Setting up cell phone signal boosters

softdown

Very good chance that your off grid project has an insufficient cell phone signal. I lived with frequent frustration for years before installing a signal booster. That gave me excellent 5 bar coverage for about 5 years.

The signal has been deteriorating however. These things last ~ 4-7 years it seems. Bar coverage varies from 2 bars to 5 bars. Average being 4 bars. It still worked though in a smaller area.

Property crime is an ongoing issue however. I installed 14 Ring security cameras - 12 hooked up electrically and 2 powered by battery. Many suffer from sub par signal strength due to the size of the shop and metal siding. They also have to be 10’ off the ground for best coverage. And birds eye cameras see wide and but not deep - in my experience.

I can not get a faster, stronger wifi service from my provider. Ring signal boosters sometimes help and sometimes do not. The cameras usually work but not always. Depends on location. 

The crime went down for months then surged back. The burglar has figured out where coverage exists and does not exist. They are also small enough to sneak in through the doggie door - they are very small. I think it's probably a neighborhood kid who was once employed to crawl in and unlock the shop door after my dogs locked me out of the car. 

So I bought a group of cell phone based game cameras. You guessed it, they require a sound cell phone signal. The first one worked great indoors but quit working when installed outdoors.

Got a new cell phone signal booster with indoor and outdoor antennae. As is frequently the case the materials seem acceptable but the directions are weak. Wish me luck. I’ll try to keep you posted.

There are limitations on how strong your booster can be because they can act to weaken the available signal for others in the area. 

Useful input always appreciated. 

softdown

CClearly two inputs and one output.
But which function as inputs?

softdown

Which two are the input leads?

softdown

Connectors and connections range from ~ 1/4” to ~ 3/8” to ~ 5/8”. Are there adapters? I don’t know adapter “language”.

JRHill

My Achilles heel WAS communication. I had a business in the '80s & '90s that grew to cover Nebraska and Iowa complete. I had requests to go further but had to draw a line. There was nothing worse than travelling 2 hours to a call and getting stood up. "I forgot. My kid got sick...." I'd call back to the answering machine and there was the message, 10 minutes before the appointment that they had to cancel. I only wished that Maxwell Smart's shoe phone was a real thing. Then came the Motorola bag phone. That changed everything. I had the adapter so I could download stuff to my computer on the road, if the signal was strong enough for the baud rate to download new work while on the road so I could spend time with the family when I got home. These was the times before the internet as we know it today existed.

Some years went by and my business expanded. I had one and then another employee on the road. Each with their computer with Delorme GPS and bag phones. I had years of $560 cell bills/mo (just service) and Iowa was terrible with many counties having their own cell company and of their antenna detected your phone because the phone was 'ON' was on it was a $3 hit. If you used it $1+ per minute. In the '80s!

Times have sure changed. Long distance companies are gone, thank God. One can go about anywhere and get a signal from some carrier. Oh, but not me. If there is a dead zone I will somehow be attracted to it and live there. I still am.

This is not a commercial but Starlink fixed that. With no cell signal, especially without 5g (sucks for distance), if I cut my leg off with a chainsaw the wife can call for help, WiFi through to 911. And we are way, way distant. More daily use is just internet and I've been through WildBlue, Dishnet, and Hughes ++ for years - it's just the same feces packaged differently. There is a new kid on the block and love him or hate him, he has done what he said he would do: bring reasonable speed to remote areas past the last mile.

So @softdown, there are solutions that really work. Don't whine to me about connections or boosters.

softdown

"Don't whine to me about connections or boosters.”

A+ for consistency in the jerque department. Can almost count on it.

softdown

They are called coaxial adapters. I am going to try my luck with this set from the big river. 

FWIW I am getting five bars while using two cell phone signal boosters. But the game camera has not received a noticeable benefit.

The camera antennae are supposed to be, I think, 10 DBI so they have to be pointed at the cell phone tower or booster. Today I tried pointing the antennae at the tower instead of the boosters. We’ll see. 

A new antennae from my wifi and cell phone service provider would likely help a significant amount. They balked when I asked about that a year ago. They may be able to read the “gain” and decided it generally adequate?