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I'm biting the bullet and laying out the cash for a weboost drive reach overland. We drive backroads that have weak cell signals that the weboost hopefully will keep the family connected and happy.
Anyone have experience with one on their Ex? Where did you mount it? Did you have the external antenna mounted higher than the cab?
My Ex is already pretty tall, and I was thinking of mounting it on my incoming buckstop rear bumper with tire carrier. Ideally keeping it below the height of the cab to protect it from birds, branches, drive thrus, and flying road debris.
The Ex is our primary road trip, camping, fishing, hunting, boating, overlanding vehicle. Its a long haul vehicle for us.
Communications antennas need to be the highest thing on the vehicle.
that is my specialty, since 1958....
bird poop, etc, will have no effect on the antenna's efficiency, but mounting it near metal objects at the same height, will just about make it useless.
Back when I was extremely active in ham radio, my antennas were 6 to 10 feet higher than the roof of the vehicle.... at 146mHz, that gave me an extra 25 to 35 miles range.
Line-of-sight is King for radio communications....
the best antenna can't work, if the Signal is just not there.
the only thing you need worry about, is bridge/overhead clearances.
typically 13' 6"
gas stations can be down to 11' 6"
WeBoost is a repeater, do NOT assume it will increase Data speeds, it has to accept the data packet, and repeat it to the cellphone or modem.
It can give you longer coverage range, but in my experience, it just isn't worth the effort.
I have been using a T-Mobile Data hotspot for the last 5 years, it seems to work just as well on the dash, than it does up higher near the Visor. But, that hotspot is for DATA only, WiFi at 2.5g and 5g bands.
No one can give you more range than T-Mobile, because they bought the Lowest Frequency bands available, in the 600-900 mHz range.
AT&T and Verizon are in the 2.5g and 5g and 12g bands, the range drops precipitously the higher the frequency.
my cellphones are all on Verizon, my data is on T-Mobile.
the cellphones work best, when mounted on the Windshield, and you talk thru a Bluetooth device.
Thanks for the info!
My cell phones are also verizon. Last I checked, T Mobile doesn't offer an unlimited hotspot plan. Wife and kid can burn up data like no body's business.
What you brought up about the weboost being is a repeater is also my concern.
The weboost antenna is also relatively rigid plastic and with that brick at the top held on by that tiny plastic mast, they have been known to crack if installed on the front, top of cab, or above anything that would otherwise protect it from branches and other strikes.
Its also power limited by the FCC, so the antenna inside the cab has to be very close to the cell phones.
No one can give you more range than T-Mobile, because they bought the Lowest Frequency bands available, in the 600-900 mHz range.
AT&T and Verizon are in the 2.5g and 5g and 12g bands, the range drops precipitously the higher the frequency.
T-MO does have the 600 Mhz spectrum (B71) which can offer improvements in coverage area ("range") and penetration of buildings and foliage (to some extent). ATT & VZ both have 700 MHz spectrum which is only a little less effective than B71 in those regards. All three networks do have higher frequency spectrum which, when within coverage areas, can take advantage of higher bandwidth and carrier aggregation to boost data throughput. For example, my t_MO Home Internet seems to prefer B41 (2500 Mhz)but sometimes falls back to B71 (B71).
The "problem" with T-MO, IMHO, is that coverage in rural areas is lacking relative to the two old carriers. Roaming and interoperability has, to a large degree, lessened those concerns. T-MO 's acquisition of the old Sprint/Nextel networks gave them a lot of locations in metro areas and along interstates and rural highways but there wasn't much in the way of rural coverage on those networks. They've had to expand coverage by either building new sites from scratch or co-locating on towers with another carrier. That takes time and money.
Both ATT & VZ got their wireless networks started about 40 years ago by their predecessor entities. Back then, spectrum was allocated to only two carriers in any given area. One was usually the incumbent wireline company, the other was the "competitor". If you can find who the incumbent was for a given rural area, odds are better that they have more towers and better backwoods coverage. In my area in eastern Missouri, Southwestern Bell was the incumbent wireline company back in the day. Now part of ATT, I find it offers better coverage out in the boonies that does my wife's VZ service. YMMV.
just like selling Real Estate, the law of the "land" er, uh, cellphone coverage is:
Location, Location, Location.
I have spent extended months in Cleveland, Utah at my sister's place.... 18 miles from anything that looks like a cell tower....
both Verizon and T-Mo worked for me, my phones always had coverage, but for DATA, t-MO won out every time.... I bought one of Verizon's Gateways while I was there, it sort of worked okay, gave me about 15-20 mBps downloads, but never better than 2-3 mBps uploads.... even here at home, only 1.25 miles from the Verizon tower, their Upload speeds are restricted to less than 3 mBps....
..... I returned their Gateway, and stuck with t-MO.
I have two hotspots which give me 100 gBtyes per month each, we have never used up the allowance on either one of them. and I stream YouTube a lot...
.... I only upload pictures one at a time, to FB, or a short video to YouTube..... that is where you kill your data allowance.
this picture is for 2 hotspots and one (1) Gateway with UNLIMITED DATA.
I have to clarify, I am 81 and no kids in the house, unless you count my daughter who is now 51.... and my sister, who is 77... she stays on YouTube non-stop, but it doesn't seem to hurt the data use.
Good clarification @projectSHO89 I work for the one with a V and your breakdown was spot on, Tmob is still playing catch up, adding sites/spectrum to a network is very costly, appx $250k and up for a single site.
Camper has a WeBoost, It will only work if there is a signal available. The internal antenna is not strong, you will need to be right close to it for boost to happen. We have T-Mobile and there are places where all of the carriers have issues. AT&T may be some places and no other carriers but out West carriers allow non customers to access networks via agreement.
Like John says, We Boost is just a repeater. If you don't have a signal, it does nothing for you. I have an expandable mast on my RV, that lifts my directional antenna 25ft over the roof of RV. Doesn't do a thing for me, in an area of the north Georgia Mtns I camp in. There are three cell towers within 10 miles
but not AT&T, so I have no service there. People standing around me have service with Verizon, but I've got nothing !
Solution most people go to is have your spouse change to different cell service. I have AT&T and spouse has Verizon now, we never lose service, but we haven't traveled out in the far west yet.
BTW... I bought my WeBoost thru REI. I forget how much, but I got like $100 in store credits, so that was like a discount for system.
my personal opinion on WeBoost and the like...
a waste of money, pure and simple.
a few years back, when we lost our AT&T long lines data circuit, ADSL for those who know.
I bought a AT&T compatible modem ( transmitter/receiver > WiFi repeater ) "transponder", whatever you want to call them.
laying on the card table, the RSSI was -98 to -115
I bought 16 feet of expensive cable, and a 9 dBi gain antenna, and put that up on a pole.
result.. ditto the above.
you are either "in the pattern zone" or you are NOT.
I switched to T-Mobile and have two M2000 hotspots, and one Gateway ( for unlimited data for the TV )
the Gateway is in a cabinet, doesn't matter where I move it to, the results are the same.
the hotspots? move them all over the house, gave up,
they now lay on my desk, same signal.
when we go camping, the M2000 hotspot is our only source of Internet.
it has never failed us, from Florida to Utah, it just works, no matter where I go.
Dead Spots?? of course, same as AT&T and Verizon, but T-Mobile is more forgiving because they are using the 650mHz band...
Credentials;
started in Ham Radio in 1958.
in 1968 went to work for oil pipeline companies maintaining their UHF/VHF/Microwave repeaters and antenna systems.
in 1991 went to work for Phoenix Fire Department in IT 911 dispatch, there we used Yagi gain antennas to try and grab the best signal we could from our 450mHz repeaters for CAD ( computer aided dispatching )
12/2010 hung up my spurs, and relax in a recliner....
and enjoy my 7.3L PSD on occasion.
Adding to John in Okieland, (BTW I'm a true Okie myself, born '68 in OKC, lived in Edmond, still have cousins there) you also have to remember, RF is Line of site, if you're in a hole/valley, or have a mtn/hill shadowing you, your chances of getting a good signal are even worse. I live/work in the Sierra Nevada's as a Field Assurance Engineer (fancy name for Cell Tech) and I'm constantly explaining to folks why they drop calls in certain areas and why they don't have coverage in others, distance and obstructions, and add to that, if you are a good distance away and down in a heavily treed area, you also have to deal with dispersion of the signal with already weak RSL's. Most cell sites are 3 sector, and, there are also some 2 sector sites, where you can see the tower, however you're not in the path of either sector, I have a few of those, and folks are confounded that they can "see" the tower yet have a very weak or no signal.
All a repeater does is boost what it sees, the further away, the lower the RSL and RSRP and other acronyms that affect the strength, speeds, capacity and what not... it's incapable of "adding" anything to the signal/capacity/speed other than boosting... I could geek out for hours on it, but bottom line, if you're on the feathering edge of coverage, nothing is going to improve that.
been retarded/retired now for 13 years, and my addled brain does not always remember the finer Acronyms, which you supplied.
there are enough of them, that most techs don't really understand what they mean.
here in my local community's Facebook Group,
I am regarded as somewhat of a guru, simply because I have done a lot of street testing around this area for 8-10 miles searching for where T-Mobile drops out.
the hotspot I have, has a Display on it where I can see the Bars of signal strength,
and I have the Admin Access to read the actual values....
it simply goes over the common cellphone user's head, because as you said:
( I can see the damn tower, how come I can't use XYZ carrier ?? )
try and explain the directional effect of antennas to a non-techie, it ain't agonna happen.
my home is 70 feet below Line-of-sight....
and there are a gob of trees around me, when it rains, our Internet fades away.
when winter comes, it is great, Tony the Tiger great, then spring comes and our TV starts that circle indicating it is Buffering
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