Latest and greatest cellular booster

[bobofthenorth]

Originally Posted by Wind River

I suppose using a cradle and making one phone a hotspot would do it for data, but that leaves one of our phones tethered to the cradle.

Which is exactly what we do. And I agree totally, the twin antenna solutions would be easier to use. But they simply don't work as well and they cost a LOT more.

We find that cradling our phones individually is manageable and it allows us to use up our data package on each phone. Your situation may be different but we move in and out of areas where we need to use the booster so it's not like a phone ever lives in the cradle for days on end. FWIW there is a huge variance in radio quality between phone manufacturers. Our experience says that BlackBerry, despite their corporate problems have much superior radios. We routinely see locations where my Galaxy needs to be in the cradle to see any signal at all while my wife's BB will have 3 or 4 bars showing unaided.

R.J.(Bob) Evans
www.bobandmarilyn.ca

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by autumnbreeze27

I searched the forums but didn't find anything recent. What's the latest and greatest in boosting cell signals? I'm looking for something I can run up a halyard that will act like a repeater. I talked to another cruiser who had a product my wilson, but I guess they don't make it anymore, and the ones on Amazon say they require you to notify the cellular company. I need one that works with Telcel, and I don't know if notifying them would get me anywhere if it's required to make it work.

Autumn Breeze,

As already mentioned by others, we have had great success using the Wilson Sleek 4G [now relabeled WeBoost] cell booster cradle with an external marine antenna. We set up the phone in the cradle to be the hot spot and connect it to our WiriePro wireless router to feed the entire boat.

Wilson Sleek 4G Cell Booster [Link to latest model.] Use with this antenna for trials and land-based use, and/or this marine grade antenna [With appropriate marine grade antenna coax wire...] for the best performance.

Also review the 10-Feb-2016 newsletter from Active Captain which had an entire section on this very topic [about halfway through the newsletter: ">>> Communications Products We Use >>>"]

Cheers!

Bill

[autumnbreeze27]

Thanks all for the responses.

Especially thanks to the people who steered me to the cradle solution for the cell booster.

Also appreciated the activecaptain link, I'd read another article by them but not that one, and after shopping on amazon i found I had picked the same gear they had.

Now trying to shop astronomy binoculars and that will complete my amazon order for resupply mission #2

[fritzdfk]

I bought a Weboost Drive Sleek for my fiberglass boat: https://www.weboost.com/products/drive-sleek

I assumed I could use a different antenna with it rather than the included magnetic one. The Sleek has a SMB connector. I wrote Weboost and asked about using a different antenna and they said that no other antenna has been tested or approved by the FCC. The Digital Antenna Wide Band Bullet antenna uses a Type N connector. There are adapters N-SMB available. Will it work to use a different antenna with this booster?

[smac999]

Originally Posted by Wind River

I have a 50 foot boat. Will I really have to sit within 5 feet of my mast to get a boosted signal?

from my experience. it's more like 6" and I have installed many different brands.