External antennas and cell phone signal boosters???

[Bullshipper]

Has anyone got an external cell phone antenna or signal booster on their boat?

How far out can you call or be called, with and without your extra gear?


Thanks

[Lazy_Iguana]

I got one for my car. AT&T wireless sucks. They all suck. But with the external antenna and three watt amp, I do not seem to drop as many calls.

Yes they work. You will get some additional range. The higher up you get the antenna the better your range will be. Height is always better than power.

Cell phone networks are simply not set up for marine use. No matter what you do you will not get a huge range at sea with a cell phone. Cell networks work by using a lot of low towers. Each tower serves a "cell". As you leave one cell and enter another, you also switch towers. The network works because of the number of towers, not because each tower has a long range. In fact, the network would be overloaded if it worked with one or two really tall towers.

What this means to boats is that once you get away from land, you quickly reach the limits of the land based cells. Once you are out of range of the towers, 500,000 watts will not be of any use. If you are out of range you are out of range.

I would estimate the offshore range of a cellphone using an external antenna with a height of 20 feet above the water and a three watt amp (maximum allowed by the FCC - do not have a clue what the Mexican version of the FCC allows) may allow you to go 10 - 15 miles offshore. And this assumes that there is a good network of cell towers very close to the beach. If the towers are more inland than they are close to the water, cut that figure in half.

[abbor]

Digital cellular phone systems have a maximum delay limit implemened between base station and phone, so it will not always help to boost the power. I've been a the top of high mountains several times with good signal quality according to the level meter, but the phone has not been able to reach contact with the network due to this maximum allowed delay.

[rtb56]

I installed a wilson cellular booster http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/ViewProduct.php?ID=3
and a digtal brand marine cellular antenna http://www.digitalantenna.com/prods/cellantenna_8.html
on the hardtop of a 43 Tiara. Also installed a Telular Digital fixed cellular base.
http://www.telular.com/products/voicedata.asp
The Telular unit makes all the phones on the boat work with dial tone, just like a residential land line. The cellular amp and antenna dramatically improve the range of the cellular phone set on the boat. The cellular base comes with its own compact duck bill antenna which can be used for making the unit detachable from the boat and very portable. When the duckbill antenna is replaced with fixed roofmount 8ft antenna and the wilson amp, the performance goes way up. Extra Bonus feature is enhanced 911 and location service with gps in our area

[Alaskaskiff]

We use the digital antenna booster and a digital 4 ft 9 db gain antenna. This is hooked to 3 Tellular units (using ATT wireless... not my first choice) that go into the ship's phone switch. The Tellulars go to a multiplexer and all three share the single booster and antenna. The antenna is 50 feet up and we routinely get signal most places off the Oregon and Washington coasts (which includes data for an internet connection). In areas of better signal (near towns) this works over 30 miles offshore. The signal booster makes a noticeable difference on reliability.

Also, this week we got stomped by weather and power, landline and cell coverage was out in the local area. At home I have a digital booster and a digital antenna in my camper. I went from no signal at all (with just the phone) to 4 bars of 5 and a working phone by hooking up to the booster.

[PSW]

Had a Shakespeare 8 foot cell antenna hooked to the Shake amp. Had the amp directly connected to the phone via a Shakespeare 3 foot cord. It worked but it also was frustrating. Every new phone required a new 3 foot cord and they were not quick to get them made. They have the wireless but according to the engineers those are not as good. After selling the boat I have decided to not install one on the new boat. That is how helpful I found the set up.

[radarguy]

I figure not quite double the distance.

So 15 miles without the booster yields about 25 with.

There are so many variables, regional, weather and vessel , that what works for one is not a guarantee for another.

[Bullcat]

I installed a Wilson Cellular extension antenna on my motorhome. While camped on my favorite fishing lake, it makes the difference of not being able to get out at all and getting out with a good strong signal.........Bullcat

[Bullcat]

I installed a Wilson external cell phone antenna on my motorhome. While camped at my favorite fishing lake, it made the difference of not getting out at all and getting out with a good strong signal.......Bullcat

[jfwireless]

I installed an additional antenna on top of the T-TOP just for my cellphone. I have a small adaptor cable I just plug into the bottom of my cellphone when out of range with the internal cellphone antenna, and yes it works when my internal antenna is out of range.

Jim