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Nighthawk Antenna


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It looks like there are a few options for a indoor antenna, what have you tried and what works best. It will be placed in the center of my house in a water heater closet with four walls of sheet rock. This is where the router and all of my connections are, not interested in rooftop.

Do you think these DB gains are accurate, what works better?

 

7 DB gain probably would need a ground plane - Omni-directional

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K74JBW5/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B07K74JBW5&linkCode=as2&tag=danr97123-20&linkId=dc59dddd4eda4e0cdca72095e74691b3&th=1

5 DB gain, internal ground plane - Omni-directional

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/mant-lte50-antenna/

2.5 Gain internal ground plane - Directional

https://www.rvmobileinternet.com/gear/netgear-mimo/

 

 

Terry

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I don't pay much attention to the bars on the netgear. I have speedtest on my phone, and move the antenna  to different positions, and test the speed with the app.

Foretravel 40ft tag 500hp Cummins ISM  1455 watts on the roof, 600 a/h's lithium in the basement.

 

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It’s my understanding that external antennas should only be use when you have little to no service. It could in-fact make you signal worse. In the case of the nighthawk, there are 4 in internal antennas, when you use the external antennas connections you drop down to two. It’s best to speed test,  not go by bars, and most improvement of externals might be upload speeds.

 

there is a “hack” on YouTube to connect the 4 internal antennas on the Nighthawk to four external antennas, (2 x 2 mimo). This would require a kit that you can buy on eBay, but it involves drilling through the Nighthawk case, (voiding its warranty), and installing 2 small jumper cables/connectors.
 

I have not done this or know of anyone that has. But It looks intriguing to me.

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TLRam1 and others who use this type of connection a little tip that works well for me. One or more blades seem to break off in time so I played with the idea to wrap the end.

If you ever wrapped the end of rope this info may make sense. I used fishing line and wrapped over a looped end around all the blades almost to the end then threaded the wrapping end through the loop and pulled up the loose end. I think I used 6lb line, the line seems to expand when pushed on, it seems to hold firm and keeps the blade from expanding (over worked) and breaking off in time.

Sure hope all this makes sense, like I say it works well for me, I have a Y cable connecting to one antenna.

2000 Dodge 2500 4x4 LB/cummins 5.9

02 Newmar Amercian Star 32' RLKS

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On 8/13/2020 at 6:35 AM, Johnynorthland said:

It’s my understanding that external antennas should only be use when you have little to no service. It could in-fact make you signal worse. In the case of the nighthawk, there are 4 in internal antennas, when you use the external antennas connections you drop down to two. It’s best to speed test,  not go by bars, and most improvement of externals might be upload speeds.

It's my understanding that the tower you are connected to controls whether MIMO will be used at all.  Not all towers support MIMO connections and, furthermore, if you barely have a signal you probably won't have a MIMO connection anyway.

That being said, I agree that the only real way to assess the effectiveness of external antennas is to try them and do a series of speed tests.  In situations where you have very little signal you may do better with a WeBoost amplifier rather than external MIMO antennas. But always remember that the WeBoost essentially makes it impossible for MIMIO to work, so the best best would be to test each configuration independently.  Admittedly, that's a lot of work and it is unnecessary for many probably  situations..  

Sandie & Joel

2000 40' Beaver Patriot Thunder Princeton--425 HP/1550 ft-lbs CAT C-12
2014 Honda CR-V AWD EX-L with ReadyBrute tow bar/brake system
WiFiRanger Ambassador
Follow our adventures on Facebook at Weiss Travels

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On 8/16/2020 at 9:01 AM, D&LKowalski said:

TLRam1 and others who use this type of connection a little tip that works well for me. One or more blades seem to break off in time so I played with the idea to wrap the end.

If you ever wrapped the end of rope this info may make sense. I used fishing line and wrapped over a looped end around all the blades almost to the end then threaded the wrapping end through the loop and pulled up the loose end. I think I used 6lb line, the line seems to expand when pushed on, it seems to hold firm and keeps the blade from expanding (over worked) and breaking off in time.

Sure hope all this makes sense, like I say it works well for me, I have a Y cable connecting to one antenna.

Did you wrap it over/around the little brass that is exposed?

Terry

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