Antenna Suggestions From Egghead Staff Needed!

Okay guys... Most of you recall that I moved to 12 acres that is on the edge of cellular coverage. I am running a Netgear AC791-L Verizon hotspot. I also bought the 5dB booster cradle that is also a charger. This setup nets me 1-2 bars some of the time but usually just 1 bar. So I am usually okay with email and most websites that aren't video heavy. I obviously cancelled my Netflix subscription! I am pretty much sure the cradle is useless

The Netgear Jetpack has 2 antenna connectors on the bottom. I bought the corresponding male connectors (Male TS-9) to plug into the Netgear jetpack... But I am having a hard time deciding on what antenna to use. Will a custom made Yagi antenna be best... Or can I convert an existing antenna type. I am lost in the world of tuning antennas for a specific purpose. I have usually relied on a coat hanger!

Thoughts?

 

yagi's and cantenna's work great BUT they are extremely directional. Very narrow reception window.

 

i pre-built yagi tuned for the frequency range of interest is the best option for gain vs side/rear rejection and narrow beam angle .
check with the telco or cable provider ...
they might be able to put up one end of a system on the edge of your property and you can put the other end up at your house .
you are going to have to get above the trees .
do you have a map of your property ? if it shows where and how far the cable/telco could put something in , then it would give you an idea of the costs .

there are systems that ul/dl via ethernet (cat 5/6) .
the transceiver head and antenna sits at the top of the tower , this eliminates an expensive run of something like LMR400 .
if you don't mind the high cost of cellular BW , you could go with this and it can also be used with a wireless link from the telco/cable company .

 

Well... I wanted a fairly low cost, home built alternative. Otherwise I'll call Hughesnet... With their Gen5... which I hear is pretty good. But their customer service is ZERO stars! I know the direction of the towers... But it is going to be hard to get above the trees... They are hundreds of feet tall!

 

one word ... "skyhook" .


as long as you have a clear path/line of sight to the towers , you can most likely do ok .
the trouble with a "booster" is that it will amplify noise as well as the wanted signal .
if the wanted signal is too low , then the amplified noise will desense the front end of the receiver .
this is why a good antenna with the required equipment mounted at or very close to the antenna is the best answer .

 

That's what I thought you might do, is get satellite, but even today for interactive use it's got too much lag, even with the terrestrial back haul link for ack's.

You might want to contact your local government and see whose registered for communications services in your area, as there are lots of Rural ISP's that spring up just for these situations. It's going to be a local solution for high speed access.

But, you could always go with the Anchored Balloon solution to get above the tree-line.

Balloon carried antenna
US 3248735 A
Publicatiedatum 26 april 1966
Aanvraagdatum 17 jan 1962
Prioriteitsdatum 17 jan 1962
http://www.google.sr/patents/US3248735

"The present invention relates to antennas for use in television and the like. The invention is believed to have particular application to homes, although it can be employed in connection with industrial establishments such as gasoline stations, restaurants, or in communication system engineering as a probe antenna for antenna site determination.

The invention also has significant application in the military services during war time. It provides a means of highly directional radio transmission in an enemyheld location where it would be highly desirous to quickly elevate the antenna to any desired height for the transmission and then quickly lower it for concealment or to move to another location."

IDK if we will see LEO's (NGSO's) which have low Earth orbits giving far better latency here in the US, maybe there are already (I don't think so, at least not publicly available), but I have seen them proposed early on and used now for Cellular / Internet in other countries.

This is the only one that is approved and funded, I think, and close enough to release to mention, coming in 2019:

Low-latency satellite broadband gets approval to serve US residents
OneWeb's 50Mbps Internet with 30ms latency could hit remotest areas by 2019.
https://arstechnica.com/information...roadband-gets-approval-to-serve-us-residents/

"OneWeb is planning global satellite Internet access and gave Airbus a contract to build the satellites two years ago. OneWeb says it will start launching production satellites in early 2018 and potentially begin offering Internet service the next year."

FCC grants OneWeb approval to launch over 700 satellites for ‘space internet’
Coming as early as 2018
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/23/...eweb-approval-satellite-launch-space-internet

OneWeb
http://www.oneweb.world/
http://onewebsatellites.com/

"OneWeb and our partners have been making great progress. We will soon provide more details of our roadmap, which includes greater than 100x capacity growth from our first generation system, including Gigabit per second speeds, lower latencies, and affordable self-installed terminals.

These new capabilities will support both our 2022 goal of connecting every unconnected school and our 2027 goal of bridging the digital divide. At the same time, boundless low latency broadband access will be available for homes, connected cars, trains, planes and cellular backhaul applications.

In early 2018 we will launch an initial 10 production satellites, which, pending a detailed test regimen, will become the first of our fleet. Six months later we will begin our full launch campaign and start providing low latency broadband access as early as 2019.
We have a lot to do between now and then, but it is a good time to say we have appreciated the tremendous amount of global support we have received. This is not just our mission, this is everyone’s mission—and we are really glad to be a part of it."

This kind of project can come and go quickly, not making it to market, but I'd track it for future potential use.

SpaceX and others are talking about LEO's, but IDK how close any of them are to being funded.

Place's to watch for Satellite News:
http://www.satellitetoday.com/archives/publications/st/
http://www.notey.com/blogs/satellites
http://www.satellitetoday.com/
http://www.satnews.com/index.php
https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/satellites/

 

man , my memory is getting terrible ... i read about this in the early 60s (maybe the third grade ?)
there was a project that was actually given a trial run ...
it involved a DC-6s and converted military cargo planes , a bunch of tv broadcast equipment and flying in a circle at altitude .
the idea (partially) was to receive a signal from the ground studios/station(s) and rebroadcast it .
some origination of content at/in the planes was also tried .
(can you imagine the QRM ?!)
at first it was used to extend the range of educational television for schools in remote or educational non-service areas .
the program was first implemented in the midwest .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwest_Program_on_Airborne_Television_Instruction
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratovision
http://onetuberadio.com/2015/10/16/stratovision-airborne-tv-broadcasting/

 

pimp your ride?
4G +50db 480usd https://www.weboost.com/products/drive-4gx
3G +45db 180usd https://www.weboost.com/products/drive-3g-flex

 

I have a WeBoost (Wilson) system that I paid over $1k for just to rebroadcast the cellular signal into the house. I have the antenna up in a tree... A cable running down the trunk and into the basement to the amplifier... Then a cable running up into a wall where I mounted the rebroadcasting antenna. Here's the issue...

At 55 years of age there is a shrinkage factor in ball size that allows me to only go up about 25 feet into the tree. My extension ladder was maxed out and I am not playing "Wichita Lineman" out here! I did have a neighbor say that "he knows a guy" who could mount it further up the tree but I need to contact Wilson to get a longer run of cable as they work best with no splicing or connectors in the line. But that just allows for better cell coverage while using phones inside the house... But I am sure it would also help the hot spot that I have. I know this system helps a little as when the power goes out the cell coverage is even worse! So perhaps I will contact Wilson for a longer run of cable and my neighbor to get "his guy" out here.

One bright spot... My 25kW Cummins whole-house generator is on the way on 10/24. It is commercial grade and will run about a month with judicious use on my 1,000 gallon propane tank buried in the side yard.

Yes... I have seen the balloon systems and I too remember the , "We'll have C-130s with broadcasting equipment" era. There has been on and off talk from Google and others about coming up with low cost alternatives. However... Low cost means low profit. Sort of like the cheap cure for the common cold would cost big pharma companies billions in profit...

 

You might see if there are local Amateur Radio "guys" or a club that could do a good job replacing the control / signal coax cables for minimum loss.

Those "guys" usually have access to equipment for climbing + ladders + platforms on a vehicle for pucker-free elevation (just don't look down).

Depending on the configuration of the device / antenna, you could also use a bow and arrow to shoot a line over the tree of interest and pull up the whole shebang to get it elevated. Crossbow's are cheap

Wrist Rocket Slingshots work too!

Even a Nail-gun driven Dog Training Bird launcher

https://dtsystems.com/products/launchers/super-pro-dummy-launchers.html
https://www.amazon.com/D-T-Systems-...63&sr=8-11&keywords=dt+systems+dummy+launcher

 

ehhh ...
pay my way out and back ... i'll put it up in the tree .
piece of cake .


a problem with those wilson units is the lack of gain by the antenna itself .
they use an omni directional antenna that might have 2 or 3 db gain (5/8 wave ?) .
a modest yagi will have around 9-12 db gain , a high front to back ratio (rejection of unwanted signals/noise) and a tight lobe pattern (narrow look angle) .
you might get away with this in a tree if you cut off most of the limbs and ran some guy wires .
elsewise ... put up a freestanding rohn 45 (65 feet ?) or with guys to go higher .
a description/pictures/gps coordinates would help figure out what is going on .

 

The old ARRL QST magazines and eventually the collected articles in the Antenna Books are gold, and lots of wire based antennas with clear instructions on order of build and materials + showing how to anchor them in tree's, not just a long-wire either, multiple guyed array's, amazing stuff.

Yeah, I didn't want to go to a tower given he's got tree's, but again getting in touch with those local ham's / club and seeing whose got tower sections growing weeds and putting together a concrete footing and then the tower sections up over the tree line in the right direction could work too. Maybe run a long feed from outside the tree-line, unless it's a forest.

Yup, giving exact location info might be outside the rules of the site... maybe via PM with someone close to his state or county - that's probably ok to talk about.

 

yeah ... not a good idea to post location information in the clear .
approaching the local hams , armed with some information is a good idea .
with rohn 45 , it can go up free-standing to 50' with a 2 cubic yard concrete base (conservative numbers) .
he won't have much wind loading on it .
as a bonus , he might be able to receive a couple of the local digital tv stations .

many moon ago i put up a quad 22 element yagi phased array on top of a 50' tower for a fellow ham .
it was for working moon bounce and a repeater site that was just over the horizon ... knife edging the signal on top of a butte to access the repeater .
it was used if the link repeater just outside of town went down .
i did this four weeks after my first (!) hernia operation .

we were real modern then ... i had a swan 500CX and the friend had an apple IIe .
i remember the day that we received some slow scan pictures from the JPL , they were "drawn" by the IIe ... the first voyager pictures .
i had a TRS M1/L1 POS-1 ... it would have been great to have one of the toughbooks i have now .

i had three of the arrl antenna handbooks ...
each was dedicated to a portion of the spectrum : LF/HF - VHF - UHF/uW .

 

Just to give you guys some idea of where I am and the layout of the land...



I am on 12 acres situated on a bluff overlooking the Rappahannock River. I am completely surrounded by forest. That which is not owned by my neighbors down the road from me is owned by the City and is in a conservation so it can never be cut or built on. All trees are at least 60-70 years old with some even older. All hardwood... I think I have one lone pine on my property with about a dozen cedar trees scattered around. The bluff drops down in elevation by about 80 feet from the main lay of the land further up in the subdivision. So if I were to consider a tower to go above the trees... I'd have to not only go above my trees (which are monsters) but also the drop in elevation and the trees that are further up the road. We'd be talking about a 300 foot tower. I like my trees and don't want a huge tower as an eyesore around here.

However... I DID email all the wireless providers saying they could put a tower on my property. I'd get free internet and cell service and also rent of about $1,000/mo if they chose my land. I could hide that tower on another part of the property and not see it. But it can take years to be selected and I need something in the next month or two.

This is similar to the repeater that I have...

 

FYI: bucket trucks can be rented.

 

IDK if 300' bucket trucks exist, but here's a 100'

112 meters... 367.454 feet... stunning...
The new world record platform will extend the legendary Bronto Skylift HLA range (HLA stands for High Level Articulated) to new heights with the maximum working height of 112 meters.

 

i can prove my memory aint so hot anymore .
the *stratovision" project ... a retired (and now deceased) broadcast engineer friend of mine worked on that project .
he was not super impressed with the results and politics ... but , he worked for the illinois education system , and the PBS of the day and they put him on it .
there were a lot of problems ... including engineers that had flown in WWII and did not want anything to do with being up in the air .

there is a possibility of using several relays , but this would only allow you to extend to the edge of your property .
beyond that the issues of neighbors granting permission and all that crapola becomes a headache .
supplying power to the repeaters is also a consideration .
another issue is all of the hardwoods ... deciduous . without a clear line of sight , the signal will degrade in the spring and improve in the fall .

without more exacting location information , it is hardly possible to explore options .

stringing optical or coax from tree to tree could be done but , squirrels sure raise hell with the stuff .
take a close look at them ... they wear little tool belts .

 

Anytime I get trees involved in my networking, either the wildlife or weather would destroy my work in short order, without fail.

 

That's a given, all outdoor antenna's are vulnerable in some way to the weather, and I've had many sessions redressing damage from weather, especially for unsealed components - or those where the seal fails.

Tree's move in the wind, and you need to design for movement of wires and guys with care.

There are lots of good documentation references by Amateur Radio enthusiasts as they are the largest number of wire antenna users these days, but the historical information from the heyday of Radio still apply.

Antenna management is a year round commitment, with seasonal maintenance, so be ready for it and plan ahead

 

mentioned was the fact of very few or just one conifer ... the rest being hardwoods .
the conifers make the best substitute for a tower .
i have put yagi and log periodic antennas in the top of 160-200 foot yellow/ponderosa/bull pines ...
these were for the upper amateur bands (think 144/220/440 MHz) as well as the old uhf tv spectrum .
the target sites were about 25-30 miles away and low power (erp = 10-100 watts) .
when the wind blew above about 20 MPH the signal was all over the place ... but still usable in many cases .

on-site and in-place repair of antenna systems requires the tinker toy approach or some different thinking .
on mountain top sites things get expensive quickly .
i once had an 11 bay broadcast FM antenna that had developed a small leak where the feed and antenna first element joined ...
the materials are "hard line" constructed and a brazed joint had cracked due to some twit not providing proper mechanical support .
i hauled a set of ox-acetylene tanks 230 feet up the tower in order to repair the damage .
most of these types of antenna systems are pressurized with dry nitrogen in order to stop the ingress of moisture and raise the operational working voltage .