Should I be using a booster? Probably not

[CatsHaveFourHands]

I’ve been checking over this forum passionately for the past three days and I’m still a bit confused on what route to take for my situation.


First off, I purchased a Cel-Fi Go X (100db booster) to boost my T-Mobile signal. I literally have zero service on the entire property, but with the booster set up I’m able to squeeze out 1.5mbps/down and 0.2mpbs/up. My RSRP is -125, RSRQ -11, SINR 5. I’m grateful to get any service out here, but it’s tough justifying spending $1000 for the trickle I have.
The Go X does however have a pretty great app that tells me the strength of my signal on different carriers. It’s showing Verizon has RSRP is -112, RSRQ -10, SINR 12. I can’t see the tower, but the cell map shows that it’s around 3 miles away on top of a mountain. I don’t have a totally clear shot thru the trees in my area, but it’s close and much better than the T-Mobile tower, which is essentially nonexistent. That made me think I should just get a MiFi device.
But then I stumbled into the LTE router game and started reading about using the same Yagi antenna I use with the Go X but with the lte router. Which makes me wonder if I should just send the Go X back since I’m still in the return window.
I was planning on using the booster to then get the signal to the lte router or MiFi. However I’m starting to get pretty confused about which route to take and where I am making mistakes.
If I could get some pointers and gear suggestions. I’d be really grateful. Like what antenna should I use? Parabolic?
I hate the thought of spending $1000 just to realize I could gone a different route that was more adaptable.

Thanks!

[Didneywhorl]

I had to say it but you probably wasted $1,000 You might want to see if you can get it back and here's why.

The long periodic antenna is probably the the only thing on there that you can use very well and that antenna is probably a $50 antenna.

The key is to understand where your cell towers or cell tower are. You need to know how far from your house they are and whether or not you have a clear line of sight to the tower. The log periodic slash Yagi antenna performs extremely well in 100% clear line of sight between the antenna and the cellular tower radios.
The booster takes the signal and just amps it up That's pretty obvious. What's not obvious is dad is extremely picky about that signal being clean and clear, the booster also boosts noise This is where the problem comes in.
The major problem that you have though is that particular booster only supports a small number of cellular bands as indicated in their specification sheet.

Screenshot_20201003-125212_Drive.jpg

1 2 3 4 5 7 8 12 13 20 is all it supports, and only two bands at once, but It never says whether it's particular set of two or any two. At least I never found it.
Your modem on the other hand can and will want to aggregate or combine multiple bands at once of different frequencies that may or may not be listed in that list and may or may not be capable by that booster so the modem will be looking for signals frequencies that aren't coming through the booster.

To note all of those bands are fine for Verizon except Verizon also supports band 46, 48, and 66 in the United States. so if your modem is trying to connect to those because your local cell tower has them, which you kind of need to find out, then the modem is going to drop signal completely as it's trying to attempt to connect to that signal. It may not because it may not see those signals so that's one thing but you're limiting the ability of your modem, If those cellular band frequencies exist on your tower that you're currently connected to or any tower that only has those bands has a lot of people love band 66 for its high speed potential.

I may have missed it looking through your post but I don't believe you said what device it is you are using.


Now if we want to talk about just the voice part of your cellular service, then yes that booster is probably pretty awesome as it has an antenna that also redirects the signal over the air for your cell phone to pick up inside of your house. That is pretty cool for cell service talking on the phone checking your voicemail. Not very cool for trying to get high-speed data for your home.

And I don't really recommend men the the mofi devices. You can build your own for less or same money and much more power and ability.

I'm on the road using voice to text so sorry if these are coming out weird.