locating Cell Phone Towers
I just recently purchased the Wilson SignalBoost DT for use in my rig. For what it is worth, I got it to replace the Digital Antenna PowerMax 4KMR-30U that never really seemed to help much. Maybe it...
Forum Discussion
tkcas01 wrote:DiskDoctr wrote:
Make sure you have a ground plane and vertical separation between inside and outside antennas! A diagonal separation seems to work best (outside antenna on top and not above your inside repeater)
What do you mean by ground plane?
A metal separation/reflector that prevents the signal from penetrating that lower "plane" Car roofs and mobile antennas often have an inbuilt ground plane. SOHO system antennas quite often do NOT have a ground plane and require a larger separation between the donor and repeater antennas.
If you are having issues with the repeater being between the donor (outside) antenna and the cell tower, likely you don't have enough separation or a ground plane.
The diagonal separation (at least 3ft vertical and 3ft horizontal minimum) often helps.
As an example, one of the very powerful systems I install does best with about 11ft or more vertical separation. But we are also dragging in 30-40 mile reflected signals (bounce one off the side of a mountain) in a "nobody has service here" area of rural WV ;)
Where are you putting your outside antenna and the inside antenna?
Most (all?) of these repeaters now have an auto adjust for the power (especially transmit) due to some FCC complaints a number of years ago.
In practical terms, that means if the antennas can interfere with each other, the system will REDUCE the power (and effectiveness) until they do not. If it is beyond a certain threshold, they have a Loop or Error or other warning light and turn off the boost.
Keep in mind, there is ALWAYS RF leakage in directions other than the directional/designed area, including BACKWARDS. So just because your directional is pointed away, if in the same vertical plane, you can get interference between antennas.
In a pinch, you can try putting your outside antenna on top of your rooftop A/C, or on the opposite side of it from your inside antenna.
Another tip. Your inside area coverage is a factor of the outside signal strength (repeater is limited by donor + boost signal).
When camping, for WiFi, I use an elastic hairband to 'clamp' my MiFi directly to the donor antenna inside and then allow the WiFi strength to create my coverage footprint. After attaching and powering on the MiFi, power cycle the booster, as it will often increase its power in this configuration.
There are a lot of other things to increase RF coverage and rectification, these are just a few that are likely to be simplest and most helpful for you.
And, yes, I am a professional, authorized installer for these larger systems. In part because I needed to use them for connectivity for other work I did ;)
Hope this helps.
