There are things you want on your boat, and things you need on your boat. Knowing the difference between the two could be a matter of life or death while you’re on the water. Your safety equipment is something you need, and this includes the marine electronics you use. The radio and radar stacks are critical to help you stay connected in an emergency.
On the other hand, more and more people are opting to have entertainment systems on their boats. One such system is a cell phone signal booster. Cell phone signal boosters work very well on boats. They take weak signals, amplify them, and rebroadcast them below decks. Cell signals tend to travel very well on the water because there’s nothing to block them. While it’s hard to get reception more than 2 miles from a tower on land, it’s possible to get service even 5-10 miles offshore if you’re using a cell phone signal booster.
But of course, you should be careful. You absolutely should be asking the hard questions when it comes to your boat and your safety. One of those questions should absolutely be, “will this cause any of the safety systems to fail.” Luckily, you’ve come to the right place for the answer.
There’s no reason to think cell boosters will hurt radio or radar
Cell phone signal boosters do broadcast a signal. However, the frequencies are very closely regulated. None of them are anywhere near the frequency of marine radio. Marine radios tend to broadcast in the 156-162MHz range. Cell phone signal boosters work on multiple ranges, including 700-850MHz and 1900-2100MHz.
Radar operates at a large number of frequencies between 900 and 2600MHz. However, none of the frequencies used by radar are close enough to interfere with cell phones. It’s just a non-issue for the most part.
One thing to consider
It’s generally agreed that pretty much everything that broadcasts anything should be at least two feet from anything else. The exception here is Bluetooth, which is designed specifically to avoid the issues that come with being closer than that. If you have two things that broadcast and they’re closer than that, there may be some performance issues related to the relatively high power levels.
So, if you do put in a cell phone signal booster system, its antennas should both be at least two feet from the rest of the broadcast equipment. This is really not terribly hard. There’s plenty of room on the outside of the boat to make this happen. On the inside, you will probably want the indoor antenna closer to the public spaces anyway and most cell boosters come with plenty of cable to make this happen.
Want to upgrade your boat to the latest entertainment products?
There’s one number you can call to get the ultimate in marine entertainment. Whether it’s satellite television, satellite-based internet, or cellular products, you can get it all at one place. Even better, you can get the kind of “white glove service” that you really deserve. That place? It’s Signal Connect.
Signal Connect has 20 years of experience serving high-end mobile and marine customers. We have the kind of experts on site who can help you get exactly what you want. We work with all the top service providers, and we make sure you never have to sit in an overseas call center queue. That’s not customer service, and we know it.
Call the experts at 888-233-7563. We’re here during East Coast business hours. Once you call, you’ll get connected with someone who will give you their direct line. You can call them when you need them. No phone trees, no level 1 tech support. Just direct access. Many of our experts even keep early and late hours because we know the world doesn’t stop when the sun goes down.
Give the experts at Signal Connect a try. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below. We’ll get back to you, usually within one business day.
