Increase Wifi Hot Spot Reception
Going to start camping every other week next summer. I plan to work from my camp site and will need internet access on my laptop.There is a Sprint Hot spot tower not far from the camp ground.I used to...
Forum Discussion
In your case I think the better option would be a Wilson/Weboost Cell Amp. You can get a cradle that your hotspot can sit in for as little as $100 for a 3G version, which is all a light to medium usage person really need (similar to lower end DSL). The Wilson Sleek 3G will give you 25db, the 4G version will give you 23db (with the 10' antenna cable factored in). Even with their little stubby antenna if you get it up on the roof it will make a huge difference as the inside of your trailer likely will act as a Faraday cage.
The concern with your solution, is:
- the Hawking antenna is tuned for the 2.4ghz (wifi) it may but also may not work well on some of the cell bands. I have seen some antennas that claim huge gains in one band but have a loss in other bands. The Wilson Trucker antenna for the Wilson Cell amps is one that comes to mind. For some bands it comes in at +6db but for one of the Tmobile LTE bands it comes in at -2db and a hole lot of difference on other bands, where as their stubby that comes with the amps seems to claim about +2 to +3db on all cell bands/carriers (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE).
- I read a well written academic study done by an Electrical Engineer that basically said it would take heroic efforts to actually achieve 15db on a 2.4ghs Omni antenna. He concluded that almost every antenna he tested that was above 8db overstated their gain.
-assuming a 20' pole, with a total of 25' of cable. LMR100 will have a loss of about 12db (almost all the gain you would get from the antenna assuming their claim of 15db is accurate). LMR195 will cost you about 5db of loss, LMR240 will cost you about 3db of loss, and LMR400 will cost you about 2db. The last two are really not practical for home use and some connectors may not mate to them without a pigtail as well. Adding a pigtail will also cost you about 1db of loss as well.
The concern with your solution, is:
- the Hawking antenna is tuned for the 2.4ghz (wifi) it may but also may not work well on some of the cell bands. I have seen some antennas that claim huge gains in one band but have a loss in other bands. The Wilson Trucker antenna for the Wilson Cell amps is one that comes to mind. For some bands it comes in at +6db but for one of the Tmobile LTE bands it comes in at -2db and a hole lot of difference on other bands, where as their stubby that comes with the amps seems to claim about +2 to +3db on all cell bands/carriers (2G, 3G, 4G/LTE).
- I read a well written academic study done by an Electrical Engineer that basically said it would take heroic efforts to actually achieve 15db on a 2.4ghs Omni antenna. He concluded that almost every antenna he tested that was above 8db overstated their gain.
-assuming a 20' pole, with a total of 25' of cable. LMR100 will have a loss of about 12db (almost all the gain you would get from the antenna assuming their claim of 15db is accurate). LMR195 will cost you about 5db of loss, LMR240 will cost you about 3db of loss, and LMR400 will cost you about 2db. The last two are really not practical for home use and some connectors may not mate to them without a pigtail as well. Adding a pigtail will also cost you about 1db of loss as well.
