Pet Monitoring...Cost/Benefit Ratio of a Cellular Signal Booster

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steelmooch

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Aug 5, 2010
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Hello, all...

I know there are a bunch of different ways that people monitor the interior temperature of their RVs...

Because of our specific usage/needs, I've ruled out a "WiFi"-based sensor.  Also ruled out the method of "leaving behind a second cell phone, which is interfaced with a temperature sensor via a groundline-to-cellular adapter". 

Though a bit pricey, I like the look of something like the MarCell (cellular) based product, with a seasonal cell plan associated with it. 

My question is...in an RV, what type of gain/benefit would one expect to get from a cell signal booster? 

If such a product took you from "1/5 bars"...or even "one fleeting bar if you wave it around the right way"...up to a solid 3/5 bars, then it would be reliable enough for temperature monitoring away from the RV. 

If you need a decent signal anyway, however, and it boosts you from 3 bars to 5 bars, then it wouldn't suit our purposes because we're not using it to stream movies or anything like that. 

Any experiences for what is actually gained with these devices in "1 bar" or even "no bar" types of areas?  Thanks! 

 
Can't help much on the cell boosters, haven't had much luck with the one I tried. I don't trust the cell monitoring devices I've looked at and don't like the cost either. Not sure of your rig or situation but I prefer to control from within. I have multiple roof exhaust fans that are temp controlled to come on at a certain temp. I also have an auto-start feature on my Onan genset. If the rv looses shore power and the inside temp reaches our setpoint it starts the genset and the ac comes on until the lower level setpoint is reached. If shore power is back on then everything returns to normal. Just another option you might look into. Do a search here and you will find other options as well, good luck with it.
 
I do have the heat alarm/blue tooth/extra cell phone(cell phone cost is 10 bucks for 3 months and 100 minutes, more then enough for alarm call outs). I do have a Booster and I have yet to be in a CG or area where I haven't had a signal on the Verizon network.  I've had this set up in the MH for about 4 year's now and while its not perfect, it does work well and gives  me some peace of mind. We travel, at last count, with 4 doggies.
 
Bars on cell phones are relatively meaningless since there is no standard unit of "bar" measurement and each phone manufacturer determines what signal strengths trigger each bar. RSRP, RSSI, dB, etc., are much better measures of cell signal strength. We're currently using a Max Amp RV amplifier/repeater from Maximum Signal that works with lower available signals than our previous WeBoost Drive 4G-M, as well as repeating the signal over the full length of our coach, instead of only within a few feet of the inside antenna. Since we spend a fair amount of time in coverage map white areas where our phones and hotspots used to see little or no signal at all, we've found the Max Amp to be indispensable for our communications reliability needs.
 
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