AM100-PRO Vehicle Cell Signal Booster Kit

the main causes of poor cellular reception

The three main causes of poor cellular reception in a vehicle are cell tower distance, outside interference, and car materials (ie. tinted windows).

It is especially true of car materials in city & urban areas and of cell tower distance in rural areas.  A weBoost AM100-Pro cell phone signal booster solves all three problems by reaching further distances to and from the cell tower with its powerful antenna, brings in signal from outside, bypassing any vehicle material interference and broadcasts the amplified signal inside the vehicle.

putting the weboost drive am100-pro to the test

We tested the AM100-Pro in a double cab 4×4 bakkie with roof racks on the cab, tinted windows and canopy and a VHF antenna fitted to the ARB bullbar (more prone to oscillation), so a great way to put the unit through its paces.  The test mobile phone was an android device with a dual SIM card on the MTN and RAIN networks.

We placed the outside mini magnet antenna on the bakkie roof in between the cab roof rack approximately 1 metre from the the 4wd’s own VHF antenna. The inside antenna was placed next to the gear lever inside.  The cell phone was mounted on the windscreen mounted RAM X-grip Large phone mount with low profile RAM tough-claw 1 metre away from the inside panel antenna.

Driving around rural Eastern Cape and into the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve (famous for it’s poor or non-existent cellphone reception), we tested the vehicle signal booster at various locations by switching the signal booster on and off and noting the difference in cell signal strength readings.  We were impressed with vast improvement in signal strength when it was available!!

results

Signal strength is measured in decibel-milliwatts. Typically, a strong outside signal would be somewhere around -50 to -70 dBm, while anything below -100 dBm would be considered weak (-120 means no signal at all).

According to the logarithm, the signal strength doubles with every third decibel, meaning that a dBm signal strength of something like -70 is actually twice the power of -73 dBm.  The numbers may not make it look like a great change has occurred, but in reality, the decibels have grown exponentially.

All measurements were taken using “Network Cell Info Lite” – an Android App that provides you with your signal strength measurements and shows you where your nearest cell tower is located.