Cell Phone Antenna

[soohma]

Has anyone bought a cell antenna (Verizon for me) and stuck it on the back window of their RV? If so, did it actually boost your signal enough so you could use your phone to access the Internet in the boonies?

[Davydd]

I have the WeBoost Drive 4G-M installed in my B along with an outside antenna. To be truthful I am not sure it improves cellular all that much. It is installed up under my dash board behind the glove box. Advanced RV installed an on-off switch for me on a recent visit but I have not taken the time yet to see if it makes any difference by testing both ways.

https://store.weboost.com/products/drive-4gm

Maybe it does work. I've noticed in campgrounds and such I, more than not, always had a good signal just about everywhere. Is that from the WeBoost or just better coverage year after year steadily improving? Maybe a bit of both.

[Arlo]

I've had great results using a Wilson Sleek amplifier with an external antenna -- magnetic attachment to roof with cable threaded out top of rear door. The antenna is an upgrade from the one included with the Sleek (about 12" long rather than 4"). I'm not sure how much signal improvement the longer antenna provides. I'm currently using the Sleek with a Verizon MiFi unit, but it also works fine with a phone as the wifi hotspot.

I've been impressed many times over the past couple years with the system's ability to take a minimal signal and amplify it to a level capable of streaming Netflix video to my Apple TV.

[tbirdman]

I also have a Wilson sleek 4G amplifier. I wasn't sure it was working so I called tech support. They showed me how to measure the signal power. Using a iphone 5 it involved dialing a string of numbers and characters. It then showed me the signal's power in DBM. It showed a minimal 23 DB gain which meets the Wilson's sleek 4G spec. Since DB is a logarithmic scale, 23 db is over 100Xs amplification.

I used a window mount for the antenna as I have a fiberglass shell. Hardest thing was installing a 12V power receptacle connected to the house batteries which wasn't bad as I picked up two more USB ports for a total of 4. Need to watch out as the amp draws 2.5A so you need to unplug when not using it.

Not sure how much I will use it, but I figure in fringe areas it may come in handy. Of course if you have no signal, no amplifier will help you.

[ptourin]

I just made up an 8" x 9" metal plate - it's being powder coated this week - so I can glue it to the roof as a ground plane. I've been sticking my sleek to the hood of the car - seems to help that way, but I'm sure the roof will work better...

[mojoman]

I used the wilson trucker setup on my class a, made quite a difference in the mountains. some areas with no bars, turned it on and got 30-50%.