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roof mount antenna
Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2013 3:44 pm
by johnnywoz
I want to mount the cell antenna on the roof of the car, what brand / model is recommended?
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2013 9:49 pm
by brentp
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.
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2014 9:17 pm
by Mulry
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.
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:38 am
by johnnywoz
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.
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:40 am
by johnnywoz
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.
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2014 2:07 pm
by Mulry
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.
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:27 am
by rufus210
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.
Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 3:34 am
by brentp
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.
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:02 pm
by rob_h
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
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:04 pm
by brentp
There are higher gain antennas but that would certainly work with the frequency band. Connector is correct (SMA)
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 4:40 pm
by rob_h
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?
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:01 pm
by brentp
Sure thing. So the roof mount is an improvement; the antennas in the previous comments have improved sensitivity.
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:12 pm
by rob_h
Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2014 5:14 pm
by brentp
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.