Weboost external antenna

[The Colonel]

Just ordered a weboost 4g-x and was debating whether I should order another external antenna also, besides the one that comes with it. Thinking I'll try the included one first to see if it will do. If I need another ext, which one is best to go with?


Sent from Belle on the road! Home base: Navarre, Florida

[Rocinante]

<edit>Hey, you could always start with the existing antenna and see how it works. If you get frustrated with that, read on. </edit>

We went with this external antenna for omnidirectional signal acquisition, seems many others have done the same: http://3gstore.com/product/3047_3g4g...i-antenna.html

Per Lewster here on the forums, we're going to mount that antenna with a pair of "feet" from AM Solar (two of these feet per SureCall antenna, bolt them together along with the antenna mount) http://amsolar.com/rv-mounting-accessories/mounttl-5

Don't forget to clean the mounting position on your roof with mineral spirits before sticking the feet down. Per a chat I had with a 3M industrial adhesion person on the phone, 3M Primer 94 provides extra sticking insurance if you apply it to your selected roof spot after cleaning, but before sticking down the feet. https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...s=3m+primer+94

As for cable, probably worth investigating LMR240 or LMR400 flex cables between the exterior antenna and your booster. Here's one good source of cables, though you will have to know what connectors you need on each end of the cable you buy (for your application it will usually be N Plug-Male to SMA Plug-Male, but it's on you to make sure you get that right) and how long you want it to be:

• LMR240: http://www.air802.com/antenna-cable-...40-equivalent/
• LMR400 Flex
  • In black: http://www.air802.com/antenna-cable-...uf-equivalent/
  • In white: http://www.air802.com/antenna-cable-...uf-equivalent/

Your choice on how to get the cable from the roof to your booster. There are plenty of good ideas out there.

Many folks route cables via the fridge stack, which seems to work though I'm hoping to avoid that as we want to put our booster and other gear in the cabinet above our dinette (and our dinette is in the rear of the trailer as we're in a 27FB).

Here's another idea you could adapt and make your own, which is what we're hoping to do: https://www.facebook.com/The-Traveli...89044541162600

There's lots more you can do if you also want to add a directional LTE antenna and an external wi-fi antenna to create a LAN you can access while sitting at your picnic table. The above would be a great start though. Way better than when we started by trying to use a WeBoost LTE cradle for our iPhone with that dinky magnetic antenna. The cradle sorta kinda worked, but was quite frustrating overall. The cradle is a halfway decent solution for the car, but proved to be mostly annoying in the trailer.

<edit> One more thing. The folks at the 3G Store are super helpful. They may not always have the lowest prices on everything, but if you want to talk to great folks who will help you put together an order so you can just click "Buy" and get on with it, they are really the folks you want to shop with. Great support there, lots of answers to your questions, a business worthy of your support.</edit>

[The Colonel]

Thanks, that's a lot of info to take in but I appreciate the links. Sounds like a very good setup

[markdoane]

If you have a tv antenna you can mount the external antenna on the mast. I would throw away the little magnetic antenna that comes with the Weboost package.
I would also get rid of the Hershey Bar inside antenna and use a regular antenna. Doesn't matter how you mount it, it will bounce the signal around to fill every inch of your trailer. I mounted mine inside the pantry and got a 24 dB boost.

[The Colonel]

That looks nice. My tv antenna is a fixed mount so I'll have to work out another means for mounting, like Roc.
What antennas did you use

[mjayjensen]

Following,
Thanks!
Jay

[Rocinante]

Originally Posted by markdoane

If you have a tv antenna you can mount the external antenna on the mast.

Great idea, looks good!

BTW, we also have a crank-up TV antenna. That's where we will mount our directional LTE antenna, known as a Yagi. If the fixed omni can't pull in a signal, we'll crank up the batwing and rotate the Yagi until we find the signal we need.

Don't want to mount both the omni and the yagi on the batwing, because two additional antennas up there might be too much weight. One extra antenna seems to be the max, as we had a friend break off the handle on his crank-up batwing due to the weight of 2 extra antennas, don't want that to happen.

Originally Posted by markdoane

I would also get rid of the Hershey Bar inside antenna and use a regular antenna. Doesn't matter how you mount it, it will bounce the signal around to fill every inch of your trailer. I mounted mine inside the pantry and got a 24 dB boost.

Totally agree with this, too many reports that the signal from that candybar antenna doesn't reach more than a few inches. We got a different antenna for internal LTE signals from the booster and hope it will work as well as yours: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J0JGL46

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by dblee1950

That looks nice. My tv antenna is a fixed mount so I'll have to work out another means for mounting, like Roc.
What antennas did you use

I used Wilson 311133 E xternal spring loaded RV/Trucker antenna and https://www.wilsonamplifiers.com/wil...50-ohm-301121/.

[The Colonel]

I'm looking for a place to hard mount a sure call omni on top. Don't want to go the glue route, but see there are fasteners on air cond shroud. Is it a place I could work a mount out and or is it too close to where the internal ant will be? Internal and weboost will likely be in closet next to fridg.


Sent from Belle on the road! Home base: Navarre, Florida

[The Colonel]

I see an antenna at rear of camper that is about 12" high and upper part unscrews from its base. Suspect it's for the radio. Wonder if I can use the base and adapt a way to mount the sure call to it? I would run the cabling over to the refrigerator vent and down. It may put to much stress/strain on the mount, though.


Sent from Belle on the road! Home base: Navarre, Florida

[NWRVR]

Following

[Rocinante]

Not sure how you'd mount a replacement for the existing radio antenna.

I'd avoid mounting on the AC shroud, as the cover tends to become fragile over time due to UV damage. In addition, the unit under the shroud *may* cast an RF shadow for LTE frequencies If it did, that would limit your reception on one side.

One more thing I've seen done - you could mount your antenna on a collapsible mast and strap that mast to the A-frame of your trailer when parked, running a cable out to it. Depending on the height and strength of the mast, that could be a good solution that allows you to experiment a while before doing anything permanent.

Originally Posted by dblee1950

I see an antenna at rear of camper that is about 12" high and upper part unscrews from its base. Suspect it's for the radio. Wonder if I can use the base and adapt a way to mount the sure call to it? I would run the cabling over to the refrigerator vent and down. It may put to much stress/strain on the mount, though.


Sent from Belle on the road! Home base: Navarre, Florida

[The Colonel]

I probably will go with a pole concept when I get all the components until I can figure out where to permanently mount. We leave on a month-long trip Wednesday so I don't have time to put this in place before we go. I didn't realize that the antennas that came with the We boost were so small. I'll try to use this thing until I can get the better antennas in place.

[The Colonel]

What's the difference between doctor and sikaflex? Do I need both to cover the solar mounts and maybe to hold down cable run on top of AS?


DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

[The Colonel]

Dacor,



DBLee and Southern Belle on the road

[dhroberts]

Originally Posted by dblee1950

Just ordered a weboost 4g-x and was debating whether I should order another external antenna also, besides the one that comes with it. Thinking I'll try the included one first to see if it will do. If I need another ext, which one is best to go with?


Sent from Belle on the road! Home base: Navarre, Florida

I think the post from Rocinante - and its references to Lewster - covers the subject well. I too took Lewster's advice and went the Surecall external antenna with ultra low loss cable route. I just had Marv Braun of Precision RV install the Surecall external antenna (to be connected to a Weboost cell booster) and a WifiRanger Elite (wifi booster) during my recent solar system installation. Too early to report my results - that said, I just had no confidence in the likely effectiveness of the Weboost's included external antennae and internal candy bar antenna. Good luck. Dennis