Being outdoors is a lot about disconnecting from the built environment, including technology. Sometimes, however, you need that technology to give you a margin of safety, security, convenience or all of the above. For those who want or need that additional margin WeBoost cell phone signal boosters are a good solution.
First things first: signal boosters, like all things that involve antennas, are often fickle. Be prepared to experiment with mounting location, orientation and proximity to get optimal performance. The Drive is designed to be installed in RVs, and since we have an R-Pod travel trailer that we use extensively in the summer in remote and semi-remote areas of Alaska we were happy to test one out.
The first thing we noticed is that WeBoost has done a really good job with their instructions for installing the Drive 4G-X RV cell phone booster. Step by step with lots of very clear illustrations, and the solid packaging even has reminders printed on the tops of the boxes about install order. Install involves mounting the outside 3x3x9 inch antenna, drilling a hole (don't worry, it's a small hole and a nice gasket is provided to seal it), and running a cable to the smaller booster unit you mount inside. That booster is then cabled to an inside antenna, plug in the booster to a power outlet and then it's all over but the testing. Just put your phone in field test mode and off you go. Two notes: the included cable is 20 feet, which is plenty for an R-Pod but for longer RVs or travel trailers might be a little short, depending on where you want to mount the booster and inside antenna. Also, if your power outlets stay on you could experience a drain on your battery over multiple days.
We found a noticeable improvement in signal, often a bar or two equivalent. If there's absolutely no signal you can't make something out of nothing, but if it's weak or intermittent there's a good chance you can make it work better. You even have the option of dismounting the outside antenna and throwing it over a tree branch; it doesn't hurt to get creative! OK, it might hurt, so use good judgement. Sometimes we had to move the device closer to the inside antenna, and as noted above it will depend on a lot of things. Anything involving antennas requires patience, but the WeBoost does everything it can to make things easy. We've got some more remote RVing planned to Denali National Park and other places, and we'll update this as we experiment more, but color us optimistic.