Does anybody use a Signal Booster/Amplifier instead of Sat Phones

[Russrobe]

I'm looking at alternatives to using a sat phone as they're super expensive to buy, expensive to use requiring lock in contracts which I hate and you wouldn't dream trying to download something using one.

There's 2 options:

1 Being buy a compatible phone($300-$500), antenna($150) and patch lead($60).Unsure on exactly how far the 9Dbi antenna would reach(maybe 15km)

2 Buy a signal booster which claims to boost signal by up to 30x what a stand alone aerial would. They cost around $900, which might end up costing similar to a sat phone setup with the main difference being you can use unlimited data on your normal sim..

Does anyone have any experience with these ?https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/site/cel-fi-go-smart-signal-booster-telstra-3g-4g-lte

These are not repeaters and are not illegal as they do no re broadcast a signal beyond a small radius.

Cheers

[Tombie]

"Shouting all you like is fine, but what if you can't hear the response" [emoji6]

Consider a couple of other options:

1) Hire when needed
2) Spot tracker - the top model can send SMS

[Russrobe]

Ah yes, I noticed Gordon uses those Tombie, what about one of those coupled with an RFI antenna and cheap 3G phone that has a RF antenna point?

Do you think they are worth it? I wouldn't mind reception for just a little bit outsde of town mostly for updating maps, music and so forth. Could use it as a hotspot for the tablet.


There is a bit of effort required for the setup, the $190 RFI antenna requires mounting on the bar then the phone purchase and patch lead, on the phone coverage map it looks like there's no reception along the GRR even with an antenna so might be wasting my time....
Thanks

[Tombie]

BMKal has a decent sized antenna - would be 6' off the Bullbar and a phone cradle which does about as good as it gets on 4Gx

[Russrobe]

Thanks, i'll send him a message.

[cjc_td5]

Nothing short of a sat phone will get any coverage along the GRR, bar about 100km at each end.

[Ean Austral]

When I was fishing we used boosters on the 3G network with a Aerial mounted high in the rigging . The phone needed to be 1 that took an external aerial via a patch lead which are not that common these days.

Many years ago I took the 3G phone with the aerial down the Gibb River Road and had the aerial on the bull bar with no booster and had mobile phone as far as the Kalumburu turn off coming from wyhndam and about 100 ks from the Derby end. The aerial could be bought at dick smith and was about the size of a UHF aerial. The trick would be finding a mobile which would take an external patch lead as I haven't found a smart phone that does so.

A Sat Phone will give you better around coverage but has the added cost, but in saying that you can get some very good sat phone call rates if you shop around.

Cheers Ean

[Russrobe]

When I was fishing we used boosters on the 3G network with a Aerial mounted high in the rigging . The phone needed to be 1 that took an external aerial via a patch lead which are not that common these days.

Many years ago I took the 3G phone with the aerial down the Gibb River Road and had the aerial on the bull bar with no booster and had mobile phone as far as the Kalumburu turn off coming from wyhndam and about 100 ks from the Derby end. The aerial could be bought at dick smith and was about the size of a UHF aerial. The trick would be finding a mobile which would take an external patch lead as I haven't found a smart phone that does so.

A Sat Phone will give you better around coverage but has the added cost, but in saying that you can get some very good sat phone call rates if you shop around.

Cheers Ean

Ean the site i posted above does give great info and provide all patch leads. Samsung S1 S2 S3 and S4 should all have RF ports. I would be checking before buying though as i have an old S3 in my house and it has ports marked RF which have no holes! Must be a specific model...

There is the option of going and grabbing a Telstra rugged phone which also has the ports, my last mobile plans expired anyway. I might give it a shot. Due to travelling in a tag along tour, I don't really need a sat phone as they provide one. But the phone reception could come in handy if we ran into trouble anywhere on the way back to Perth from Kununurra of which will be solo for 3000kms of mostly tarmac.

[101RRS]

The S4 does not have any external ports - if you remove the back cover there is a diagnostic test port (actually) two that a patch lead can be plugged into but you run the risk of damaging the circuit boards outside of a test room type environment.

So yes it can be done but is not all that practical in a 4wd type environment.

[Ean Austral]

Ean the site i posted above does give great info and provide all patch leads. Samsung S1 S2 S3 and S4 should all have RF ports. I would be checking before buying though as i have an old S3 in my house and it has ports marked RF which have no holes! Must be a specific model...

There is the option of going and grabbing a Telstra rugged phone which also has the ports, my last mobile plans expired anyway. I might give it a shot. Due to travelling in a tag along tour, I don't really need a sat phone as they provide one. But the phone reception could come in handy if we ran into trouble anywhere on the way back to Perth from Kununurra of which will be solo for 3000kms of mostly tarmac.

If you can still buy them from places like dick smith or similar the antennas were around $150 and if you mounted it on a bullbar or roof rack then I would consider not even buying the booster as the external antenna/ Aerial will give you good range considering where you are looking at going. I will be back in Darwin on the weekend and I will see if I can find out what boosters we useas im sure they are around $400. Our fishing boats still use them.

Cheers Ean

[Russrobe]

The S4 does not have any external ports - if you remove the back cover there is a diagnostic test port (actually) two that a patch lead can be plugged into but you run the risk of damaging the circuit boards outside of a test room type environment.

So yes it can be done but is not all that practical in a 4wd type environment.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/02/725.jpg

Sometimes they can be country specific models? I've bought a model of an LG phone which had dual sims from Kogan and only 1 sim port in Australia...

Unless this is a diagnostic port and not an antenna port as labeled.

[Tombie]

Mate. Keep your cash in your pocket on Sat phones and boosters..

Just SMS a trusted person when leaving a town, instruct them to send help if they don't hear from you within X time...

(Of course if you have a pre-existing health condition this may need adjusting)

[Russrobe]

Mate. Keep your cash in your pocket on Sat phones and boosters..

Just SMS a trusted person when leaving a town, instruct them to send help if they don't hear from you within X time...

(Of course if you have a pre-existing health condition this may need adjusting)
Another good option... Will leave it in the "if i have spare time and money" jobs for now and focus on a CB.

Good to know it does work though, thanks Ean. I've been to 3 shops, one of which had about 15 different types of antennas in stock, hoping to find someone who knew what was most suitable but nobody did...

[Rok_Dr]

Funny but I was looking at sat phones the other day and came across this one through Optus. I like the fact you can suspend the plan, when not travelling ,at no cost and you use an app on your smartphone to connect. Price is pretty reasonable.

Optus Thuraya SatSleeve (http://www.optus.com.au/business/broadband-internet/networking-solutions/satellite/voice-data/sat-talk/satsleeve)

I've used Thuraya in north Africa and it worked well, so provided you don't need coverage in the Americas or S Africa its a good offer.

Cheers

Steve

[weeds]

If it's mostly hi-way wouldn't there be plenty of traffic therefore not really alone.

I imagine a booster would not give you complete coverage therefore you're still in the same vote.

[Ean Austral]

Another good option... Will leave it in the "if i have spare time and money" jobs for now and focus on a CB.

Good to know it does work though, thanks Ean. I've been to 3 shops, one of which had about 15 different types of antennas in stock, hoping to find someone who knew what was most suitable but nobody did...


Dick smith sold antennas that were CDMA band and all and sundry said they wouldn't work on 3G network , but all 200 boats in our fishery found that there was no signal loss on 3G compared to CDMA . Not sure if the antenna has been changed since, and most of us had Nokia phones as they were cheap and the patch leads to connect to the antennas were interchangable with the different model phones.
I am talking about 6-8 yrs ago but our boats still use the same set up just not sure on what phones they use now .

Cheers Ean

[Narangga]

Mate. Keep your cash in your pocket on Sat phones and boosters..

Just SMS a trusted person when leaving a town, instruct them to send help if they don't hear from you within X time...

(Of course if you have a pre-existing health condition this may need adjusting)

That's what we do although I am still uncertain if our 3 sons fit into the category of 'trusted person'? ;)

However if we had a pre-existing wealth condition I'd probably get a sat phone. :(

[Russrobe]

Coverage Map:
https://www.telstra.com.au/coverage-networks/our-coverage'red=/mobile/networks/coverage/broadband.html

That's for a standard antenna, for $190 I would expect one atleast twice the coverage as a basic antenna.

Now add a booster which is meant to increase that by 30x and I don't think you'd ever run out of mobile coverage.... In theory though, shame nobody on here has one to test it out.

[Russrobe]

Ean I think they turned off the CDMA network completely a few months ago along with 2G. They got a guy who still owned a 2G Nokia 3310 to come switch it off.

[Ean Austral]

Ean I think they turned off the CDMA network completely a few months ago along with 2G. They got a guy who still owned a 2G Nokia 3310 to come switch it off.

Yeh could be, but looks like they have a off the shelf antenna to suit the new network anyway . Once I get back to Darwin I will jump on 1 of the boats and see what set up we have. 2 yrs ago I drove from Broome to Darwin and was surprised at how much coverage there was on my iPhone with no outside antenna.

I have s friend who drives a road train from Darwin to Perth, I will ask what set up he has in his truck .

Cheers Ean

[DiscoMick]

Funny but I was looking at sat phones the other day and came across this one through Optus. I like the fact you can suspend the plan, when not travelling ,at no cost and you use an app on your smartphone to connect. Price is pretty reasonable.

Optus Thuraya SatSleeve (http://www.optus.com.au/business/broadband-internet/networking-solutions/satellite/voice-data/sat-talk/satsleeve)

I've used Thuraya in north Africa and it worked well, so provided you don't need coverage in the Americas or S Africa its a good offer.

Cheers

Steve
That Optus Satsleeve looks like a good idea. I might investigate it further. Wonder if anyone here has tried it?

[Russrobe]

That Optus Satsleeve looks like a good idea. I might investigate it further. Wonder if anyone here has tried it?

When they say $888rrp, is that the upfront cost for just the Satsleeve?

[Tombie]

Don't go the sleeve. Get the un-docked version that's out there..

[Rok_Dr]

Yep the $800 ish price is for the handset outright purchase the way I read it.

It also can be bought in 2 versions one with a clip that grips the phone and the other on a stand. There are no physical connectors like the old sleeves as the connection to your phone is by wi-fi just like a hot spot.

Cheers

Steve

[Meccles]

We were 120 Klicks offshore Broome with one of Telstra Wifi devices (4g) you know little data only wifi devices they cost about $100 plus we had range extender aerial also from Telstra not expensive doing all our email and comms from that. I was amazed cause we were a long way from anywhere perhaps another option use that then Skype/WhatsApp from you wifi [emoji106]

[Judo]

I'm looking at this at the moment too. The sat phone sleeves are actually a full satphone but you need an app to connect your smartphone to it. I wouldn't bother. Go the handset. Best I can see is a good condition second hand handset for $600 then $15/month with no contract. $1/min for calls.

I've considered the booster thing but i just know I'll still end up spots that don't have coverage and if I've spent the money on this I want it to work basically everywhere. This is particularly true where we go often - in the mountains. If you're in a flat desert or on the ocean a mobile booster sure could go a long way. But if there's a mountain 1km away from you forget I reckon.

[Russrobe]

Kind of regret not going the longer 9dbi antenna but will see how this one goes. Atleast i can drive around with this one up no problem.