Best 5G 600MHz 7-in-1 Antenna? Parsec vs Panorama? šŸ‰

Iā€™m currently looking at buying the Parsec Husky Pro 7-in-1 antenna to pair with my MAX Transit 5G + T-Mobile SIM and am interested in optimizing the 5G bands, specifically bands n71 / & 4G 71.

The Parsec Husky Pro 7 seems to have the highest gain for the 600MHz range, with the Panorama Mako 5G Dome at a close second.

Are there other high priority factors I should consider when comparing these, such as cabling, or antenna design, etc?

Thanks,
Samuel

Parsec will give this information if you ask for it. I donā€™t know about Panorama. The Radiation pattern and the Rated efficiency are two things I take into consideration. We mainly use Parsec for several reasons. Their willingness to share Engineering Data like Radiation Patterns, Efficiencies, etc. Those are the two big things I look at.

For your actual deployment. Thereā€™s nothing special needed. Keep your runā€™s short as possible. Be mindful about where you place the unit. Etc. Pretty standard

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I recently upgraded the antenna setup on my van and moved from 1x 4x4 to 2x 4x4 antennas.

I researched for a long time before purchasing, and went with the:

Panorama White MAKO Dome Antenna (4xCell) (LP-IN2443-W)
Panorama White MAKO Dome Antenna (4xCell,2xWiFi,1xGPS) (LG-IN2445-W) - i cut the wire feeding GPS as I have found Peplink-supplied internal antenna for GPS worked good enough and negated the requirement to feed 1x wire through to roof.

I chose this due to rated performance in low frequency and generally having better performance than my old antenna (MobileMark LTMG940)

I also looked at Husky and disliked the overall size. As my requirement is for 2, Husky consumes too much roof space and would not fit in the needed area.

I just made these upgrades in early July and results so far have been great!




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Very nice install, well played. Your decision makes perfect sense based needing 2 antennas, the Parsec is indeed quite large yet probably the perfect candidate for my single antenna installation.

Thanks for sharing!

Would it be best to buy the antenna with a 1 foot cable and extend it the 2-3 feet more that I need or go with a 7ā€™ antenna and just coil it?

Does coiling an antenna shorten itā€™s losses if itā€™s not spread out as far from the unit?

Thanks

Thanks for the Intel Travis, much appreciated. Iā€™d love to see a graph with the gain for the low frequencies from Parsec, I found one for Panoramaā€™s Mako Dome though.

Is it best to have the exact length of cable or if I coil it will it negate the length of the wire?

In my case I only really need about 3ā€™ but I only see 1ā€™ and 7ā€™ options to order at minimum. Should I order the antenna with 1ā€™ cable and buy an extension for the remaining 1-2ā€™ or is buying the 7ā€™ cable then coiling it near the device just as good?

Thanks

Additionally, are there any up and coming brands or models that look very interesting?

The Parsec Husky Pro 7 seems to be 2-3 years old so Iā€™d love to be made aware if there are simply newer technologies available that offer a 7-in-1 high gain at lower frequency band solution.

Coiling will not negate the length of the Wire. At that short of a distance it doesnā€™t really matter. I would do the 7 foot to avoid connectors.Iā€™m used to dozens if not 100ā€™s of feet and thatā€™s where 5 feet here, 2 feet there. Adds up when youā€™re at the big of distance for cable loss. Page 4 contains the Frequency Table for the Husky.
HUSKY-SERIES-DATA-SHEET.pdf (1.6 MB)

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Excellent, ty!

Iā€™ve seen that freq chart, was looking for a graph with actual live test results like this one on Page 3.

https://www.panorama-antennas.com/download/SHKG[W]-6-60[-VAR].pdf

@Travis_Hatcher What kind of application are you using 100ā€™s of feet for? Sounds interesting.

@erickufrin What kind of van is this? And do you live in it full-time, part-time, just work? Looks like a great setup.

This is my soon to be full-time house




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@ThirdEyeSamuel my van is a 2020 136"WB high roof Ram Promaster. I bought it late 2019 and did all of my buildout DIY pre-COVID. Has been a huge asset over that time.

I use it for part-time living. Mainly adventure travelā€¦and frequently as a remote office. Hence the need for multiple antennas.

Your van looks nice. With that type of rear cargo area I can only imagine you have much more space than a typical Transit van.

Low band is not the end-all-be-allā€¦ with greater coverage area comes more simultaneous users on that tower. In the most rural of areas it might be all you can getā€¦ but just saying that other frequencies often have much greater bandwidth/performance. I have also found that when I am parked by the ocean, my van will see some ā€œfurther awayā€ low band tower as strongest signal and be unable to aggregate additional bands off that same tower. Disabling low band then allows the Peplink to see another tower with multiple bands strong enough for carrier aggregation. My point is that its unfortunately not ā€œset it and forget itā€ā€¦ as you travel around you may find the need to ā€˜fiddle with the settingsā€™ to get optimal performance. best of luck!! :slight_smile:

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Very cool! Totally agree with remaining diverse in bands just thought Iā€™d make sure I have the best performance with 71 and other low bands since Iā€™ll be in and around National parks often.

Iā€™ll still have great equip for the others as well.

Great tip about disabling 71 or low bands to CA with mid bands!

Thanks Eric

Im not trying to burst your bubbleā€¦ but b71 is way overhyped!

For sure you should get an antenna that supports it and all known 5G bands - for future proofing. ā€œsub6ā€

If your traveling to national parks and you want service that works when you get there - then you want VERIZON.

T-Mobile might work on the interstate highway driving there, but as soon as you leave the interstate - poofā€¦ gone. When I would see 5G TMo on my phone 99.999% of time speedtest results were slower than below-average LTE speeds on other carriers. National Parks are not upgraded with mid-bands and getting added bandwidth into those places to support the towers is years away.

T-Mobile is non existent in many areas. I know this because for around last 6months (Dec-June) I had ATT + VZ AND TMo and would evaluate all 3 in all the areas I travel (mostly National Parks and wild lands) and it goes in this order: Verizon > ATT > T-Mobileā€¦ It got to the point where I felt that having T-Mobile was like throwing money away. Canceled it.

Now I maintain just Verizon and ATT post-paid. ATT unlimited elite plan with ā€œfor realā€ unlimited premium data is excellent for streamingā€¦ Having dual-cellular, I have my setup configured to prioritize streaming out the ATT wan. I am hopeful Verizon post-paid unlimited plans eliminate all caps soon matching TMo/ATTā€¦that is the rumor.

If your heart is set on T-Mobile, consider the $15 Verizon data plan as a backup. Or Visible.

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Agreed, and yet: The statement is too broad and the cellular coverage landscape is changing. I live in Yosemite National Park, and T-Mobile just lit up a few months ago. It is now as fast or faster than Verizon.

Backups are good :slight_smile: In my experience Visible is likely to work reasonably well in back-country areas that have non-congested Verizon coverage.

Cheers,

Z

This is awesome info, I really appreciate you taking the time to break down your experience with the carriers.

And for the record I fully encourage bubble bursting.

I suppose you could say T-Mobile and itā€™s 5G capabilities is simply an experiment Iā€™m not attached to it by any means but I am curious to see how it differs from other carriers again simply as an experiment.

@zegor_mjol Yosemite is my #1 destinationā€¦it is one of the only places in the Sierra where I found TMo to actually work. Sequoia & Kings Canyon is exclusively Verizon.

FWIW I ā€œupgradedā€ from Visible to Verizon post-paid because I frequent these places where Verizon is the only carrier or be in Yosemite on a holiday weekend, and know firsthand that being de-prioritized is a b*tch!

@ThirdEyeSamuel experimentation is the name of my game too! Constantly trying changes to my setup and different data plans to determine what is optimal. This is my 5th modem setup, 3rd antenna setup and have tried close to 15 different cellular plans/providersā€¦ Iā€™m ~18months into the journey. :slight_smile:

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Great to know about Yosemite and TMO!

Iā€™ll certainly follow your experience and recommendations moving forward.

Thanks Eric

PS I just brought my Transit 5G into ATT to buy the prepaid 100gb/$55 month and the device doesnā€™t appear to be certified yet for use SOā€¦with my charm the rep said heā€™d use a ā€œgenericā€ ATT hotspot imei.

This could potentially be epic?? Haha

Fun experiment.

Sometimes it works well, at other times not at all. Some places it works well, at other places not at all.

At our location Visible pulls similar speeds as Verizon does most of the time (larger latency, of course). But if one is critically dependent on the service then Verizon (or T-mobile, now) is the way to go (at least in Yosemite).

Cheers,

Z

We are all B2B and In-home Rural Stuff. Getting to 100+ feet isnā€™t really that hard when youā€™re in someoneā€™s McMansion they built in the 60ā€™s by the lowest bidder.

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