Boost Your Cell Signal Wherever You Are
Today I'm just South of Portland, Maine in a nice campground about 3 miles from the shore. The campground has cable TV but no WiFi. And the signal for both my AT&T and Verizon cellular connections is mediocre at best. What to do...?
Fortunately I have a device I've been dying to try out. It's the Wi-Ex zBoost. The zBoost is only one of the company's products, and this one is actually intended for use in a home or office where cell signals have a hard time reaching through building walls. So if it will work for a home and concrete/brick walls, my aluminum camper should be a piece of cake.
In fact, performance has absolutely nothing to do with the composition of the walls since the installation process consists of placing an antenna outside, in the location of your best signal, and running a cable (like a TV cable) to a device inside the camper (or house).
I ended up hanging my antenna on the power pole next to the camper and running the cable through the rear door where I plugged it into the booster unit. About as simple as it gets.
I then checked both my cell connections to find that both the Verizon and AT&T were affected... positively. They both read 4-bars, when they previously showed only 2-bars inside the camper. Life is good once again.
I can hardly wait (not totally true... I can easily wait to get home) to try this setup in my office in the basement where I get absolutely NO cellular signal.
Wi-Ex sells a variety of units for different environments. The zBoost sells for $300. They have one specially designed for cars that runs on 12 volts but I opted to try the 110 volt system since it will eventually end up at home. I may need to buy an extra antenna so I can bring it with me when we travel next time. There's no way I'm leaving my cell signal up the the carrier's tower placement again.
posted by Scott at
9:07 AM
Scott Koegler is a technology writer with way too many gadgets, even in his
RV. He is journaling his travels this year in this Digital RVer blog at RVtravel.com, but you can also
follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/scottkoegler) and BrightKite
(http://brightkite.com/people/
6 Comments:
Just think how much better this device/setup could work if the antenna were elevated and away from the electrical noise inducing power pole. That goes for the signal cable as well.
By
kruzianer, at August 4, 2007 9:33 AM
We use the Smooth Talker for our cell phone boost and love it. It sets on the dash of our Motor Home and plugs into the Cig Lighter outlet or you can purchase a reg 120 outlet plug as well. It also cost about $300 but worth every penny since we spend the summer in the mountains of Colorado. People up here are amazed we can get Verizon up here. You can with the Smooth Talker. We purchased ours from My Wireless in downtown Colorado Springs. Ryan will ship any where and the service he gives is great. You can google Smooth Talker and look at the specs. OUTSTANDING
By
akareload, at August 4, 2007 5:42 PM
In Addition to my previous comment on the Smooth Talker. Here in the Colorado Mountains we get NO to one bar on verizon. The Smooth Talker will bring that up to 3 to 4 bars in a heartbeat.
By
akareload, at August 4, 2007 5:49 PM
RE: positioning of the antenna/cable - This was for a 2 night stay and I tried putting the antenna in a tree farther from the camper, but interestingly, this location, bad as it seems, gave the best signal. I plan on attaching it to my crank-up TV antenna as a permanent installation at some point.
By
Scott, at August 8, 2007 9:38 AM
Hi Scott, This product is interesting but what I'm really wanting to find is something that will boost wi-fi signals. So often in campgrounds, the free wi-fi signal is not strong enough to be used from inside my RV and it would be lovely to find a product that would boost it. Any ideas?
By
Karen, at August 23, 2007 9:58 PM
I purchased this same "amplifier" and the "Yagi" antenna. Did absolutely nothing for my cell service. It was a waste of $300 and about 20 hours of hanging off the roof, moving poles and frustration. What you need to know is that it only " amplifies" a signal you already have. It will not reach out and find a signal if you do not already have one.In my case a hill is in the way of my cell tower 10 miles away.
By
H, at August 19, 2008 12:47 PM
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