WeBoost phone signal booster

Anyone here have experience with a WeBoost signal booster, specifically while at the Red Rock Campground, inside Joshua Tree, Yosemite Valley, or Tuolumne?  RR campground and Jumbo Rocks are the two main places I'm frequently staying where I know there's a weak signal, and it might be worth the price of the equipment if it means I can sit in my truck and get service without having to scramble onto a feature or drive a few minutes.  Is internet possible, like checking email and light web browsing (not necessarily streaming Netflix or anything like that).  Would love to hear your experiences before I go and drop $500 to be disappointed.

I don’t own one but from my understanding if you have a weak signal without one then you’ll be pretty safe with one.

I know specifically for RR campground my phone gets a weak signal, so I’d expect a weboost to work well there. 

I have one. Reception in Tuolumne was pretty good this year and I could get reasonable 4g outside my car in several places. With the booster I also get 4g at several other spots.

I haven't found it to be very useful in the valley because the primary issue doesn't seem to be signal but that the tubes out of the valley are congested. 

I like it, and it has magically found reception at indian creek and a few eastside trailheads including mosquito flat, but there's often not much of a difference. I suspect an outside antenna on a mifi device would work just as well if not better. The main reason I bought mine is my car is a bit of a faraday cage and I want to use my phone without going outside. 

Weboost didn’t work in any of them for me. Starlink worked great in all of them except Upper Pines in the Valley

Wow. They're not exactly cheap!

I have the WeBoost OTR Fleet, both extensions, and a fold down mount.

It works great, but I have not tried it specifically at the RR campground, as I avoid there whenever possible. There you are down in a bowl, with no cell towers in sight. The normal thing to do is drive out to that small trail parking lot to get signal, and I imagine you would want to do that still.

I have used it at the Grand Canyon North Rim and some higher forested areas in S. Utah.

Note:

Identify a place to mount the inside antenna, either on the side of the seat or on the dash and mount. The location should be at least 18 inches but no more than 36 inches from where the cellular device will be used.

This can be pretty limiting. It would be obvious to mount it near where the phone will be when you are driving to not lose map updates, etc... but that may not be where you will be... or where you want to be in your parked leisure time (ie. if you have a van). Worth considering where your phone sits while driving vs where you would be holding it when trying to do your emails, etc...

Additionally, it can only boost what is actually there. If the tower(s) don't want to support your browsing, your SOL... your phone may show full signal, but you can only call / text.

If you are getting 1-2 bars without the booster, that should work well. If you are getting 0-1, you should be able to text. If you are not getting any bars, your SOL. There is potential that the external antenna height may help, but that is no guarantee if your location just doesn't have any towers close enough / close enough to line of sight / bounce.

As well, with the booster I have been in places where browsing and youtube work acceptable, but then when I tether my laptop the experience is essentially unusable.

YMMV.

Echoing what others have said - I have the OTR with a slightly bigger antenna & it definitely performs best when you have 0-1 bars but need just a hair more. However, I didn’t have great luck when trying to get two users on zoom calls for a work day on the road.

That said, when traveling and trying to balance work I would recommend going all in on starlink. If you just need a little more service the weboost would probably work just fine.

I’d sell mine for a steal if you’re interested and don’t wanna fork out $500

Answering a different question: This summer, there was cell reception without boosting at the Visitor's Center and the Backcountry Permit Office at Tuolumne.

Cody hooked me up.  Will test it in RR next week and report back, in case anyone else is interested in one of these things...