I need a real boost!

wa8yxm wrote:
Some facts... And some ideas.

First: Boosters like Max Signal and We-Boost do work. if there is any cell signal at all they will make it stronger.> BUT.. NOT ALL OF THEM will increase Data speeds. Some of them only work at 2g or 3g Speeds not 4Glte or the new 5g that is coming out... So make sure you get the right booster. NO I CAN NOT HELP

Second.. as others have said if the tower is busy.. bandwidth suffers. also your account may throttle based on usage.. Mine does even if it's "Unlimited"

ANd of course no company has 100% coverage save for the Sat-Com outfits. ANd they are both expensive and generally slow.

New Sat-Com expected soon but I dont' know how soon so will say nor more.

Best option is multiple accounts say Verizon and AT&T or T-Mobile/Sprint/Virgin That gives you the best chance at a local tower.


Now.. Jet-packs and My-Fi devices...

An interesting thought is to take a old DirecTV dish (Round dish) and mount the device where the Horn is. then log into it and look at signal strength Should be a high gain antenna (Give me frequency and dish diamater and I have a program that estimates gain.

Also HEIGHT is might.. I know one camper who mounts it atop about 20 feet of telescopign fishing pole alongside his rig for a much stronger signal.

If you use a booster I'd put the outdoor antenna on some kind of telescoping mast. You can also get directional antennas that have higher gain to put atop the telescoping mast. So far I'm not needing that but. it helps.

I do use a telescoping mast with a Umbiquiti Nano Station Loco-M-2 for park Wi-Fi.. That puppy is great.. They make some even greater.

very good info and summary. I'll add a few more comments.

1) Sat phone: a sat phone is not necessarily going to give better or even same coverage as cell. Without naming providers, at least one uses stationary sat's at the equator (the only place these work) Now think about getting sat tv reception. hum.... need clear view of southern sky..... well these sat phones have the same problem. no clear view (trees, mountains,) no sat phone.... Others use sat's orbiting covering the whole earth. Better but if you are in a canyon or near high mountains, you aren't guaranteed 24/7 coverage. It's set up such that you can be pretty assured of coverage for about 20 minutes each hour worst case at the sat moves over you but another isn't close enough. And finally sat phones don't work well inside buildings. I have a locator (garmin inreach) that uses iridium sat's for communication. very reliable but on occasion it can take 10+ minutes for message to go out. Had a spot using stationary sat's. another story often couldn't get coverage and a message out.

Next, an outside antenna on a mast is best, BUT be careful about cable loss. especially with 50ohm systems low loss cable is spendy and big. but wrong cable can have more loss even at 50ft than the antenna has gain. WeBoost has gone to some systems with 75ohm output. means you can't use your old 50 ohm antenna but very low loss 75 ohm cable is readily available in easy to use cable. That's what I have on my big trailer.

Finally, I can't verify, but based on an experience my son had, I suspect that if you have two different system phones, such as ATT & Verizon, only ONE at a time will work with many boosters. they can only boost one channel for one system at a time. multiple phones on the same provider, not much a issue. although gain will go down about 3-5 db for each additional phone running at the same time. So if your in a place with very marginal reception even with a booster, start with only one phone as close as possible to the inside antenna.