Cell Phone & WeBoost

[ChuckT]

We have so-so cell signal. The reviews on Amazon for boosters mention that the boosted signal is good if you're right on top of the indoor repeater and drop off dramaticly as you move away. WTF!!? I was thinking about getting a booster, not I'm not so sure. Can anybody accurately describe what your results are?
FWIW we are in north central Florida and right on the fringe (4 mike's away?) of more than one tower.

 

[Alan W.]

Our signal was terrible. We had to stand in a window and hope to get enough signal to make a call.
I bought a Wilson booster to try and help. There is a sharp drop off when you move further from the indoor antenna. I am about 15 feet from the antenna now as I write this and have 3 bars of LTE signal.
Without the booster I would have no signal in the same location.
With the booster my phone data is faster than using the Hugesnet wifi.
Also we found that our signal is stronger if the directional antenna is not aimed directly at the closest cell tower.
Is it a perfect answer. No. But it is far better than what we had.

 

[ChuckT]

Thanks! Any idea why you need to have the antenna off the direct line to the cell tower?

 

[ChuckT]

We are in the middle of 3 towers and get only one bar inside. And later in the day, mid afternoon, 0 signal.
On top of that our ISP - Spectrum - will drop Internet signal during the day as well. Makes me (almost!) wish for the return of Southern Bell.

 

[Alan W.]

We live in a valley with no direct line of sight for the tower. Thats the only thing I can think of that maybe causes this.
My son is in the process of setting up a 4g wifi in our detached garage. He bought a cheap directional antenna and attached it directly to his router. He can download and watch videos easily on this set up.
Once he gets it completely set up and it proves to be consistent the Hughsnet will be gone.

 

[polo1665]

I'll second a recommendation for WeBoost. Same situation that you have. Had to stand in certain places to get reception. Towers aren't too far away, but due to location of house we had very poor reception. WeBoost antenna solved our issue. Certainly not cheap, but effective.

We ended up going this route due to our poor landline service. DSL through Frontier was our only ISP option (other than HughesNet). Our phone lines were crap and we constantly lost service, sometimes for weeks at a time. Now we can keep a hotspot in the house and use our Verizon plan to cover internet in the house.

 

[kenmbz]

T mobile gave us a booster when we complained. They just told us that if we move/end contract we have to give it back or get charge around $200.
It works ok and it is in 2 parts- one is a receiver we have by the window, the other we put a few rooms away, everything between the two works when the receiver has signal. Sometimes we see the cell tower drop and everything goes dead, but mostly it allows us 4G speeds and calls within the range of the two boxes.

 

[geblackwell]

I have Sprint and they gave me a booster. Did not work as I wanted, so returned it and now use wifi calling.

 

[newbury]

For all you posters please post model numbers and dBm. Those things can get darn expensive and bars are only relative..

SWMBO bought a Wilson about a decade ago. Didn't do diddly. Had similar problems of having to stand in a certain place and whistle Dixie, would only get 1 bar at the best, until this spring, got no bars, -120 dBm or worse in the house. So in March, 2020 I finally bought a weBoost 474120R (refurb) from Walmart for $90. Now in the living room I get -110 dBm where I sit and up to -90 dBm where SWMBO sits and uses her phone.

Fantastic improvement. Lot more crank calls also. Doesn't cover a big area.

 

[Xfaxman]

Subscribed, need to get reception inside the shop, a metal building. Have good signal in the house.

My flip phone is 3G.

 

[TheMan419]

How is your internet service at home? Most modern cell phones can be set up to route the call over the internet connection. Might be an easier option to just turn that option on.

 

[ChuckT]

Well I can certainly post "-dBm" signal strength. Right now I'm getting a "low signal strength, -118" as reported by the Signal Strength app, Phone Signal v5.7

 

[ChuckT]

The app says that's a Verizon 4G LTE tower and also reports 2 other towers at -120 dBm.
That's inside the house and not using wifi calling.

 

[RoyKing]

Wilson and some other sites detail setting up booster/repeater. For those with and outdoor level of -100dbm getting a directional yagi antenna will give you a few more db's gain, same with placement of the inside antenna and the type. However when I added everything up the cost was over $400 and the verizon data plan was more expensive than my Exede sat plan and had lower data cap. Once your speed gets over 10mbs you see very little gain, unless multiple users. For watching movies the latency doesn't matter. Also upload speeds vary greatly. Sat looses signal when a heavy rain storm is southwest of me. flixtor.to has been great for movies and will let me download them.

 

[sodamo]

Successful search to find this. Thanks.

Inside and around the house our AT&T signal is iffy at best, but I can get a fairly reliable LTE signal about -90 on the roof.
For a number of years we had a Microcell provided by AT&T, but when it died, they told us to use Wifi calling as the microcell had been discontinued. That was OK until my internet provider went bottoms up. I ended up with AT&T cellular internet from a 3rd party. Works quite well and I’m pleased with service. However, with my phones on wifi calling I’m using bandwidth that I’m paying extra for and even then phone service is still a bit spotty.
Knowing I can get -90dbm on the roof I’m interested in cell booster. WOW, lots of info and not cheap. This site seems quite informative Waveform (formerly RepeaterStore) - The Cell Signal Specialists

Cel-Fi GO X seems the better recommended although WeBoost is as well. I can mount the Yagi on same mast as my internet antenna.

My house is built of concrete sided SIPs with galvanized channel and metal roof, not particularly signal friendly.

Anyone with knowledge of this system?

Also would appreciate pointers on aiming. We are a couple miles from AT&T antenna but can’t see it. I aimed by plotting on map then a compass.

Do I need to be concerned about multiple Yagis pointed same antenna on same mast?

 

[ponytug]

The Cel-fi GO comes with an app that will help you locate the best direction for the antenna. It is a little time consuming, but worthwhile. Due to hills, other obstructions, etc., your best direction may not be straight at where the tower is. Sometimes a tower farther away gives a cleaner signal, sometimes the strongest signal is "bent" due to reflections. Regardless, the best aiming is experimental.

If possible you don't want multiple yagis on the same pole unless they have a large vertical separation. They are likely to interfere with each other. Much better to put them far apart, ideally with your roof/walls between them. If your cellular internet is not a MIMO antenna, you may be able to move it in the house and run it off of the Cel-Fi GO indoor antenna.

All the best,

Peter

 

[sodamo]

Cell Phone & WeBoost

Thank you, Peter.
Guess I need to do more research on Yagi separation as I really don’t know anything. I suspect mine might not be correct. These are 700-2700MHz Wide Band Directional Antenna (Yagi/Long-Periodic) 10DB/ 14DB.


The top 2 go to my MOFI 4500, the internet modem with guidance to space 12 inches min between edges and pointed at tower. The bottom to Mobley, another AT&T modem.

I am considering replacing the Mofi and the replacement uses a panel type antenna. I could possibly use these 2 for the Cel-fi GO. If I get a good interior signal then the Mobley might do well enough with it’s internal antenna.

 

[ponytug]

The top two are basically paired (one picks up the vertical signal and the other the horizontal signal, even though they are both at 45 degrees to the vertical) for the best signal quality to your MoFi. That is the right way to do those. I hear great things about the MOFI.
Ditto the Mobley. (Lucky you!)

A panel (with dual or quad leads) is just another way to accomplish the same thing.

I believe that the Cell-Fi GO only uses one antenna (Yagi/LPDA).

I would put your new Cell-Fi antenna elsewhere to start with.

All the best,

Peter

 

[sodamo]

Was just reading about cross polarization Introducing our MIMO Antenna Kits for Hotspots and Routers.

Looks like I need to try this. Haven’t found a reference for distance between the two.

My Mofi is a few years old, but has worked well until recently.

I was very fortunate to stumble onto the Mobley and actually have 3. Gonna miss them should AT&T shut them down.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Been forever but we used to call it either spatial or cross pole diversity. Basically 2 antennas receiving the same signal. In many cases, due to reflections or scattering, a single antenna will receive the same signal, but 180 degrees out of phase.

That's the same as noise cancellation, you end up with nothing. A second antenna either spatially separated or oriented differently will eliminate many of those dropped calls etc.

Back n the day you would see folks with 2 cellular antennas on their car, that's what that was all about, spatial diversity.

.

Maybe you meant LOG PERIODIC?

Spell correct will get you in a lot of trouble!