SargeW
Site Team
Just for info I am running a Verizon 3G air card, plugged into a Cradlepoint router, and a Wilson 5 watt power booster. It all hooks to a Wilson mini trucker 18" ground plane antenna mounted on the back of the rig.
It seems as though the performance of my Wifi has been sketchy, especially in weak signal areas. If I am in a bigger city or near an interstate, it works great. But when I get off the beaten path, things can get down right "dial up" speed.
Since I can't really boost the incoming signal, I decided to try to "lift the antenna on the back of the rig. Not being able to find an acceptable mast that I could push up and down easily, I went to Home Depot (of course).
What I found was an extending fiberglass painters pole, with a hexogonal aluminum insert. The insert extends buy pressing a clip on the end of the pole and sliding the insert out. I bought an 8' pole, so the insert slides out another 8' in 6" increments.
The Wilson Mini Trucker antenna clamps at the end, and the cable is loose on the outside of the pole (I had to buy an extra 10' antenna cable from Amazon for the project to work). I picked up a few antenna mast clamps to attach the new pole to the back ladder of the rig. It's mounted low enough not to be a hazard when encountering low trees (I hope).
I was able to test the system today. I am in a campground in Battle Ground, Indiana. When I arrived a few days ago, I was in an electric only site at the extreme end of the campground. The site was OK and the Wifi signal was adequate. We moved to a full hook up site today, and the site is surrounded by big trees. The Wifi screeched to a halt, and web pages would barley open. So I ran a speed test on the location. With 3 tests, the first two wouldn't finish, and the third returned .45 mps download speed and .18 upload speed.
Next I went out and pushed up the antenna to full extension, about 8' above the top of the rig. I came back in and reran the speed tests on the same settings as before. This time 2 different tests returned speeds of .90+ mps download, and .80 upload. So far the experiment is working well.
When I lower the antenna for travel, I wind the extra cable around the ladder and bungee it down. Now that it looks like the system will work, I will remove the handle and paint it black to match the ladder.
It seems as though the performance of my Wifi has been sketchy, especially in weak signal areas. If I am in a bigger city or near an interstate, it works great. But when I get off the beaten path, things can get down right "dial up" speed.
Since I can't really boost the incoming signal, I decided to try to "lift the antenna on the back of the rig. Not being able to find an acceptable mast that I could push up and down easily, I went to Home Depot (of course).
What I found was an extending fiberglass painters pole, with a hexogonal aluminum insert. The insert extends buy pressing a clip on the end of the pole and sliding the insert out. I bought an 8' pole, so the insert slides out another 8' in 6" increments.
The Wilson Mini Trucker antenna clamps at the end, and the cable is loose on the outside of the pole (I had to buy an extra 10' antenna cable from Amazon for the project to work). I picked up a few antenna mast clamps to attach the new pole to the back ladder of the rig. It's mounted low enough not to be a hazard when encountering low trees (I hope).
I was able to test the system today. I am in a campground in Battle Ground, Indiana. When I arrived a few days ago, I was in an electric only site at the extreme end of the campground. The site was OK and the Wifi signal was adequate. We moved to a full hook up site today, and the site is surrounded by big trees. The Wifi screeched to a halt, and web pages would barley open. So I ran a speed test on the location. With 3 tests, the first two wouldn't finish, and the third returned .45 mps download speed and .18 upload speed.
Next I went out and pushed up the antenna to full extension, about 8' above the top of the rig. I came back in and reran the speed tests on the same settings as before. This time 2 different tests returned speeds of .90+ mps download, and .80 upload. So far the experiment is working well.
When I lower the antenna for travel, I wind the extra cable around the ladder and bungee it down. Now that it looks like the system will work, I will remove the handle and paint it black to match the ladder.