Tried a cellular backup at a rural job site, it fought me the whole way

Last month I swapped a landline dialer for a cellular unit on a cabin outside Flagstaff. The signal meter read two bars, so I figured it was fine, but it kept dropping registration every night around 2 AM. After three service calls and a new antenna kit, I learned the metal roof was killing it, not the distance. Running the antenna to the eaves fixed it in about 20 minutes. Now I always check the roof material before quoting a cell upgrade in the boonies. Anyone else have a job where the site layout wrecked a wireless plan?

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mila_perry1317d ago

Did you check if the ground wire from the antenna was tied into the same path as the old phone line? I had a similar thing happen at a metal shop once, where the cell unit kept losing signal every time the welder kicked on. Turns out the building was acting like a big antenna for interference, and the ground loop was making it worse. Moving the antenna to the corner away from the power meter and re-grounding it to a separate rod sorted it out for good. Roof material is a big one, but I found the metal siding and any big machinery can mess with it too. It took me three visits to figure out that one, and the customer was not happy about the wait.