Community Forums

ct2ewo · 05-03-2015, 02:19 PM

Has anyone had any luck with the Wilson Electronics Cellular Signal Booster 460108? It doesn't seem to boost my cellular signal at all. I was wondering if anyone else has had better luck.

docj · 05-03-2015, 06:14 PM

How are you measuring the signal strength? You CANNOT use the bars at the top of your phone's screen to get any meaningful measurement. You need to go through your phone's setup menu to find how to display the actual signal strength in dBs. After you have measured the signal strength without the booster, plug it in and wait a few minutes before observing the signal strength again. Many phones will take several minutes to display an accurate signal strength.

Wb2IVU · 05-03-2015, 07:13 PM

We use a Verizon MiFi, (4510L) router, with an "groundless" external 6bd gain antenna mounted to the the real ladder. This unit is one of the few that has an external antenna Jack. We found this work very well, as Verizon has great coverage. Now that said there will be areas where NO cell phone signal exists, booster or not.

ct2ewo · 05-04-2015, 11:08 AM

We're using this with an AT&T Hotspot for data. We have a weak signal where we are currently located, but the booster doesn't improve the performance at all. I thought it might be interference from trees or buildings or something, but we have tried it in several locations in various surroundings with no improvement at all. I was just wondering if anyone was having better luck with this model. I think we just wasted our money.

slallen1262 · 05-04-2015, 12:45 PM

I use a Wilson 4G Sleek and it does a great job. You do need to go into and out of airplane mode when you first connect the Wilson so the phone resets itself. Not sure how that would work with a Hotspot.

docj · 05-04-2015, 01:41 PM

No idea why you put the phone into airplane mode. The phone has no idea that it is using a booster. It's not as if the amp has any interaction with the phone other than to increase the signal strength. Our phones go on and off the Sleek without any difficulty.

Smitty77 · 05-05-2015, 10:41 AM

As other RV'ers on other forums have said before, myself included, this is a time to wait a bit.

Many new FCC approved higher gain amps are making it to the market place now, or soon. These are worth waiting for and should be both a large improvement in performance, and sure, at a higher cost point too

!

For those that can't wait, I feel the Wilson Sleek 4G Universal model is now a very good bang for the buck during closeout. Toss on a more robust roof mounted higher gain antenna, and they do make a difference. (We have the Sleek 4G (Verizon version) that we're using until the new amps simmer and shake out. We'll move it to the Toad with OEM magnet roof antenna once we get the new amp.)

Best to all,
Smitty

slallen1262 · 05-05-2015, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docj

No idea why you put the phone into airplane mode. The phone has no idea that it is using a booster. It's not as if the amp has any interaction with the phone other than to increase the signal strength. Our phones go on and off the Sleek without any difficulty.

Quote from Mobile Internet Handbook: “•Toggle Airplane Mode after Enabling a Booster: Your mobile device occasionally may not notice that a new stronger signal has suddenly become available once you turn a booster on. To make sure that it does a full scan and finds it, after you turn on your booster it can help to reboot your device or toggle it into and then out of airplane mode.”

Excerpt From: Dunphy, Chris. “The Mobile Internet Handbook - 2015 US RVer Edition.” iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Wb2IVU · 05-05-2015, 08:38 PM

A booster will be only as good as the equipment it will be connected to. It will not make marginal equipment better. it cannot make T-Mobile into Verizon or AT&T

I would look into a better external antenna or buy WiFi device for your service that has an external antenna connection. At 800 MHz, antennas are very short, and have somewhat limited range.

TVforMyRV · 05-06-2015, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by docj

No idea why you put the phone into airplane mode. The phone has no idea that it is using a booster. It's not as if the amp has any interaction with the phone other than to increase the signal strength. Our phones go on and off the Sleek without any difficulty.

My LG G2 and the wife's LG G3 seem to get confused with data service bouncing between different towers, even without any booster involved. At times I am sitting in good 4G location and the phone is showing 3G or even 1X data service. The only way to get the phones to work again (4G) is either a power off reset or toggle airplane mode to reset the radio.

Not sure if it's a phone issue, or Andriod issue, or a combination of both, but problem still exists after several Andriod upgrades.

docj · 05-06-2015, 07:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TVforMyRV

My LG G2 and the wife's LG G3 seem to get confused with data service bouncing between different towers, even without any booster involved. At times I am sitting in good 4G location and the phone is showing 3G or even 1X data service. The only way to get the phones to work again (4G) is either a power off reset or toggle airplane mode to reset the radio.

Not sure if it's a phone issue, or Andriod issue, or a combination of both, but problem still exists after several Andriod upgrades.

Don:

My Galaxy S4 doesn't seem to have any problem being taken on and off the Sleek cradle without touching its settings. We sometimes do it multiple times every day.

From an engineering perspective I can't even understand why this would be an issue. The phone is often exposed to signals of differing strengths from different towers. It is presumably designed to try to first connect to the strongest signal. A signal booster will amplify all signals by roughly the same amount but the phone's "choices" really haven't changed so the "world view" seen by the phone hasn't changed.

At our winter site, the Verizon 4G and 3G signals are apparently moderate-to-weak and of similar strength. If the phone is not on the Sleek it will occasionally fall back into 3G mode. However, I have conducted several "experiments" in which I placed the phone on the Sleek while it was in 3G mode. In every case the phone switched to 4G after a few minutes on the booster which confirmed my understanding that it is programmed to be "biased" towards 4G assuming a signal is available at an acceptable level.

I know that I could have "forced" the phone to switch to 4G faster if I had gone through the "airplane mode" procedure or simply had rebooted it, but I don't think either action is really necessary.

Joel

TVforMyRV · 05-06-2015, 08:15 AM

Joel,

Our LG phones behave this way without any cradle being involved. I can't prove it, but the problem seems to be worse with Android 5.

I will say that my next phone will most likely not be an LG....

docj · 05-06-2015, 08:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TVforMyRV

Joel,

Our LG phones behave this way without any cradle being involved. I can't prove it, but the problem seems to be worse with Android 5.

I will say that my next phone will most likely not be an LG....

I don't have any experience with LG phones, but the Samsung's we currently have (an S4 and an S4 Mini) are huge improvements over the Samsung Droid Charge we bought several years ago. The Charge exhibited similar issues to those you are describing and had to be rebooted nearly every day. The S4's go for weeks without any reason to reboot or otherwise fuss with them despite the fact that they have their hotspots turned on and off repeatedly and are taken on and off the Sleek's cradle.

The only complaint I have with the S4 is that it does have a tendency to overheat especially when used to provide turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps. However, it's possible that some of the overheating results from having it in an OtterBox which reduces its ability to cool itself.

Wb2IVU · 05-07-2015, 10:36 AM

How about this... 6bd gain EXTERNAL antenna, feeding a zBoost "amplifier" which the output is of the amplifier is connected directly into a Novatell/Verizon MiFi 4510L 4G lte router/modem that will support 6 device wireless devices. All of this equipment was purchased on eBay for under $110. which included all the necessary connectors and the special Verizon external antenna cable. We had to purchase a SIMS card from Verizon, $13 and decide what we felt was enough prepaid data...

We also purchased a used Magic Jack which plugs into a used wise "thin-client" running windows XP, SP2, so the RV now has its own "house" phone...but that is another story.