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Old 12-15-2019, 10:43 PM   #1
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Cell phone extenders

Has anyone had experience with service extenders? The WeBoost folks talk up a good storm, but do they really work? Thanks
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Old 12-15-2019, 11:44 PM   #2
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Wouldn't be without mine.

http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f8...amp-15891.html
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Old 12-16-2019, 12:38 AM   #3
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I agree. They don't work miracles but they do work. Basically they extend your range. If you're entering or leaving the fringe areas of reception you'll pick it up sooner and hang onto it longer.

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Old 12-16-2019, 08:27 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by noblets View Post
Has anyone had experience with service extenders? The WeBoost folks talk up a good storm, but do they really work? Thanks
We picked up our trailer last June, traveled some 8000 miles coast to coast and in between. So far I am not impressed with my WeBoost (Drive 4G-X). We have found good signals throughout and when we didn't have good signals the WeBoost was not beneficial or if it was, it wasn't very beneficial. I think the wireless network is starting to saturate more of the country and boosters will be limited to the more remote areas. We set up mainly in Corp of Engineers, State and National Parks. We have not done any BLM etc boondocking.

Colleen works with the computer in the trailer, we have Verizon MiFi for that purpose. I have not permanently mounted the WeBoost yet, but the few times we have tried to use it due to weak signal has not been with great success.

Someone please educate me if I am wrong. It looks to me like I need 4G for data whereas with a 3G signal I can make phone calls but not data. The WeBoost does seem to boost the 3G signal (judged by the number of bars we get).

We have only had two times that we had problems without the WeBoost and neither of those times was the WeBoost much of a benefit to our data stream.

I will experiment more with it, as of now I have only looked at our subjective results whereas in the future I will start looking at the db signal for more objective results.
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Old 12-16-2019, 08:59 AM   #5
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I was all set to buy a cell phone booster, but have found in my travels that coverage is improving greatly. I don't mind at all driving through areas with poor or even no coverage. Where I camp it is nice to have connectivity, though in most cases not real important. If needed I will go for a walk, bike ride, or even truck trip to check for phone messages, but for the most part kinda like a break as I use it so much regularly.

So, I am holding out for a bit. Once I hit a situation where I would have sure liked having it, I might act on it then.
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Old 12-16-2019, 09:06 AM   #6
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We had Escape install a Wilson Trucker 4G roof mounted antenna and a Sleek cradle when we had our trailer built in 2015. Now the company is Weboost of course, but the products are similar.

I can tell you that in the places we like to camp, there have been numerous times when we were the only ones with a signal. We were even able once to post on the forum and upload pictures from Chisos Basin at Big Bend - an area our cell provider said had zero coverage, let alone 4G. And that is with a very basic setup - just a small antenna and a cradle.
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Old 12-16-2019, 11:21 AM   #7
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Canada, the US and Mexico cover a lot of land area. Yes, on main highways the dead spots are diminishing. But there's still a whole lot of roads that have huge dead spots. Like the Alaska Hwy. Even close to some towns there's dead spots. As I said, with the booster you start picking up sooner and hold on longer.

We find the greatest use is when we're on the road. We can have a longer working window to get the calls made as we're passing through a coverage area.

Ron
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Old 12-16-2019, 12:05 PM   #8
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Quote:
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We find the greatest use is when we're on the road. We can have a longer working window to get the calls made as we're passing through a coverage area.

Ron
Our main purpose is data and that may be where the difference is in our needs. We have found that we can get a 3G signal where we did not without the booster but we haven't seen that with 4G.
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Old 12-16-2019, 12:28 PM   #9
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This youtube channel has information about all kinds of technology for travelers:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95x5NprjuvBuIHfuVo6W4
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Old 12-16-2019, 01:38 PM   #10
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Quote:
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This youtube channel has information about all kinds of technology for travelers:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC95x5NprjuvBuIHfuVo6W4
This channel doesn't work (at least for me it didn't)
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Old 12-16-2019, 02:03 PM   #11
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This channel doesn't work (at least for me it didn't)
Yep, bad link.
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