Click for YF Listing Service Click for Burger Click for JetForums Click for Comfort Click for Nordhavn

What Is The Best Cell Signal Booster?

Discussion in 'Electronics' started by Jay Davis, Dec 15, 2022.

You need to be registered and signed in to view this content.
  1. Jay Davis

    Jay Davis New Member

    Joined:
    Sep 17, 2022
    Messages:
    7
    Location:
    Ft Lauderdale, FL
    Have a 50' flybridge with a hardtop. Need to add a cell signal booster but isolate the antenna most likely horizontally vice vertically from GPS, VHF, Radar. Looking at the Coastal Cruising Marine Cel-Fi GO G32 Cell Signal Booster with High-Gain Antenna. Antenna is 29.5″ Poynting OMNI-493 UV‑stable ASA antenna with 6 to 9 dBi of gain.

    Anyone use this system/antenna or have other suggestions?
  2. gr8trn

    gr8trn Senior Member

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2012
    Messages:
    733
    Location:
    OR/CA
    Not my lane, hopefully others here will give you some idea. As many are moving to Starlink, few may be concerning themselves with cell boosting.
    You may already have done this but I would go read up on Panbo dot com for marine electronic opinions as well.
  3. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,118
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    I be never had good luck with cell boosters. I had a Shakespeare installed about 5 years ago on an 84 which helped a little bit.

    starlink is the way to go, especially the recently released mobility antenna which supports in motion service. I installed an RV antenna on the 110 back in June and it s great. At some point soon I will Upgrade to the new antenna. Ironically just a month before starlink became available, I had a cell booster installed :( forgot which brand.
  4. Paul S.

    Paul S. New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2022
    Messages:
    5
    Location:
    Boston
    You might want to look into Pepwave. Its a cell receiver made for data and also a Wi-Fi router with RJ-45 jacks. You can install up to two sim cards for redundancy. It also comes with roll-over capabilities. Meaning when I am in my slip, I use the clubs internet, if I am off the docks it will automatically use my phone as a hotspot. If my phone can't connect, than the router will use the cell service from the sim card. I have 2 cell antennas installed on my mast that brings the signal in far better than my phone. So far so good, but I am never more than 25 to 35 miles off shore. But thats me.

    I have been thinking about Starlink, but at at $130 a month and only use it 6 month out of the years seams high.
    gr8trn likes this.
  5. MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    1,162
    Location:
    Windsor On. Canada
    You're probably not aware that with the RV version you can turn it off and pay nothing for the months that the boat is laid up.
  6. Norseman

    Norseman Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2005
    Messages:
    2,904
    Location:
    Ft. Lauderdale
    I had slightly better luck, but old info and old tech:
    Back in the mid-late 2000s we sailed to the Bahamas frequently, including the Berries and the Exumas.
    A regular Nokia cell phone would go dark 8 NM from shore, but the cell booster and a dedicated antenna with a small built in amplifier would double it to 16 miles.
    Well worth it for our use. The 12 Volt booster and the antenna was probably $350 back then, equal to $550 now.
    The Bahamas roaming however was expensive back then at $2-3 per minute and with wifey yakking with her mother and her sister every time we made landfall in the Bahamas, the phone bill was more than the fuel bill.
    Instead we used the SSB for phone patches using a personal account with Mobile Radio: With a few discounts it got the price per minute down to $.0.25 if memory serves right.
    Big improvement and we could finally put the $4,000 HF SSB to good use.
    (Not sure it paid for itself, but better than AT&T Roaming in the Bahamas.)
    Would I instal a cell booster these days on a boat?
    Yes, if I had free roaming on my phone plan.
    (Once in 2016 I was stuck in Bimini with no VHF weather coverage for Florida and no Gulf Stream weather forecast. My buddies texted me good weather info from the US on the cell phone circuit. Well worth it and a cell phone booster would have paid for itself then. Power boat, no SSB)
  7. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 29, 2008
    Messages:
    8,118
    Location:
    Miami, FL
    Things change quickly these days and in just the last 5 years we ve gone from using shore/marina based Wi-Fi to cellular first using prepaid BTC sims then unlimited My Island Wi-Fi sim and now starlink.

    5 years ago I had to have a basic cell phone to activate data plans with BTC prepaid before I could put the sim in our modem. Also had a separate ATT sim to use here in the US….

    fast forward to 2022 and with starlink we get better coverage and cheaper as well compared to maintaining 2 sims, ATT and MIW for the Bahamas

    And yes as MBevins mentioned you can easily suspend your starlink plan.
  8. Paul S.

    Paul S. New Member

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2022
    Messages:
    5
    Location:
    Boston
    I forgot about that, thanks. But right now T-Mobil give me 60Gigs free each month as a hot spot. Add my wife's phone and thats 120 Gigs. I attach that to the Pepwave and have internet for my ZT software, GPS, TV and more. We get get into spotty areas, that when I use the the internal sim card service.

    This is not for everyone! But it works for us and the cost is about $20 to $40 per month depending on usage. Plus 70% of the time I am in my slip and using the Club WiFi though the Pepwave router.
  9. MBevins

    MBevins Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2008
    Messages:
    1,162
    Location:
    Windsor On. Canada
    Sent you a PM.