The Cel-Fi GO X Booster is an outstanding solution for difficult sites. Up here in remote Alaska my cabin is in a hole with the nearest cell tower a little over 20 miles away. My site survey did not produce a workable signal until I was up a 24 foot extension ladder against a spruce tree, on top of a nearby hill, over 400 feet from the cabin. I spoke with lots of folks from different companies but it was Valerie on the 3G Store team and her “can do” attitude that told me about the Cel-Fi GO X. Valerie and I had extensive technical conversations. The “ace up the sleeve” on this booster is the 100 dB boost which is 30 dB over what anyone else can do because of Cel-Fi agreements with ATT and Verizon. In my case the best I could do after extensive site preparation, which included clearing a “sight line” from the top of the hill through the forest towards the cell tower was -112 dB (fairly solid 1 bar) at the top of the ladder, but still over 400 feet from the cabin! Valerie pulled together my order with the Cel-Fi Yagi, 50 ft of LMR400 coax to the Cel-Fi GO X Booster, 450 feet of custom LMR 400 coax to the cabin and the Cel-Fi Panel antenna for inside.
The booster is now mounted up the hill in a small outbuilding I placed at the base of the spruce to keep the coax run between the antenna and booster as short as possible. I ascended the spruce and “topped” it when the diameter of the tree got to about 3 ˝ inches. Next, I bolted on a 13 foot pole to which I mounted the Cel-Fi Yagi which ended up about 50 feet above ground. One of the neat things about this booster is the “Wave” application that allows you to check various performance measures and settings via “blue tooth”. When I energized the system I could now check measurements of signal strength at the point it enters the booster BEFORE amplification. With the gain of the Yagi itself and the fact that the height of the Yagi was higher than I could ever physically get I am now getting -93 dB going INTO the Booster. The big unknown was how the amp was going to perform down a 450 foot LMR 400 coax run to the cabin.
BOTTOM LINE – I now get -81dB (5 bars!) of LTE inside the cabin six feet in front of the panel antenna! Remember, there was NO SIGNAL inside, outside or even on the roof of my cabin. This pulled our cabin right out of the stone age and now we are able to stream multiple TV sets, internet and phone calls all at the same time. We live off the grid and I am able to power the GO X Booster up the hill from the cabin via a dedicated inverter off my 12 volt battery bank running 110v power up a 10 gauge cable which runs along side the coax coming down the hill. We were pushing hard to finish this project before the “freeze-up” which is occurring as I write this (mid October). Everything is now covered in snow that will not melt until April.
Our extreme temperatures are, of course, a concern for the “operating temperature” of the booster. Once again the “Wave” application allows me to check the internal temperature of the booster which creates enough heat to protect itself quite a bit. I could see that at an outside temperature below freezing in the upper 20's F the internal temp of the booster was still above 70 F. To address our super cold of subzero down to -30F to -40F I built an insulated box which dramatically harvests and recycles the heat with initial tests showing an 80F difference between amp temps & outside temps so I am optimistic the setup will work well through the super cold. The “Wave” application allows me to hike up to what we are now calling “LTE Hill” in the snow and check the temperature of the booster without disturbing the insulted box or even entering the outbuilding.
If you have a tough site take heart from my experience and consider the Cel-Fi GO X! This booster changes the definition of what is possible when you perform your site survey.
Please Wait...
