I had a MAX BR1 MK2 in my RV, installed in a cabinet. I wanted to get better reception of cell signals when we happen to be farther away from the nearest cell tower, so I bought a A-MIMO-0003-V2-15 Poynting 5-in-1 antenna, which I installed on the roof of the RV on a 15"X15" grounding plane. I also found a place about 3 feet away from the antenna, but still inside the RV, to mount the router.
When I was using the 2 internal antennas that the Pepwave came with, I was getting an RSRP of -100. After connecting to the external Poynting antenna, I got an RSRP of -95.
I guess I was expecting more of an improvement. Are these results typical or did I do something wrong?
You have gained 5 dBm of signal going with the external antenna and this is pretty significant considering that a gain of 3 dBm equals 100% more signal.
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the information. Should the 100% more signal also substantially increase the download speed? I didn’t notice a measurable increase in download speed when I did a speed test.
No not always. The available bandwidth will depend on what bands you are using, how far away from the tower you are - how much bandwidth is available at the tower - how busy it is, and how you measure speed.
More signal in rural locations will often mean lower latency and less packet loss though - the combination of which will make using the bandwidth you do have a much nicer experience.