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

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)

Originally Posted by 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)

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...

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

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

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.

Originally Posted by Russrobe

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

Originally Posted by 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)

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.

Coverage Map:
https://www.telstra.com.au/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.

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.