SURECALL2GO 3.0 RV is here. Testing & perma install soon

[Alex AVI]

SURECALL2GO 3.0 RV is here

Christmas came early. These guys ship faster than my Amazon Prime and there was a big surprise when I opened the box. This is the RV version.

The RV parts:
- booster
- 40 ft. outside cabling
- outside omni directional permanent mount antenna
- inside whip antenna
- AC and DC power adapters
- all mounting hardware

The surprise parts:
- outdoor magnetic mount antenna
- inside rectangular patch antenna

Why are these parts a surprise? Keep in mind, this is the "RV Use" version & because most of the sales literature state only the associated RV parts are included in this version. The surprise parts are meant for the standard "Vehicle Use" version (i.e. cars).

Now the hard part of fishing cables from the rear to the front overhead compartment and keeping all cabling internal/hidden begins. Not looking forward to the task, mostly because I am OCD about wiring and will undoubtedly expose "other" items I need to clean up that AS did not do cleanly. But I already scouted my route and know it will work. Just a matter of executing

[billrector]

Originally Posted by Alex AVI

SURECALL2GO 3.0 RV is here

Christmas came early. These guys ship faster than my Amazon Prime and there was a big surprise when I opened the box. This is the RV version.

The RV parts:
- booster
- 40 ft. outside cabling
- outside omni directional permanent mount antenna
- inside whip antenna
- AC and DC power adapters
- all mounting hardware

The surprise parts:
- outdoor magnetic mount antenna
- inside rectangular patch antenna

Why are these parts a surprise? Keep in mind, this is the "RV Use" version & because most of the sales literature state only the associated RV parts are included in this version. The surprise parts are meant for the standard "Vehicle Use" version (i.e. cars).

Now the hard part of fishing cables from the rear to the front overhead compartment and keeping all cabling internal/hidden begins. Not looking forward to the task, mostly because I am OCD about wiring and will undoubtedly expose "other" items I need to clean up that AS did not do cleanly. But I already scouted my route and know it will work. Just a matter of executing

Attachment 328746

I'm interested! Please keep us updated.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by billrector

I'm interested! Please keep us updated.

BILLRECTOR - I definitely will. There are actually 2 major points that I will be updating regarding this testing & permanent install . . . well, ummm, those were the 2 points

1. Point #1 is though highly touted in reviews, this product is fairly new. I want to do my own tests. These will just be practical, usage tests. I won't be bringing any transmission or power level meters during testing. I am stipulating the testing & reviewer numbers are what they claim to be. Tonight, I will test inside my house. But sometime tomorrow, will head to my favorite mountain secluded hiking trailhead up Mt. Charleston at 8,500 ft.and see how it fairs. Weather permitting, we are having rain from Cal, not sure how bad it will be up there. If it isn't snowed in, that would be a good test in extreme weather.

2. Point #2 is I have not seen many detailed cell booster installs or mods in this B-class sub-forum. I see lots of pics of AI's with cell booster antennas sticking up the roofs but I don't recall seeing any detailed guides on what they did or any obstacles they encountered and/or any tricks for optimum reception. Maybe they existed before my join date 9 months ago. Nevertheless, they would've been older technology, so my install could still prove to be helpful to some other folks. So my only guidance on deciding my install path is based on manufacturer's recommendations., via their manuals & tech support calls I made.

Give credit again everytime I get a chance - INTERBLOG posted about this product on this WEBOOST Drive Sleek thread . Had I not seen her post, this would've slipped my internal antenna (yes, pun intended ) So kudos to her for keeping her antenna up and transmitting to the rest of us. While she neither endorsed nor dismissed it, surfacing on the only Sprinter forum I follow piqued my interest.

[Bigventure]

How much does it cost?

[andyherman]

So I purchased this specific system a number of months ago. The first unit died after a week. One day I went to get on the net and there was no service. I thought it was AT&T until I looked at the booster and saw that all the lights had turned solid red. When I checked the booster, it was extremely hot. I unplugged the unit and after it cooled down plugged it in again and everything seemed fine for @ half an hour. Then the same thing happened - lost the internet connection and when I looked at the booster all the lights were solid red. Nothing I did (unplugging, waiting for it to cool down, etc.) got it to work.

Fortunately I purchased it on Amazon so I was able to return it for a new, replacement unit. That one lasted just under a month and the exact same thing happened. Actually, all the lights turned solid red and the booster got extremely hot, then all the lights went out completely. I tried the same thing I had with the first unit, unplugged it and waited for it to cool down. Plugged it back in and nothing, no lights, nothing.

Again, I was able to return it to Amazon but told them I didn't want a replacement. This time they deducted a "restocking" fee. I called Amazon and told them the unit had died and I should not be charged the restocking fee. They ultimately agreed and refunded the entire purchase price ~ $400.00. (If you ask me, the absolute best thing about Amazon is their customer service. If other retailers had the same customer service Amazon would not be taking over the world.)

I decided to get a Weboost as a replacement and didn't want to wait for an Amazon delivery (the RV park I was located at was a 50 mile drive each way to the nearest UPS store) so I decided to purchase it from Best Buy since I could drive to the store the same day to pick it up.

I've had the Weboost for @ 4+ months now and (fingers crossed) have NEVER had a single issue with it. It was more expensive than the Surecall, but a lower price is of no value if the system isn't usable.

I had called SureCall tech support but naturally the problem occurred on a Friday afternoon and I had to leave a message. They returned my call some time the next week and wanted to "troubleshoot" the issue but I'd already purchased the Weboost and returned the defective SureCall unit to Amazon.

[silverlabs]

I've had mine since June and have experienced very good results. Very pleased with it. My install (on a 2015 28FC Rear twin) was done by Ultimate Airstreams while they had my trailer doing a recliner upgrade. Very clean install and throughout our 4 months of travel this summer saw some good boost of signals. Many cases of one bar boosted to four. Very pleased. Good luck on yours.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by Bigventure

How much does it cost?

BIGVENTURE - it was typically $449 but got it for $405 Black Friday, shipped.

[Alex AVI]

Today is the ideal day to test.

What is ideal? Well, not ideal for a hike, but the conditions were bad enough such that it is ideal to find out how it does in these conditions.

- Mt. Charleston, NV - On Lee Canyon, east side of mtn which is facing away from Las Vegas valley and shielded by the mountain from most radio signals. Very weak & spotty cell signal at best
- 8,500 ft. & 7,000 ft. ASL
- 29-35 ° F
- Winds 10 mph
- Snow from last night
- Clouds & new front rolling in
- Not in rv, testing on shorter & lower minivan





1st test near top of Lee Canyon ski lift at 8,500ft. ASL. No signal here. A big "X" on phone. I had to try anyway. No surprise, booster can't help. It can't do magic.

2nd test, started heading down to where I can get either 1-bar or "R" signal. This occured exactly where I knew it would, right at 7,500ft. ASL. It is a trailhead I frequent for hiking, so I am well familiar where to situate my minivan.

With no booster, I may get 1-bar or "R". But either one had a very difficult time attempting to place a call or send text message. I was never able to complete either, no matter how many times I tried. As soon as I powered up the booster and the selftest finishes and all the LEDs turned green, my signal shot up to 2-bars 3G. Text completed asap and I was talking to my voicemail for over 1-minute. No static, did not get dropped even outside of minivan. After over 1-minute, I decided that it was not going to drop my connection. So I hung up manually.



I did not bring any signal & power metering devices. I did not intend to do a comprehensive technical paper on this. That would be too complicated & time consuming, even for my engineering background. This is a basic go/no-go real world test, just like a normal buyer would do. I am happy that it does what it is supposed to do. Given the omni directional antenna was sitting at only 5-1/2 ft. above the road and the separation between inside/outside antenna is only 9 ft. I am very confident it will perform the same or likely better on the taller roof of rv with greater antenna separation. A separation on 9 ft. using the rv-type antennas definitely created some oscillation issues caused by signal overlap. That will be greatly alleviated when installing on the much longer rv.

Testing done. On to installing in AI.

[InterBlog]

You won’t regret this purchase.

On the install, it’s pretty easy on the T1N. We installed ours on the UPPER inside surface of one of the overhead bins (so as to not waste space), ran the wire down the side behind the cabinets to the nose, de-installed the headliner for the 86th time, drilled a hole in the roof, ran the stubby wire through it, used a Blue Sea capping product (don’t remember which) to shield the emerging wire, and mounted the magnetic stubby on a roof rib. When I elastomeric’d the roof, I left a patch of bare metal for the stubby base.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

You won’t regret this purchase.

On the install, it’s pretty easy on the T1N. We installed ours on the UPPER inside surface of one of the overhead bins (so as to not waste space), ran the wire down the side behind the cabinets to the nose, de-installed the headliner for the 86th time, drilled a hole in the roof, ran the stubby wire through it, used a Blue Sea capping product (don’t remember which) to shield the emerging wire, and mounted the magnetic stubby on a roof rib. When I elastomeric’d the roof, I left a patch of bare metal for the stubby base.

INTERBLOG - Thank you again for putting the word out on this. Not sure how it's reliability would be, only time will tell and I will surely report. But in terms of doing what it promised to do, it has done so and in territory that I know very well and verify is close to no-signal as possible without being completely "out of service".

And thanks for the install tips. Having 85 practice runs, you probably did this in record time, being an expert at it many times over. For me, the real install would also be my practice run. Talk about winging it. Ugh! So every bolt I remove is an adventure. Just this morning, in removing the B-pillar trim, I removed 7 trim caps and screws under them, only to realize it wasn't necessary. The trim just felt screwed in by those 7 screws because they were firmly stuck because they are new and never been removed. But now, I am intimately familiar with all the screws in both pillars

Is your outdoor antenna out front or way on rear? Do you have a pic? I kinda prefer the smaller stubby flexible magnetic mount, if the gain specs are identical.. But I think the 9" fiberglass encased omni directional antenna has a stronger gain. Could not verify from supplied docs. So will call SureCall. So I may really need the bigger antenna for max range. I think the same is true for using the longer indoor whip antenna vs. the "choco-bar" patch antenna.

[Camerons]

Alex we installed a cell booster and a WiFi booster. Both are amazing at boosting signals. The only limitations I’ve found is that the cell booster is challenged to boost the signal if your phone is more than a couple of feet from the interior antenna. As long as your phone is close it boosts the signal one or two bars. It was very effective when I was working. Now it’s not as critical.

The installs were pretty easy. The most challenging was drilling a hole in the roof and finding a weatherproof fitting. The other challenges is to get the wiring behind all the cabinets.

[InterBlog]

The manual will tell you that your exterior antenna and the interior “chocolate bar” (as the weBoost device is widely called) must be widely separated, and this is true. Our couches are in the rear and that is where we are typically working, so the stubby is on the van’s nose.

The chocolate bar is a necessary annoyance. I’m typing this right now with it pressed to the back of my iPhone. And I complained to Verizon earlier this week about their lagging service in deep East Texas. More on that later.

I too was unable to find good antenna specs. We use the weBoost’s included stubby exclusively. Technomadia recommended that we get a directional antenna also, but what they did NOT make clear is that the directionals need 100 percent line of sight, not even the slightest barrier, or they will cause more problems than they solve. That condition basically never manifests in any area where trees grow, so we’ve never been able to make it work. We left it with one of our off-grid Canadian neighbors so he could play with it (he is a double E and may erect a large permanent mast at his place in the woods).

[Titus]

Wondering why/if we need the RV version for an Interstate - where we don't need 40' of cable? Also, we never use the Sirrus radio. Wondering if you can remove the Sirrus antenna and use that hole for the cellboost antenna? Is it too much to hope that you could use the Sirrus wiring too?

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by Titus

Wondering why/if we need the RV version for an Interstate - where we don't need 40' of cable? Also, we never use the Sirrus radio. Wondering if you can remove the Sirrus antenna and use that hole for the cellboost antenna? Is it too much to hope that you could use the Sirrus wiring too?

TITUS - I am placing the omnidirectional antenna as far to rear of van and the booster will be right over driver and passenger seats, either inside overhead or behind the front tv. It's whip antenna will be hanging down (vertical). The reason for this reverse config (compared to INTERBLOG) is our high usage would be in the 4 front seats and during driving rather than couch/bed. The good thing about the whip antenna is they provide more coverage radius than the "chocolate bar" antennas. The "chocolate bars" are actually made to work for single user, standard vehicle use. This is why it is VERY limited in range. The underlying reason for this is on a standard vehicle (non rv), if using an indoor antenna with much greater coverage, it would be difficult to separate indoor/outdoor antennas beyond 10-12 ft. This can create a huge oscillation problem caused by signal overlap. This will cause booster to overheat and/or shut down as mandated by FCC to prevent the oscillating unit from affecting the network it is tapped into.

Regarding the other locations (Sirius, front FM antenna, Wineguard Roadstar, and satellite pre-wire), I have checked with SureCall about those in order to save time in fishing new wires. We can also sacrifice any of those 4 as we rarely use them and really do not need them. I even contacted Wineguard on the special procedure to remove the saucer because once it is locked in, removing it actually entails destroying the locking tabs. So while using the existing holes from these would work, the existing inside wiring and their connectors are not compatible. SureCall uses the more efficient 50 ohm system with FME connectors. All the cabling in AI are 75 ohm. Impedance matching could be a problem, even with use of 75 to 50 ohm conversion adapters. SureCall does not recommend it. And so at a minimum, I would need to re-crimp new connectors myself on existing cables, which could never be as good as the factory made ones. I just don't trust myself to be able to make them as good. With the high frequencies involved, low signal levels, and potential high transmission losses, minimizing every possible signal loss source became more important. So I decided against any of the alternate routes that use existing AI cabling. Also that became a moot point since I wanted the furthest distance between indoor/outdoor antennas. The only way to do so is to have one of them way out back and one way out front.

Regarding length of cable run - with my max antenna separation goal, the BARE minimum I need is 30 ft. if my inside turns proved to be efficient. Anyone who has done any electrical/electronic wiring can attest your initial bare min estimate will come up short. So the supplied 40 ft. factory crimped cable tested to work with the entire system at minimum loss ended up being the only real no-brainer solution.

If I was doing so in a completely empty van with inside walls exposed, then I probably would take the shortest cable run that can service my maximum antenna separation. This would probably be a very tight 20 ft. But the obvious limitations of an already built interior made it clear this was not possible.

Response from SureCall below:
<start cut/paste>

Hi Alex,

For best performance you are better off using the cable that comes with the kit. RG6 and RG11 are 75 Ohm cables. This is a 50 Ohm system.
Also RG6 and RG11 has F type connectors.

Dennis Findley *****
Tech Support Manager**
FCC*and IC Authorized Representative*

<end cut/paste>

[Alex AVI]

Received SureCall antenna kitting specs. You can see for yourself the gain specs for each frequency range in attached table

SC110W - Indoor rectangular chocolate bar for standard vehicle (-2.7 to -5.96 db gain)
SC202W - Outdoor stuff by magnetic for standard vehicle (-3.16 to -5.65 db gain)

SC120W - Indoor whip for rv (+1.2 to +3 db gain)
SC288W - Outdoor omni directional for rv (-0.52 to -2.92 db gain)

[Air99]

Nice job Alex! Really appreciate having you on the forum tackling technical stuff [emoji106]

[nryn]

Looking at this system for my trailer if the Airstream retrofit doesn’t become available or stable before I take delivery. Presumably if you have a MiFi device you could affix that to the chocolate bar and connect internally to its network, right?

[Titus]

Alex
Good point about location. I was just thinking about installation convenience, not antenna separation. We too would use it mostly from the front seat.


Regarding the Winegard, they must have changed designs. I was able to unscrew my disc, relocate the bracket, and then re-install the disc. There were no locking tabs to contend with.

[Alex AVI]

Originally Posted by Titus

Alex
Good point about location. I was just thinking about installation convenience, not antenna separation. We too would use it mostly from the front seat.


Regarding the Winegard, they must have changed designs. I was able to unscrew my disc, relocate the bracket, and then re-install the disc. There were no locking tabs to contend with.

TITUS - Yeah, they sent me an unpublished de-install process. I will try to post later when I find it. Basically, the tabs snap past the guide grooves with an internal lockring. Once locked, chances are removing the disc will destroy the tabs (not entire unit). So a new casing can be purchased and the inside electronics moved. It would've been nice if they just used a set screw or 2.

BTW - I was ready to sacrifice/destroy that Wineguard if SureCall said it was ok to use thatcabli g/connectors. Glad it didn't happen that way coz my outdoor would've been sitting g right on top of my indoor

[Alex AVI]

Internal wiring and outdoor mounting

After 12 hrs. (3pm to 3am) of removing interior panels, some cabinet hardware, some selected & judicious sheet metal & cabinetry drilling, etc. etc. finally got the 40 ft. long cable run from C/S rearmost corner of AI to the front overhead cabinetry. The outdoor antenna is not yet completely bolted down. I have an idea to incorporate it INSIDE the awning rear cap. But waiting for SureCall to confirm it will not reduce it's gain.




The coax follows the top rail in C/S all the way to B-pillar then crosses the ceiling to exit right behind front Samsung tv. The booster will sit inside the tv mounting support box and antenna will hang downward, perfectly centered between driver & passenger seats & 2 mid-row captain's seats. This is the absolute best location for our driving & travel needs. Not having as good reception in bed/couch is not necessary for us as we do all our cell usage in the front seating areas whether driving or stationary. Also, this gives a better location for outside the sliding door reception.



I would not want to do this again. It is a big PITA to tackle. You will need more than the standard screwdrivers and drill. You need a full complement of Torx bits to completely remove the B-pillar panel. ALSO, you need a full complement of fishing tools and even used my wife's surgical extended & bent forceps to help fishing wire. It is also very useful when the trim clips detach & fall down the B-pillar cavities during removal. They won't disappear, rather they just sit in an area that is easier retrieved with very skinny long tools or skinny magnetic pickups.