roof mount antenna

johnnywoz · Post by **johnnywoz** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 3:44 pm

I want to mount the cell antenna on the roof of the car, what brand / model is recommended?

Post by **brentp** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:49 pm

We've used this antenna from Laird Technologies http://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc.asp? ... 7N&eq=&Tp=
and this mount: http://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc.asp? ... PN&eq=&Tp=

We had to modify the cable for the mount to adapt to the SMA connector on the unit. We cut off the large N connector and custom crimped an SMA connector. You could use an adapter for a less elegant solution, however.

Other antennas would work as well; just make sure they are 900MHz antennas. if you find one that's suitable, please post it here - we've been looking for a solution that already has SMA connectors from the factory.

Mulry · Post by **Mulry** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:17 pm

Although it has more cable than necessary, I purchased this NMO-mount permanent antenna mount, in part because it has an SMA-male connector and I have horrible results putting my own connectors on coax:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/m ... -1130.html

This antenna is an NMO-mount antenna and is lower to the car than the antenna that Brent noted above, I just don't like big whip antennas on the race car. This one is specified to work in all cellular frequency ranges, so it's on the car now too:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/l ... -6167.html

I haven't done any testing on the setup yet, but wanted to pass along these options. Cheers.

johnnywoz · Post by **johnnywoz** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:38 am

Mulry wrote:Although it has more cable than necessary, I purchased this NMO-mount permanent antenna mount, in part because it has an SMA-male connector and I have horrible results putting my own connectors on coax:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/m ... -1130.html

This antenna is an NMO-mount antenna and is lower to the car than the antenna that Brent noted above, I just don't like big whip antennas on the race car. This one is specified to work in all cellular frequency ranges, so it's on the car now too:

http://www.theantennafarm.com/catalog/l ... -6167.html

I haven't done any testing on the setup yet, but wanted to pass along these options. Cheers.

Mulry, great options, thanks for the info.

johnnywoz · Post by **johnnywoz** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:40 am

brentp wrote:We've used this antenna from Laird Technologies http://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc.asp? ... 7N&eq=&Tp=
and this mount: http://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc.asp? ... PN&eq=&Tp=

We had to modify the cable for the mount to adapt to the SMA connector on the unit. We cut off the large N connector and custom crimped an SMA connector. You could use an adapter for a less elegant solution, however.

Other antennas would work as well; just make sure they are 900MHz antennas. if you find one that's suitable, please post it here - we've been looking for a solution that already has SMA connectors from the factory.

Brent, why 900Mhz? T-Mobile & ATT uses 850 & 1900. Looking at info on the web 900 is not used in the US.

Mulry · Post by **Mulry** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:07 pm

To follow up on this post, we had our first weekend this past weekend at Barber in the Lemons race there (awesome track & race, FWIW. A must-do on our calendar for next year, maybe the most fun track I've ever driven, constantly challenging and fast). Anyhoo, once we got a power issue resolved, the external antenna I linked to above seems to have worked great as we were getting data out to the cloud cleanly on Sunday. Cheers.

rufus210 · Post by **rufus210** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:27 am

WARNING: the cable needs to be a Reverse Polarity SMA-Male (RPSMA-M) to hook up to the telemetry unit. I bought a regular SMA-M off this thread and it obviously doesn't work.

Post by **brentp** » Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:34 am

Note - we switched from RP-SMA to regular SMA about 6 months ago.

If your connector is silver, then you have RP-SMA.
If your connector is gold, then you have regular SMA.

rob_h · Post by **rob_h** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:02 pm

How would this be as a suggestion? Looks like the correct connector and covers the proper frequencies?

http://www.amazon.com/Proxicast-Low-Pro ... B00K9G25NA

Post by **brentp** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:04 pm

There are higher gain antennas but that would certainly work with the frequency band. Connector is correct (SMA)

rob_h · Post by **rob_h** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:40 pm

brentp wrote:There are higher gain antennas but that would certainly work with the frequency band. Connector is correct (SMA)

The telemetry module is mounted low in the car (passenger floor), what is my best option to improve reception? I'm wondering if this is causing some of the challenges I've had with testing the real time features while the car is in the garage?

Post by **brentp** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:01 pm

Sure thing. So the roof mount is an improvement; the antennas in the previous comments have improved sensitivity.

rob_h · Post by **rob_h** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:12 pm

Better option?

http://www.amazon.com/Superbat-5dbi-Ant ... B00DILV8HC

Post by **brentp** » Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:14 pm

That should work, as long as you can separate the L shaped bracket from the antenna connector. I'm sure you'll be able to.