Hi, Peter. I would measure the distance using the Measure feature in Google Earth. I didn’t read through the comments, so I apologize if others have suggested this.
@@PeterC408 BOOM! 💥 You did it! I do this from my airplane frequently. I see a point off in the distance and try to guess how far away it is, but I’m almost always wrong. Usually, I’m farther away than I thought. In your video here, I was guessing 10 or 11 miles. I’m always interested in antennas and signal amplification. This was a very cool video. Keep them coming! 73! N7WRN
@@jacobaccurso I want to take credit for such a good guess. It's true, 7 miles came to my head but lots of stuff comes to my head. I guess it was just a good guess.
There’s a distance measuring technique involving holding your thumb up and blinking both eyes but I may be confusing this with being pulled over for drink driving ;)
Hey Peter, great video, and we appreciate the effort on going places to test and help us decide and learn. Thank you! I just had a question about that small router you have there.... GL.iNet routers seem to have their own DDNS service. Does that mean I would not need to use services like "No IP" to do port forwarding and access, like PLEX for example?
You have a good eye. This is the GL-iNet that I have amzn.to/3LJAKeR and here is the review that I did ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NYjzChGkomg.html This gives us the much needed DDNS feature which will watch for our changing IP address (because of CG-NAT) but we still need to report it to someone like No-IP. This GL-iNet has a pulldown for DDNS providers and no surprise, No-IP is in that list. So same fix, different hardware. Note: I have not tried it yet but Imagine that this would do the exact same as my Netgear at home.
From comparing that small mountain top to the nearest towers to my home (6 miles by car as the crow flies) my guess is 5 to 7 miles...though there are no hill or mountain tops where I live in Kansas, just flat ground with deep gullies and small washes and small valleys. Tower tracking is the coolest feature I've ever seen on a router, wish I had one! Why hasn't anyone done this before now? Seems a no brainer doesn't it? I'd say the same for having that ability on smart TV's, duh. Great video!
You're right! these are super convenient features and I can't believe that others have not thought of this before. Once you see it, is definitely a no brainer and I agree, this would be a great feature for TV antennas. Pointing antennas has always been a dark art but this shows it really doesn't have to be.
Funny, I got a lot of questions about that. It just is the pole that came with my Tree Pruner/Pole Saw. I simply pulled off the trimming head and zip-tied my radio to it. Apparently a fiberglass pole is the way to go, that pole older than all my kids put together and it still works.
There are a lot of reputable plan resellers that will sell you a SIM for AT&T or for Consumer Cellular or Verizon. The best way is to find out which SIM you want to get. I have a T-Mobile business SIM and it only cost me $50 a month and it is unlimited. T-Mobile works very well in my area. If it didn't I wouldn't get that one. T-Mobile's pricing for their business SIM is pretty tough to beat.
Hey Kraig, this was just a fiberglass pole from a tree trimming pole saw that I had lying around the backyard. It was great for testing because it was light and portable but probably flexes too much for permanent usage (unless you live on a tropical island) and need that kind of storm flex.
Yes, I have to get the 5G out there to show the difference. I had no idea I would find that hill out on the horizon. The 4G antenna is not only weather resistant but tried and true proven with tens of thousands of installations. ELSYS is huge in Brazil and South America. Their landscape makes mine look like child's play.
@@Paddy-McNasty there is a cover of I've removed so we could see the lights in the buttons but generally this product is pretty well sealed. It's made in Brazil which is literally the Rain Forest. I'm pretty sure they got the weatherproofing down. Oh this product debuted in 2016 in Brazil so it is tried and true I don't think you need to worry about the elements.
I need to buy a budget travel router as I will be full time minivan traveling soon. I'd like one with VPN and that accepts external antennas. Can you recommend one? Good on point video!
Do you expect to be well within cell coverage, on the edge of cell coverage or outside of standard cell coverage? The little access point you saw velcro'ed to my power supply is from GL-iNet amzn.to/3LJAKeR Take a look. I would not hit the road with out it. It can take signal from many sources and create your own network from it, including adding a VPN. My favorite VPN is IPVanish Special 83% off tinyurl.com/peterc408-vpn (nothing else comes close). You could use the setup I show here but if you are moving a lot, you might want to look at the new GL-iNet with an internal 5G modem, and yes it allows for external antennas. amzn.to/4d3ZpH0 I have not tried it yet, but I expect only great things from GL-iNet they have fantastic Firmware which enables you to do just about anything. Here is a video that I did on that GL-iNet that I have ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NYjzChGkomg.html
@@PeterC408 Thanks for the reply. Late life divorce and she gets the house. I'm just going to wander, so a mix of urban, suburban and country. Just want to stay connected as easy as possible. Would like a rig just like you had in the video. Already picked up a telescoping 15' paint pole. Will look at your other videos for info. Thanks again. Cheers!
I don't think that it is for lack of wanting it has to do with the technology. You could see that that hill has a tower with what appear to be Drums on them. Those are Microwave antennas and the fact that they have two sets pointing opposite directions means that it is a REPEATER. They are repeating signals from one side to the other and over distance. Distance requires signals that are lower frequencies because they travel much further. Lower frequencies do travel far but hold less data. Have you ever been in traffic and heard someone stereo? You hear the BASS because lower frequencies travel further and pernitrate things better but they don't carry as much data. Also, you will notice that those "drums" are not pointed my way, they can beam form these antennas to hit a one block area. I got pretty lucky that something was pointed right at me.
@@nathanielenochs1843 me too because we're all located closer to the towers they can cover the same amount of people with higher frequency , higher bandwidth signals.
@@nathanielenochs1843 We are saying the same thing. The suburbs are connected by short wires and high frequency, high speed radio towers... remote areas need to be connected by lower frequency, slower towers... This is due to physics not favoritism. Lower frequencies travel further but carry less data and are thus slower. It is not that they are being mean and penalizing you for living remotely. Now sometimes two suburbs may be connected by a rural community and they will have a strong backhaul and thus get unusually good performance even in the sticks, but that is rare.
Great antenna. We are in rural area with no approval location from TMO/att/verizon. How can we use this antenna? Won't be able to sign up with any carrier.
You are saying they won't sign you up for a home service, but you don't need approval for a product like this. Presumably you have a working cellphone so you know what service is available. Get a cheap SIM and you are good to go.
@@Step-n-Wolf It does not work like that any more. See there is a handshake that goes on when you are allowed onto a cellular network. They usually look at your SIM (make sure that it is valid and in good standing) and then they look at your IMEI to make sure that it is a valid product for the plan you are on. Some times you can fool them but not for long - trust me when they see your data usage surge to 1.3TB, they are going to look at you hard. Prompt you to verify setting. Now if you want to play that cat and mouse game, it can still be done for a little while. It is like if you are a good student, no teacher will complain but if you are a trouble maker the administration will follow you home and if you are going to grandmas house, they'll report that you do not belong in their school district - same thing only with phones.
@@laserimage8583 next week I'm meeting with several managed service providers. These are authorized resellers that are allowed to resell Verizon T-Mobile in AT&T SIM cards. I'll let you know what I find out
A great question. Here is a video that I did a few weeks ago, 5G Modem Round-up ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SqJ5e8w8iio.html In order to test them I used my best antenna, which just happens to be the WaveForm Quad PRO.
@@PeterC408 So to keep the cost down it's a toss up between the 2 of them. With the Waveform Quad Pro I would have to add external antenna to my Arcadyan modem vs just switching the sim. I see you reviewed another 4x4 panel a little while ago, the Maswell panel that is a bit cheaper than the waveform. As I am full timing around the country in an RV my signal and speeds are all over the place. I've had as much as 419 DL and as little as 0.01 DL with the stock modem, so I don't know which option would be best. I've even seen now that a cell booster is an option, but I have not looked into them yet.
@@drewskatmyselfdotcom Cell boosters aren't an option for data. Cell boosters are only an option for phone reception. It's just the bands that need to be received and repeated. The WaveForm antennas are superior to all other tested antennas but I really like these external modems from Elsys. They're crazy good.