I would never say (out loud) something stupid like “problem solved.” I will say that things on the connection front are very snappy at present, and the iPhone displays an unheard-of three bars.
Installing a signal booster is as simple as screwing some coax into some boxes and plugging it in; easily within my technical capabilities. There’s just one little complication…
That’s the part of the job that took by far the most time and skull sweat. I really hate roofs – but at least as roofs go, the bedroom addition is so dead simple even I can do it.
Pro-tip: When you’re alone in the desert, ladders are not your friend. I personally know a guy whose desert hermit career was abruptly ended by a ladder that slid out from under him for absolutely no good reason except Murphy’s a malicious little bastard. Therefore:
Handle. Lag bolts. 1/2″ nylon rope. Just saying. The only thing better than confidence is a good basis for confidence. And if it looks stupid but works, it’s not stupid. I must add in honesty that while the handle was my idea, it didn’t immediately occur to me that tying the ladder to the handle was a good idea. That came from a reader a few years ago.
Anyway…
My objective on the roof turned out about as difficult as I feared: Screwing the outside antenna to the wall was simplicity itself, given the convenient bracket provided. But I wanted it as high and outside as possible without contacting the 2X6s of the corner frame. In that last caveat, I f… no, let me rephrase. Success treacherously eluded me.
So I had to go up the loft and do something a bit … not found in the construction tradebooks.
The alternative was drilling a second 1/2″ hole in my exterior wall, and I’d have gone further than I did to avoid that.
And in the end…
A little sweaty routing of coax, made easy by that convenient loft railing, nailing of a few strategic insulated staples, a bit of screwing together and plugging in, and we’re done! And early results show an improvement I’m tempted to call massive. Thanks, BB and friends!
Nice Joe, very nice indeed. As for the ladder tie-off points, if it thwarts Murphy, it’s a good thing.
(knocking FIRMLY on wood)
So far, this project seems like a complete anticlimax, and that’s very encouraging!
It really has brought an abrupt improvement. My connection isn’t “sitting on a patio in Beverly Hills” fast but it’s no longer “down in a hollow 15 miles from the nearest cell tower” slow.