Have you ever seen a tall pole on a pickup truck or semi and thought it was a CB antenna? These days, it’s often something newer, like a cell-signal booster that helps drivers in remote areas with bad coverage.
Smartphones have small antennas that work well in cities but not so well on ranch roads, mountain passes, or desert highways. That’s when an outside antenna makes a difference.
The outside antenna picks up weak signals from faraway towers when it is mounted high on a truck or RV. Then it sends them to an amplifier that is in the cab.
The amplifier boosts the weak signal and sends it to a small antenna inside, which sends it back out. Now, phones, hotspots, and tablets can connect in places they couldn’t before.
