My Latest Cell Phone Signal Amplifer Configuration

[bugeyedriver]

During the birth of the Wonder Egg, I did some web searching and found a good signal amplifier supplier at http://www.powerfulsignal.com / I selected the Command Post option and had it installed on the Wonder Egg. Since then, Wilson Antenna "decertified" the dome antenna I had on the inside from being dual band to being "single band only" because it did not boost the 1900 MHz frequency as much as they wanted.

 

Since then, installations have included either a stronger dome antenna, or stronger flat panel antenna. I had the flat panel installed in retrofit. Here's the problem that I ran into . . . if you have a cell phone signal, say of one or two bars and you activate this flat panel antenna, it interferes with the front, receiving antenna and the system shuts down. It was only usable in EXTREMELY week signal areas.

 

Here's my fix: I reinstalled the previous dome antenna which works in a small way on 1900 MHz and put an A/B switch which I now use to go between the old dome and the flat panel. Here are the pics of my current system . . .

 

Wilson 301133RV - spring mounted, dual band cellular antenna on the outside

 

Power supply - 12V plug mounted inside front storage bin

 

SOHO Amplifier hooked to a DIAWA CS-201 A/B RF switch in middle bin. (You need a switch capable of 2 Gigahertz to do the job) Take it to your local Ham Radio shop and they can make you the connector cables. I have a 8 inch cable with a type-2 connection to the amplifier and a Type N connection to the switch. Two six foot cables with N-connectors to go from the switch to the antennas.

 

Two pics of the original dome antenna, model number WE 301123 (even though they say it only does the low band, it works well enough for this application on the high band)

 

It can be identified by the three mounting screws and the "Wilson" logo on the bottom

 

Finally, the Dual Band Wall Mount Antenna mounted near the front dinette seat. The bracket to its left is so I can reposition it to radiate out the side of the trailer to use the laptop & cell phone outside, under the awning

 

This should provide me with 5 bars just about everywhere I go. If I'm in a deep crater, I'll crank up the Ham radio.

[phil underwood]

nice write up Pete, i like the photos