Is it my imagination, or does this antenna and amp really work?

[SargeW]

I have been fulltiming for a whole 2 weeks now, and have been in a campground off the I5 in So. Cal for about a week. I have toyed with the idea of adding an antenna and amp to improve my internet reception, and did so the last few days. The campground is in kind of a "hole" and cell reception is sketchy at best.

I purchased a Wilson spring loaded ground plane antenna and a Wilson direct connetct power amp to put inline between the antenna and the router.

When I check the dbm meter on the Verizon access manager I see no improvement in the db numbers with the new gear. However, I swear that the air card (a USB720) connects faster, and transmits and receives web pages faster than before. Does that make sense, or am I imagining it because of the money I spent?

I also need to mount everything and am leaning towards the rear of the rig in the bedroom, but haven't decided how to route the antenna wire through the back cap. And all that electronic gear needs to be put somewhere that the air can circulate freeley, as it does tend to get hot.

Opinions guys

Sarge

[SargeW]

I have been fulltiming for a whole 2 weeks now, and have been in a campground off the I5 in So. Cal for about a week. I have toyed with the idea of adding an antenna and amp to improve my internet reception, and did so the last few days. The campground is in kind of a "hole" and cell reception is sketchy at best.

I purchased a Wilson spring loaded ground plane antenna and a Wilson direct connetct power amp to put inline between the antenna and the router.

When I check the dbm meter on the Verizon access manager I see no improvement in the db numbers with the new gear. However, I swear that the air card (a USB720) connects faster, and transmits and receives web pages faster than before. Does that make sense, or am I imagining it because of the money I spent?

I also need to mount everything and am leaning towards the rear of the rig in the bedroom, but haven't decided how to route the antenna wire through the back cap. And all that electronic gear needs to be put somewhere that the air can circulate freeley, as it does tend to get hot.

Opinions guys

Sarge

[Rick 2005 Dolphin 5376]

Good morning Sr. Sarge. No, it's not your imagination, it really does work. I have a similar set up. Outside a 1/4 wave mounted on the roof. It's feed to the wilson wireless amp. The amp feeds a small panel antenna mounted in doors. I have an external antenna on the AC595 aircard that is attached to the internal panel antenna. I get great internet speeds.
Welcome to full timing it.

[LindaH]

We have the same setup with the Wilson antenna and direct connect amp, although we have a Sprint air card.

We are currently in a roaming area on the card, also "down in a hole." Before we set up our satellite Internet dish, I was using the air card. While the Sprint meter didn't show any strength bars, we had enough of a signal to be able to download email and surf...slow, but useable. Without the amp, the little light on the air card just blinked red.

[SargeW]

Thanks Rick and Linda,

That was my experience too. Nothing to show on the meter but I was able to access sites that I couldn't before the amp was put in line. Sometimes opinions of the experts are based soley on what the book says and not on experience of real world applications.

Thanks for your input, at least I know I'm not imagining things..........

Sarge

[SCVJeff]

Hi Sarge,
I posted my install awhile back but seem to have removed some of the pics I had pointers to (duh..). I can put it back together if you care.

I mounted my router under the cabinet, above the dinette. The antenna is a through the roof that appears in a cabinet and I dressed it down to the router. I chopped all excess cable (almost 1.5db worth) into the router/ Sprint card.

As for the amp, sometimes the noise figure of a pre-amp can fool things. I've seen TV preamps whose noise figures exceed the gain of the amp, but yet the receiver actually does get a slightly better picture. Go figure.. We were never interested enough to see why. The best test is to do a speed check on one of the benchmark sites to see whats real. I use www.speedtest.net

[SargeW]

Hi Jeff,

Yeah, I remembered your install. I used it as the blueprint for my install. I just did mine in the bedroom and mounted it under the cabinet in the left corner. The router and amp are both mounted upside down, and the antenna is almost directely above on a ladder mount. I came through the roof in a pre-existing hole that a FM antenna had been using.

I went back the next day and wired in a simple toggle switch that cuts power to both router and amp so I can kill the connection a little easier. So far all works well, and the ability for the DW and I to both be on line and surf at the same time is great.

The only minor thing left to do is add a small piece of velcro to the USB air card so it doesn't vibrate out of the router going down the road. Thanks for your pics and advice, it really helped out!

Sarge