Cellular External Antennae

[cody]

We use a wilson magnetic mount antenna with our old tracphone and it works great, my daughter always has the latest phones with all the features and gives us a hard time because of our old phone but all we have the phone for is road emergencies and buy a 300 minute card and that get's us thru for months, the reason I don't want to change phones is because ours has a plug in for the antenna and when she has no signal, we still have 5 bars. That plug in for us is important and the wilson works great, it's all we need for what we do with it.

[buswarrior]

Hello.

Wilson's antennae are great alone, and they also have a 3 watt signal booster, which the truckers I know who have, swear by them. In fringe areas, brings the signal right back to you, and lets you get signal where the cell alone can't.

Cell phone alone inside a truck or bus is quite hopeless if you are much distance from a tower, the vehicle swallows up the signal.

You can check Wilson's website at the above link, to see if your phone is compatible with their adapters, or to plan your next model. Some phones do not have facility built into them for external antennae. I accidently traded my Motorola for a Sanyo that isn't.... oops!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[NJT5047]

Hi Dallas,
We didn't have any problems so I didn't have to worry you.  Well, there was one problem...3 inches of rain sorta screwed all over the afternoon.
Man, the great outdoors got soggy!  Last night too...bummer!
Oh well, back to the antenna, I want to mount it about where my CB antenna is located.  Maybe on the other side.   Although I doubt if you put them right together that any harm would be done.  But, I'm not sure either. 
If all goes well, here's a pic of my antenna location.  It for sure cannot be on top.  Be off in the trees almost immediately.
I'm gonna look into a cell antenna.   If I thought it would work here, I'd do the Verizon broadband tomorrow.
Oh well.  All things in good time! 
Best, JR

[Dallas]

Hi Dallas,
We didn't have any problems so I didn't have to worry you.  Well, there was one problem...3 inches of rain sorta screwed all over the afternoon.
Man, the great outdoors got soggy!  Last night too...bummer!
Oh well, back to the antenna, I want to mount it about where my CB antenna is located.  Maybe on the other side.   Although I doubt if you put them right together that any harm would be done.  But, I'm not sure either. 
If all goes well, here's a pic of my antenna location.  It for sure cannot be on top.  Be off in the trees almost immediately.
I'm gonna look into a cell antenna.   If I thought it would work here, I'd do the Verizon broadband tomorrow.
Oh well.  All things in good time! 
Best, JR

Hey JR! Sounds about as soggy as Timmonsville last spring!

I have my antennae mounted about 3' from each other on the same side. The instructions say not to put them close together and I figured that would be far enough away. The CB does mess with the Cell when I key up though, I guess I should have mounted it on the other side. Fortunately, I don't use the CB at the same time I'm using the cell phone.  If I did, I'd run out of hands to steer with.

If I were you, I'd try to mount the antenna higher on your coach, since the higher the load is, the more reception it will get. Just as an execise, I took an old piece of copper ground rod and threaded it on both ends. Then I used it for an extension between the Antenna and the mount.
At the state park we were at the 24" piece I added in height equalled about another db in reception, which was a real help.
So far, I'm extremely satisfied with the antenna, although at first I was kinda leary. I was afraid it was one of those kind of things like the little cell booster you buy for a dollar and stick between your battery and your phone.

I'm glad you didn't have any trouble on your trip, but I was looking forward to an excuse to come up and visit!

Take Care,

Dallas

[NJT5047]

Dallas, ya'll don't need an "excuse" to visit...even though the bus may create an excuse soon...just come on up anytime.   
Bought the bus in '01 and have never been broke.....nevermind.  I'm not even gonna say it.   Probably oughta practice  knocking out the axles!
Cheers, JR

[jjrbus]

Now that you have that antenna up and running, maybe I could interest you in a radiation shield.   

[Dallas]

Now that you have that antenna up and running, maybe I could interest you in a radiation shield.   

Jim, I would, but we got a good deal on radiation shielding from a fella that was selling stuff out of his trunk!

He sold us this roll of shiney metal stuff that we can cut to fit our heads. He said it was guaranteed to stop all Cell phone radiation from reaching our brains and allowing the gummint to see what we were thinking. He also said it would keep any aliens from controlling our thoughts..... or was it the other way around?? ?? ??

Funny thing, it looks like it has "PARW SDLONYER" embossed on it.  Sounds like some kind of high tech foreign company to me!

And, the real plus was that he let us have it for half of it's retail value of $299.95! What a nice feller! He said it was the last available anywhere because the gummint banned it because of it's value!

I know Cat looks kind of odd with it wrapped on her noggin, but, I guess that's the price you pay for safety and security when on the phone!

[jjrbus]

LOL

[buswarrior]

Hey Dallas!

Your salesman ripped you off! That model you have is only for warm weather use.

The Canadian version, still unregulated by the gubbermint up here, has a thin layer of foam, with the added bonus of self adhesive surface on the under side of the shiny radiation shield.

Let me know soonest, as the exchange rates are eroding your buying power. If you act now, I can get you some for the same price as your summer radshields!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[NJT5047]

Ya'll going at this the hard way.  What's wrong with a good collander...the thing you drain spaghetti noodles in?  When I have that on I can hear the voices much better!       I need to go clean my guns and sharpen my knives now.   
Got the computer working again.  Working good now.  Replaced my 5 year old D-Link router with a Linksys "G".   Much faster.  Works great.
I believe the the laptop card failed.  Installed the new card and the "G" card was working fine off the old "B" router. 
And, it may have been accumulating config errors.  In any event, that got cured too. 
I've got to figure out how to get a good Verizon signal out here.  Have like one bar on the EV.  That is slow go.  Get 5 bars and the VZ works good.   May play with an antenna, but have to hook the router to the system similar to what Dallas described.  He'll have to come up here and hook it up.  I got no clue. 
BTW, what's the difference in "WPA Personal" encryption and 128 bit?
This Linksys router makes a lot more signal than the DLink.   Don't want to support the neighborhood "hotspot".   
IF I had an antenna that received a good Verizon Wireless signal, what's the best way to connect two computors off the antenna, aircard...etc.  Does the VW aircard have provisions for an external antenna?
Thanks all!  JR

[JackConrad]

Jr,
  Personal WEP code may be 64K.   I think our old router was 64K encryption and that used a 10 character WEP code. Our new router uses a 128K WEP code that requires a 26 character WEP code. At least it will be more difficult for someone to figger out 26 numbers and/or letters before they can hop on our access point.  Jack

[Dallas]

JR,
We don't use a colander 'cause colanders have holes! What happens when the gummint sets those brain worms loose and you got holes in your protection?

Unhuh, same thing as when you got a hole in your raincoat... the swimmers get through!

Hopefully, Cat and I can be up in a couple of weeks, it's hard to tell with the job she has right now, she has to work some saturdays and never knows until the last minute when.

Dallas

[Slow Rider]

Hey Dallas,

"PARW SDLONYER" is a famous Russian scientist.  He is well known for his "secret" inventions. Heck I bet if you put that stuff on FleeceBay you could get three times what you paid for it.  But.....  I would keep enough to keep the collanders lined so the worms can't get in

Frank