The Drive OTR Antenna is a high-gain omnidirectional trucker antenna designed for weBoost in-vehicle boosters. It offers customizable installation options and separate mast extensions, making it suitable for both vertical and horizontal configurations. The Home Inside Directional Antenna, with 3M Command Strips, securely mounts to interior walls in a vertical or horizontal configuration. This antenna has a neutral design aesthetic and can improve signal reception compared to smaller indoor or omnidirectional antennas.
The 4G Slim antenna, designed with a more omnidirectional radiation pattern than the candy bar, can potentially increase the range of devices boosted, regardless of whether it’s mounted horizontally or vertically. WeBoost recommends mounting vertically for best performance.
The weBoost Home Inside Antenna (Standard) is a directional wideband indoor panel antenna with 5.7-7.6 dBi of gain. It supports 5.7-7.6 dBi of gain and is made of plastic-coated steel wire. Both antennas are fully weather-proof and portable. Magnetic mount antennas are portable and improve signal on the inside.
The Weboost inside antenna only receives the signal a few inches away, but it is supposed to be omni-directional. The weBoost Wall Mounted Panel Antenna is designed for interior installation. The Dome Ceiling Antenna, XRDS-RF OmniDirectional, is an omnidirectional indoor antenna designed exclusively for weBoost. The ZDTECH Ultra Thin Dome Ceiling Antenna is an omni-directional indoor antenna that is ideal for hilly areas or supporting multiple carriers with towers in hilly areas.
📹 Omnidirectional vs directional antennas what’s the difference? | weBoost
It is with sadness that we share that Don, the person featured in this video, passed away in December 2017. Don was a Navy …
📹 The New weBoost 4G Slim – A Better Indoor Antenna for 4G-X and 4G-M Cellular Boosters?
A cellular booster works with an exterior antenna, an amplifier unit, and an interior antenna to deliver the boosted signal to cellular …
Even though you passed away you are still spreading knowledge, thank you. It’s crazy how easily you explained that, I’ve been working with antennas as a hobby for a while and had no idea about a bunch of things you cleared up in this article. Sad to read the description of the article and learning from your passing away.
I’m an engineer, but not an electrical engineer. I have NEVER been able to determine how, what appears to be a single wire, is able to relay a radio wave into the radio. This article and “How does an antenna work” explain this very clearly. Thanks to Don Dinsdale and WeBoost for these, and the other, articles.
Great info ! Clear explanations and just the right amount of detail. Really like the use of graphics, clear audio with background, and edit length of clips. Having done production and editing for advertising and educational article I might make a few suggestions to polish the look and presentation. I will have a look at a few more articles first and won’t presume to add my opinion here. Looking forward to using some of your gear for ham radio applications.
Interesting, thank you. I’d like to see a more detailed yagi analysis. I was told by a ham operator that the directors absorb then re-radiate the energy, and that’s how they increase signal strength, so I think I see how they make the signal more directional but not how they increase gain. If you did a more detailed explanation showing what happens at each element of the antenna that wold be very interesting. Thank You.
Here is another question for Mr. Don Disdale. Suppose I had 4 identical 3 element beams such that each had a half power beamwidth (HPBW = -3dB downpoint from max forward gain) of about 100 degrees and they were aimed in the 4 major map directions (N, E, S, W) and properly fed thru a proper (narrowbanded) 4 way splitter/combiner for the intended frequency. Also assume that each beam is rated at 8 dBi solo. My question is would this setup (if done properly) have more gain than a single 8 dBi omni antenna? You can assume very low loss cables and a very low loss power divider/combiner. Reason I ask this question is because many ham radio repeaters use a vertical stack “omni” but it is “shadowed” on one side by the tower so I am wondering if for that same application, it would instead be better to use 4 short Yagis pointed in the 4 major map directions. You can assume that each one would be mounted on one leg of the tower. For 3 sided towers assume we use only 3 beam antennas with slightly wider HPBW (say 120 degrees each).
Excellent teachin. Please allow me to be your apprentice. I need more guidence to master the RF world. If your unable to take me under your wing as an apprentice please touch on the difference between satellite dish vs antenna. And the way or function of transmitters and receiver. Maybe even the basic frequency websites used and thr components that make up thr the transmitter and recievers etc. My name is Lance Cooper and i appreciate your knowledge and willingness to share it
What I like about directional Antenna’s is I can receive more clear signals because it’s not receiving signals on the sides and rear of the antenna like static frequencies. Having a omnidirectional will receive all the static frequency’s or whatever you call it. I’ve experienced this with my home base having to have a switchboard and a huge improvement especially tracking a mobile car. Hoping to have your input about this great article though.
Excellent articles Don, really well explained, the graphics clearly simulate the theory, I have question ? … what are the carrier frequencies to enable a signal to become airborne, ie the signal escapes from the wire/aerial and then can’t get back on …? Somewhere starting at the Long Wave Low frequency range… Google claims its 30 – 300 KHz.
It is probably a good idea to state that directional antennas will radiate in ALL directions, just not well. For example, if you made a Yagi antenna with 50 elements, it would likely have very good forward gain but you could walk around the antenna with a field strength meter and likely get some deflection of it assuming in the favored direction it was calibrated for full scale deflection. It should be stated that even a directional antenna will have good enough performance near it. Especially if it is a casually fed array in which the nulls will no be so good. Also, any omni antenna can likely be turned into a directional antenna by doing any of multiple things to it such as putting a dish behind it to focus it, creating a phased array or verticals…. So in the case of phased verticals (let’s say 2 identical verticals), each antenna then is NOT omnidirectional cuz a main lobe will form . You likely already know this but I am just stating some exceptions where you are stating the general rule. Lastly, I wonder why they say when phasing 2 or more antennas that they ideally have to be identical antennas. What would happen if I took 2 same band antennas but were physically different? I would assume if fed properly they would still have gain. For example, if I had a 5 element Yagi and stacked it with a 7 element Yagi. I put the 7 element lower to help reduce the wind load on the mast and put the 5 element higher since it has less wind load. I wonder if something like that can be modeled correctly using antenna modelling software.
Your teaching technique is outstanding. I have learned a lot. If you get time can you explain how a single dangling wire on an electrical garage door works. As well, could you include how the coiled wire around a tube inside the remote works. Again, thank you so much for your gift of teaching about antenna’s.
I live out in the country 60 miles south of Houston . Home has a steel roof and is two different levels . I am thinking of buying a,LAVA HD8008 Ultra 4K Omni-Directional Amplified Outdoor HDTV Antenna . So does my roof act as a ground ? and where is best place to install it ? On the ridge cap of lower roof, away from upper roof? or does it need to be higher than upper roof ? How about on a pole at edge of upper roof ?
Don Disdale. I have 2 different towers that my phone gets signal from. One is at the 12 o’clock position and the other is 90 degrees from it at the 9 o’clock position. Can I use 2 yagi antennas one pointing to each tower or should I point only one yagi between both. They are 90 degrees off each other. If I use 2 yagi how far apart do they have to be and can I use the same tree and use separation by vertical rather than horizontal? Thanks
Comparing relatively the same power and brand antennas (Omnidirectional vs directional), how much distance (in feet) is gained or lost (looking at the source of intended hookup/contact, ball-park estimate of course)? Example: a directional antenna can reach out further to the intended/hookup source vs an Omini antenna that spreads out its energy around the antenna… Therefore spreading out the energy will lessen the distance to the intended source…
Hello Sir/Weboost, Thank you for your concise yet highly effective explanation of the Antenna working concept. Despite going through various articles and documents, your article stood out in making the concept crystal clear for me. All my doubts have been resolved, and now I grasp the antenna’s working mechanism much better. Your help is greatly appreciated!
Does a yagi need to be horizontal reguardless of trees etc? Can you increase a yagi using a satellite disk? Weboost 4g 470103r. booster works good with outside signal @ -114 Distance is 30′ yagi on roof to booster then15′ to inside flat antenna. Phone reads -87 at the inside antenna then drops to -114 in 26 clear feet with soft install. This only covers @ 1/2 my 1600 sqft home but is much better than it was without it. Options I’m thinking of: rg11, wilson 400, less cable and or taller outside mast, use of satelite disk. Closest tower @ 3 miles
Hi, I have a toy quadcopter for 2.4Ghz but looses signal about 20meters, I plan to remove its 1/4 wave simple wire antenna and make/add coaxial like this: i.ebayimg.com/images/g/VbkAAMXQ4uJSAcQw/s-l1600.jpg Could it work? I think with the ground on the side of the coax I could at least move the middle wire more out of the body, but as I know adding coax ruins efficiency.
Question for Don Disdale: Is there a 180 degree phase delay when the main signal from the director hits the reflector and gets reradiated and if so, why then isn’t the reflector positioned exactly 1/4 WL (WL = wavelength) from the director so as to be in “perfect” phase with it? Usually they are positioned much closer than that I think.
Thanks for the clear explanation about antennas, one network provider in our area said my place is not yet serviceable for an installed broadband Fiber so I purchased a Prepaid Wifi LTE to the same Network Provider thinking it is better than their mobile LTE, but I can only get 1 to 2 mbps on the average download and upload speed even less, can I use a stronger antenna or will that result the same as my area is not LTE or broadband ready? Thanks
I’m an engineer but I often struggle with concepts outside my field because there are many contradictions. I’m curious, how can current flow in your simple diagram if it’s open circuited? Or is it just polarity changes? in either case, if you don’t have current, you can’t have magnetic fields…or is this electric fields and somehow different?
Hi, weBoost. I was wondering one thing. My wifi router has three omni directional antennas and I am living in single story house. The router manufacturer suggested to position two antennas in diagonal (45 degree) and one vertical. Since you mention omni directional antenna transmit with “donut” pattern, should I align all three antennas vertically upward for better coverage in my single story house?
The pattern you show at 5:12 is misleading. You should explain that what you are illustrating is the strongest part of the pattern, not the absolute coverage. It would be informative to explain that a directional antenna still radiates in ALL directions just better in some than others. The “fat submarine” shape you have does not illustrate that. Some newbie to directional antennas might dismiss using a directional antenna cuz he/she might think there is no radiation outside the “fat submarine” pattern.
He did not explain the yagi ant correctly. The way he was holding it was Omni directed. The frequency the yagi ant he was holding must be above 500 MHz. He explained the dipole very well but a yagi must be horizontal to work correctly and give you the graph he explained. He explained the yagi as a omnidirectional ant.
hi .. i have a bunch of wifi router antennas lying around. I think they are omnidirectional antennas. I have an LTE router that has antenna ports. Can i use these antennas on these ports and try to boost the LTE performance? will it help? Also another router from another service provided did provide flat (probably Yagi) antennas. Im wondering which is the best way to use a Yagi antenna on a lte router.. ? Thanks
The antenna seems to act like an inductor whereas you input current and get a magnetic field. So, the current flows in both direction and cancels out until you bend the wire, does this create a plane? The electromagnetic field being transmitted is the frontal lobe? with very small back scatter and side lobes?
I really like how you break stuff down so that someone can really understand what you are trying to explain you really know how to show a person how it works im going to subscribe to your blog you are really good at what you’re saying and doing keep up the good work. Tyrone Baltimore Maryland Happy Holidays to you and your family. Plus keep up the good work.?
let’s say there is a yagi antenna of range 2 miles and an Omni antenna of range 0.5 miles. now Omni antenna is placed at 1.5 miles from the yagi antenna (in the direction of yagi). we know that Omni is in the range of yagi, but yagi is not in the range of Omni. we know Omni can receive signals from yagi. will yagi can receive signals from Omni?
Hello, Mr. Dinsdale! I appreciate you doing these articles, I’ve always been interested in how electrical fields work. I have, in fact, a question. The Yagi-Uda antenna, if I understood the article, is taking the normal radiation field (which has a given amount of power), and focusing it in one direction, sort of like the reflector in a flashlight. So far so good. But I also understand that the Yagi-Uda antennas are good at picking up signals from long distances. Is the reflector at the back really making that much of a difference, in how much of the radiation field it picks up? This is a little confusing to me, and wikipedia is only making it worse. Or do waveforms not work like this at all? Again, I appreciate this series you are doing.
What is the general rule about how far the “legs” of a dipole can be apart? For example at the feed point. Are they generally almost supposed to be touching? What happens if they are far apart at the feedpoint? Is there a spacing of them that would still work other than “very close”? For example, what if you had a dipole with 1 wavelength spacing at the feedpoint would it even work? For example, if someone wanted a roof dipole antenna for say 10 meter band but didn’t want the single feedline (let’s say coaxial cable) coming down in the middle of their roofline, could they instead have a large “gap” between the 2 legs of the dipole and somehow feed it that way or would the large separation of the 2 conductors in the feedline act as an antenna and distort the pattern?
Quick question: If we were to use one of the inside panel antennas as a receive/ transmit antenna outside/on a window, would we consider this an omni-directional antenna? Also, when using the panel-type antenna inside (as the amplified ‘broadcast’ antenna), do we get any signal to/from the rear of it (the metal plate side)? Thanks!
Also can you please explain more why the energy wants to go forward because you say the energy leaves the driven element and bounces off the reflector but the same is true for the director so why doesn’t the energy just keep bouncing close to the driven element? Can we have a “deeper” explanation why the energy “wants” to go one way in a highly favored manner in a Yagi? Thank you.
I am trying to decide between an Omni vs Directional antenna for my home. My situation is that I have a wireless hotspot/router from a provider named gotw3 that is a basic router originally designed by Observa Telecom.(specs here – rvmobileinternet.com/gear/c4r400/) I have 4 towers that I bounce between. 3 of them are 3.5 miles or less away from me, and the 4th one which I frequently connect to is about 7.5 miles away. And I believe I need a multiband antenna, but since I am not that literate on this topic I am not certain of that. My hotspot/router has a T-Mobile sim card in it. Do you have any recommendations so that I don’t waste my time and money with a trial and error approach? I know the Omni would be easier to install, but would that be better. I also watched a article saying that I need 2 antennas for maximum effect but I am thinking that my second SMA antenna port is to broadcast the wireless in my house because this device does not have an internal antenna. Can someone save me time and money with what my best option might be? My signal ranges from 6Mbps to 10 on average with a high(rarely) of about 20 Mbps. I am afraid to tie myself to only one tower. The one I connect to most is not the one closest to me. It is 3.47 miles away and I have 2 that are about 3 miles away.
Hey y’all! I have to tell you how pleased I am with you & your website. As a non-techie, older woman your content is easy for me to understand in order to make an informed, & confident, decision. The fact that you don’t waste my time nor data is also a huge plus! I wish you continued success & I will proudly share & recommend you to my friends. 💞