Tired Of Poor Cell & WiFi Service

[Lou Schneider]

Gotta allow for inflation. 

 

[Kevin Means]

I charged my brother two homemade breakfast burritos to use our system.   Interesting though... a couple people needed to send some texts, but no one complained about NOT being able to get online. A few days of peace - Nice!

Kev

 

[zulu]

I am sure Kevin will come along and give you more accurate information, but here are the prices for some of the parts he used.  Not sure these are the exact parts, but if not, these are similar.

Wi-Fi Ranger  $699.99

WeBoost Cell Phone Booster  $549.99

RCA Antenna Rotator  $89.99

Kevin's Electro-Mechanical Engineering Skills  Priceless

For that amount of money you could set yourself up with a mobile HughesNet Gen 5 system: https://txdish.com/mobile/

 

[John Hilley]

Nice job, I did notice you had some RG6 there.. that cable is quite lossy for UHF cell bands,
I would have suggested LMR400 as a better solution.

LMR400 would be pretty bulky for that installation, LMR195 would be more applicable. However, RG6 is 75 ohm while the LMR cables ar 52 ohm. I am sure it was designed with RG6 for easdy and inexpensive installation.

 

[PJ Stough]

LMR400 would be pretty bulky for that installation, LMR195 would be more applicable. However, RG6 is 75 ohm while the LMR cables ar 52 ohm. I am sure it was designed with RG6 for easdy and inexpensive installation.

Perhaps off topic a bit, but can you mix RG-6 and LMR400 from the outside antenna to the booster?

 

[John From Detroit]

Perhaps off topic a bit, but can you mix RG-6 and LMR400 from the outside antenna to the booster?

I would not as this would cause a serious SWR issue unless one or the other was cut to a very very precise length... As someone said the LMR is 52 Ohm and the RG-6 75  this is not a good plan.

Depending on the design of the unit all the cable should be the same impedance or very close to it.    Mixing cable impedance. can damage the transmitter in the we-boost.

I've got 50 feet of LMR-400 about here somewhere.  (Not planing on getting rid of it )

I forget what is used with my old Wilson.. I do remember soldering a connector on 

But stick with the same impedance of cable.. 

 

[Larry N.]

To add to John's comments, RG-8 might go with that LMR -- it's a 50 ohm cable.

 

[Isaac-1]

It should probably be mentioned that Wilson and Weboost merged a few years ago, so that today some of their products are 50 ohms and some are 75 ohms, particular attention needs to be paid to antennas as some of their antennas are offered in both 50 and 75 ohms versions.

 

[jackiemac]

Isn't this what you really need ?    ;D

 

[muskoka guy]

Will the 5G systems coming on line improve boondocking abilities, or will that only benefit city dwellers?

 

[Lou Schneider]

Will the 5G systems coming on line improve boondocking abilities, or will that only benefit city dwellers?

City dwellers at first, a 5G tower only covers a block or two radius.  So you need lots of potential customers in a small area to justify the costs.

 

[Isaac-1]

There is a lot of confusion over 5G, part of the problem is many people don't understand that there are 2 flavors of 5G, 5G range 1, and 5G range 2, called 5G FR1, and 5G FR2 for short.  5G FR1 is a replacement for 4G LTE with some performance improvements, it is only slightly faster than 4G LTE but has other technical advantages, particularly for low power devices (way less overhead for establishing a connection), larger number of simultaneous connections, etc.  5G FR1 is what we will eventually see in remote areas currently being served by 4G LTE.

Then there if 5G FR2, which is much faster, but requires users to be much closer to a tower for it to operate,  This will likely only ever be deployed in dense urban population areas, and possibly along major roadways due to the need to be so close to a tower for it to work.  Don't expect to see 5G FR2 anywhere that does not have enough population density to support mass public transit anytime soon.

 

[Lou Schneider]

Thanks for the explanation, Isaac!  Now that I'm retired it seems like I haven't been paying much attention as I should to new technologies.

 

[msw3113]

Isn't this what you really need ?    ;D

That and a flux capacitor will fill the bill!

 

[jackiemac]

That and a flux capacitor will fill the bill!

Hee hee

 

[docj]

There is a lot of confusion over 5G, part of the problem is many people don't understand that there are 2 flavors of 5G, 5G range 1, and 5G range 2, called 5G FR1, and 5G FR2 for short.  5G FR1 is a replacement for 4G LTE with some performance improvements, it is only slightly faster than 4G LTE but has other technical advantages, particularly for low power devices (way less overhead for establishing a connection), larger number of simultaneous connections, etc.  5G FR1 is what we will eventually see in remote areas currently being served by 4G LTE.

Then there if 5G FR2, which is much faster, but requires users to be much closer to a tower for it to operate,  This will likely only ever be deployed in dense urban population areas, and possibly along major roadways due to the need to be so close to a tower for it to work.  Don't expect to see 5G FR2 anywhere that does not have enough population density to support mass public transit anytime soon.

I'm not sure of the proper nomenclature, but there's also Band 71 at ~600MHz that T-Mobile plans to use as a sort of "poor man's 5G".  T-Mobile is already using Band 71 for normal LTE in some parts of the country but later this year or in 2021 they will begin broadcasting a form of 5G on a portion of the band.  Because of the low frequencies it will have good penetration characteristics but it will only provide 100Mbps type of response.  Unfortunately, I don't believe that modems currently capable of receiving Band 71 LTE will be able to receive Band 71 5G.

 

[Frank B]

We?ve grown tired of having poor, or no cell/data service when we?re boondocking, and since we love to boondock, it?s a frequent problem. Campground WiFi has also been a problem, even if the system isn?t crammed with users, because we've never had any boosters or external antennas.

I decided that I wanted a cell phone booster with a Yagi (directional) antenna, and a boosted omnidirectional WiFi antenna for campground connectivity. I also wanted a remote tilting and rotating system for both antennas, but I couldn?t find one. Tarheel makes a remote antenna lift, but IMO it?s waaay too expensive, and it doesn?t rotate.

I decided to build my own system using an RCA TV antenna rotator, and my own lift design. I haven?t been able to do a lot of testing to see how much better it?ll connect, but when combined with the directional Yagi antenna, our new weboost cell booster indicates that the cell signal where we live is too strong. That?s a good sign.

Our youngest daughter lives a quarter mile away, and I?m able to surf the web on her WiFi network with no trouble at all. Before this, we couldn?t even see her network with our tablets and phones ? even when standing outside.

Here are some pics of our system. There?s also a youtube video of the system if you want to click on the link.

Kev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuBduBQb1eU

Hi Kev!


I've been 'late to the party' for quite a while, but this probably tops everything so far!

I had the same problem with 'no cell' from mid-2004 when we would run to the mountains west of Calgary for a break, but I still had to stay in touch with the fellows who worked with me at my small business.  At that time, I came to a similar conclusion as you.  A Yagi antenna was the best I could get for my analog 5 watt Motorola ?bag? phone.  Initially, I had an extensible TV mast bolted to the side of our first trailer that I could manually hoist up and lock with a set screw.  Crude, but it worked. (Picture attached)

With our next trailer, I started off doing the same thing, but ended up with a satphone instead.  Never did install the mast on that unit.  Satphone worked for voice contact with the business. 

Then came the digital age, and our hungry dependence on data.  :-(  That was about the time that I came in contact with you through this forum, and, at your recommendation, we started going to KOFA.  (And we still love it there!)  The site we liked best, however, was JUST out of cell range.  So I took the cell booster and magnetic whip antenna out of the truck, and stuck it to an emptry propane cylinder that I put on the roof.  That was January of 2015.

With the next trailer, I finally decided in summer of 2017 to go with something more like you outline in this post ? but quite a bit more modest.

I used our Winegard 'batwing' TV antenna, and piggy-backed a Yagi on that.  As you note, one gets directional ability with that.  No more climbing on the roof to move the antenna!    I just snaked the small co-ax cable down through the antenna mount beside the cable for the TV, though the ceiling into a cupboard, and plugged it into the back of the 60 db booster mounted under a kitchen cabinet.  The batwing antenna is all plastic and I could not attach the Yagi to it.  So I had to make a small stainless steel bracket that attached to the steel pins holding the batwing, and then bolted the Yagi to the bracket.

The older I get, the lazier I get, so we seldom stay in spots anymore that do not have decent cell coverage.  We look for that when we begin looking for a place to stay for the night, as we are often off the road by 3 PM, so are looking for data for communication and Netflix et al.  However, I still raise the antenna and turn on the booster when needed.  It really DOES make a difference in fringe areas.

Frank.

 

[Kevin Means]

I think that's a great setup Frank. I've seen others attach different kinds of antennas to their batwings, and they seem happy with the results. I considered doing the same thing, but I wanted to raise two antennas, and I was concerned that I might be asking too much of the little plastic gears in the tilting mechanism, especially in the wind.

Are you guys stuck north of the border, or are you gonna be able to join us at KOFA?

Kev

 

[ziplock]

Following

 

[Frank B]

kev:


Yeah, we're stuck in Calgary this winter. :-(