Answer first: mount the included high-gain Yagi high on the chimney, roof ridge or gable, rotate its narrow beam toward the serving mast until the outside phone reading peaks, keep it at least 10 m vertically above and separated from the indoor whip, run the 10 m outdoor feed through a sealed entry to the BS donor port and the 5 m indoor feed from the MS server port to the whip chain, plug the Yagi lead into BS and the whip into MS, power the 5V DC adapter after both antennas are connected, read the steady LED, and test data plus 3G calls across the 500 m² space with up to 50 handsets; the job takes 10 to 15 minutes with no tools, the long roof reach triggers the 20 to 50 m outdoor cable upgrade, an exposed gable justifies the 18KA surge protector, and a strong outside reading funds the 3-way splitter with up to two extra indoor whips. The CW500 suits an EE, O2, Vodafone or Three household or small business that spreads over a large detached house, farmhouse or warehouse and loses 4G data and the 3G fallback indoors; it does not carry 2G voice on Band 8 or Band 3, does not do 5G, and stays rated for 500 m² rather than a whole estate.

What Comes in the CW500 Full Kit Before You Start

Confirm the box before the first bracket or U-bolt. Unlike the lower CW models that ship a 5 dBi omni, the CW500 full kit already contains the high-gain Yagi directional aerial, the booster chassis, the 3 dBi indoor whip, the 10 m outdoor low-loss feed, the separate 5 m indoor low-loss feed, the UK 5V DC power adapter and the mounting bracket; the 20/30/40/50 m outdoor cable, the 18KA lightning surge protector and the splitter with extra whips are ordered upgrades rather than standard parts.

Tools you actually need

No crimping or soldering is required for the standard install: a drill or bracket for the gable mount, a sealed entry grommet for the outdoor feed, a phone field-strength read-out for aiming the Yagi, and a spanner for the U-bolt clamp. Keep the Yagi elements clear of brick and metal brackets, keep both feeds coiled loosely rather than twisted, and survey the outside donor reading before choosing the cable length or splitter. The 20 dBm headroom is only useful if the three indoor whips are placed so the field reaches the annex, the home office and the warehouse floor.

Step 1: Mount and Aim the Included Yagi at the Serving Mast

The Yagi is a directional panel: it focuses a narrow beam on one mast and rejects clutter from other directions, which is exactly the rural weak-signal capture a large detached house needs. Unlike an omni, it must be pointed; aim decides the reading more than height does.

Find the mast direction before you fix the brackets

Walk the garden or lane edge with the phone on the same EE, O2, Vodafone or Three SIM, note which direction the bar count and RSRP peak, and point the Yagi elements' long axis toward that bearing. On a Devon detached house, a Yorkshire farmhouse or a Norfolk hall, one customer reported the included Yagi "made all the difference" after going from one bar to five; that jump comes from aiming the beam rather than from the chassis alone. Use a compass or the phone's direction finder, and re-check the reading on the phone after rotating the panel a few degrees each way.

Mount high, clear of brick, chimneys and metalwork

Fix the Yagi on the chimney stack, roof ridge or gable wall where its beam path to the mast stays clear of brick, chimney pots and overhead metal; a panel mounted behind a solid gable face sees the wall rather than the tower. Keep the elements horizontal or vertical as the radio standard requires, tighten the U-bolt, and leave enough free play to fine-aim after power-up. The narrow beam tolerates a few degrees of error but not a 30° miss.

10m vertical separation between Yagi and indoor whip

Keep the Yagi at least 10 m vertically above the indoor whip and on the opposite face of the building where possible. This gap, the antenna isolation, stops the whips radiating the amplified field straight back into the Yagi, which would make the chassis feed its own output and oscillate; with a 20 dBm whip field and 60/65 dB gain, a leaky separation regenerates faster than on a lower-output box. In a large house where 10 m is impossible between the Yagi and the nearest whip, place the whips on the opposite lower floors and maximise the physical gap.

Step 2: Route the 10m Outdoor and 5m Indoor Feeds, Choose a Longer Outdoor Cable

The Yagi connects to the chassis by the included 10 m outdoor low-loss coax, and the whip connects by the separate 5 m indoor feed; keeping the two runs separate avoids a single long shared length and lets each match its own distance. Every metre spends signal, so route the shortest practical path and avoid sharp bends that compress the shield.

Sealed entry and tidy routing for both feeds

Pass the 10 m outdoor coax through a sealed grommet or a small angled drill hole with a drip loop below the entry so rain runs away rather than down the wire. The 5 m indoor feed runs from the chassis MS port to the whip inside; keep both feeds clear of mains wiring, TV aerial coax and metal ducting, which can inject noise, and avoid tight coils beside the chassis where the bundle distorts the field. Terminate both connectors firmly; a loose BS connection is the most common dark-LED cause.

When the 20/30/40/50m outdoor upgrade applies

Where the Yagi mount sits more than 10 m from the proposed chassis room, order the 20, 30, 40 or 50 m outdoor cable upgrade instead of splicing the standard lead; a spliced joint adds mismatch and water risk, and a longer low-loss run preserves the signal better than a join. One Vodafone customer in Wales took the 50 m roof run and reported the signal went solid afterwards. The 5 m indoor feed stays as supplied between chassis and first whip; when you add the second and third antennas, the extra runs come from the splitter branches, not from extending the BS lead.

Step 3: Chassis Placement and the BS versus MS Ports

The compact chassis sits in an airing cupboard, wall cupboard, under a desk or on a shelf in the covered space, kept ventilated and away from direct heat. The two ports are labelled, and swapping them inverts the loop and causes oscillation, so match lead to port on the first attempt.

Why a port swap loops fastest at 20dBm

If the Yagi feed plugs into MS and the whip into BS, the interior whip radiates straight back into the directional panel, the chassis feeds its own output, and automatic gain control drives the 60/65 dB stage toward oscillation until the LED flickers and the rooms drop. A 20 dBm field radiates roughly double the power of a 17 dBm field, so the leak feeds back harder; the fix is to swap the two leads. Once BS carries the mast donor and MS carries the indoor whips, the two sides face opposite environments and the loop stays open. Keep each whip upright on a shelf or stand, not pressed against the Yagi feed or a metal cabinet.

Where the whips radiate best across 500m²

The 3 dBi whip radiates the amplified field across the covered living areas, annex, office and warehouse floor; place the first whip centrally rather than tucked behind a sofa, where furniture masks the reach. Coverage is rated to 500 m² for a large detached house, villa, farmhouse or small office, and the 20 dBm field spreads farther per antenna than a 17 dBm box; a far wing that reads light is the reason to add a second or third antenna through the splitter rather than moving the whip endlessly.

Step 4: 5V DC Power, Power-On Order and the LEDs

The chassis runs from the included UK adapter converting AC 100-240V to DC 5V, and the order matters: mount and connect both antennas before powering on, so the gain stage does not latch into a self-fed loop the moment it wakes.

Correct power-on sequence and fine-aim after boot

First the Yagi is fixed and aimed and the 10 m feed reaches the BS port; second the 5 m indoor feed connects the MS port to the whip or splitter chain; only then the 5V DC adapter receives mains power. Powering up before the MS side is connected lets the chassis radiate into an open port and can trigger oscillation. Wait ten seconds after power, then fine-rotate the Yagi a few degrees while a helper watches the phone reading at the whips, and lock the clamp at the peak.

Reading the status LEDs

A steady bright LED on the chassis confirms both Band 20 and Band 1 are locked and the gain stage has settled; a flickering or climbing pattern points to oscillation, a port swap or an overloaded donor, while a permanently dark LED with power present means a loose BS lead, a blown adapter fuse or a Yagi aimed at sky rather than a mast. As the outside signal swings with weather and traffic, the LED may dim momentarily as the gain rebalances, which is normal; keep the adapter earthed and add the 18KA surge protector where lightning exposure on the roof run justifies it.

The 18KA surge protector on the long roof run

For a tall chimney mount, an exposed gable or a rural hall prone to storms, the optional 18KA lightning surge protector sits on the outdoor coax between the Yagi and the chassis, diverting a static or lightning spike away from the indoor electronics. It does not improve signal and is not required on a sheltered mid-wall install, but it protects the long outdoor run and the chassis where the panel stands highest on a large rural roof.

Splitter Expansion: Three Indoor Antennas When the Outside Signal Is Strong

The CW500 page states, verbatim, "Expandable coverage by adding indoor antenna, splitter, cable if the outside signal is strong." That condition matters: a weak donor cannot afford split loss, and only a strong outside reading funds a multi-antenna layout.

How the 3-way splitter reaches three rooms on 500m²

When the aimed Yagi reads strong, fit a 3-way splitter on the MS side after the chassis, run extra indoor cables to a second whip in the annex or lounge and a third whip upstairs or in the office, and balance the three branches. Each division spends radiated power, but the 20 dBm output has the headroom to feed three antennas across the space; the second and third whips only reach their rooms while the donor stays strong. Keep every whip separated from the Yagi and from each other so none feeds the next, and measure each room before committing the extra cables.

When not to split to three

A donor between -100 and -112 dBm already strains a single whip even with the higher gain, and dividing the field three ways produces three lighter readings rather than three solid ones; in that case improve the Yagi aim first, check the roof position, or step to a dedicated higher-rated indoor system rather than dividing a weak signal three times. Splitting is an expansion of a strong baseline, never a rescue for a faint donor.

The 50-User Test: 4G Data and 3G Calls Across 500m²

The CW500 supports up to 50 simultaneous handsets across 500 m²; the acceptance test checks that the living areas, annex, office, warehouse floor and garden room all hold a 4G session and a 3G call at once rather than one phone beside the whip.

How to run the test

Place mixed handsets on EE, O2, Vodafone, Three, giffgaff, Tesco, Sky, Smarty and Lebara SIMs across the rooms, annex, desk and warehouse; start a data session on one group and a voice call on another, hold both for a minute, then walk the reading around the space. Record the bar count before fitting, after fitting near the whip, and after fitting at the far wing; a Devon detached house that went from one bar to five on EE with the Yagi, a Yorkshire farmhouse whose calls stopped dropping across the whole floor, and a Cornwall home office whose video calls stopped freezing match the reported pattern. With 50 users in a small office or warehouse, stagger sessions so the gain stage balances the load rather than piling every handset on one whip.

Expected coverage by space

CW500 Against the Range: Double the Space, Yagi in the Box

The Boost4U range splits by tuned band, gain, output, area and users, and choosing the wrong model leaves either a service gap or unused budget.

The CW250 repeats the same Band 20+1 services at the same 60/65 dB gain but on a 17 dBm output for 250 m² and 25 users with a 5 dBi omni; the CW500 keeps the bands and gain but adds 3 dBm of output, about double the field, spreads over 500 m² for 50 handsets, and ships the directional Yagi in the box rather than as an upgrade. The CG500 keeps O2/Vodafone 4G plus a 2G circuit call but leaves the all-network 3G layer absent; the CD500 keeps 4G families but carries neither 3G fallback nor a dedicated call band. Pick CW500 for 3G redundancy across EE, O2, Vodafone and Three across a large detached house or small office.

Troubleshooting: Oscillation, No Signal and the LED Read-Out

Oscillation: looped field and flickering LED

The symptom is a flickering or climbing LED, a reading strong beside the whip but a step away falling, and dropped sessions despite power. Causes are a BS/MS port swap, a whip too close to the Yagi feed, a third whip placed in the Yagi's back lobe, or insufficient 10 m isolation letting the higher-output chassis feed itself. Fix the ports, increase the separation, space the three whips around the rooms, and let gain settle rather than driving into the loop.

No signal at all: dark LED, loose leads, or Yagi in the sky

A dark LED with the adapter live points to a loose BS connector, a blown adapter fuse, or the Yagi aimed at sky or a hedge rather than the serving mast. Reseat both connectors, try another socket, rotate the panel a few degrees while a helper watches the phone, and verify a reading exists outside first; if the phone reads zero on the roof, the booster cannot recover a block absent from the tower.

Weak far wing, dead valley and mains noise

A lighter wing comes from the whips clustered on one floor; spread them central, or split to a second or third antenna only on a strong donor. A dead valley below the decode floor needs a better mast bearing or a fixed multi-array system rather than another whip indoors. Hum following the mains points to the outdoor coax running beside the power loom; separate the feed and re-check.

Article Keywords

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