Outdoor antenna for MAX BR1 Mini in an RV

I purchased a Max Mini with wifi as WAN license and will be integrating it into my network in an RV. I know that wifi is very dependent on line of sight and we normally hop between RV parks with free wifi. What would you recommend as a good antenna that we can install on the top of the RV to maximize our connection?

Thanks in advance

Chuck

Chuck,

I’d point you to this Panorama option. It is a single antenna with 4 leads for the BR1 Mini (1 WiFi, 2 Cellular, 1 GPS). Plus this will keep a nice low profile instead of sticking up off the roof. The other major benefit to this antenna is it is ground plan independent. This means you do not need the antenna to contact a metal surface to function, and with most RVs being fiberglass this works perfectly. Other antennas that need a ground plane would require you to add a metal plate which can cause damage to the RV.

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Peplink also supplies their own 4-in-1 antenna, the Peplink ACW-853.
Available in white and black.

Thanks for the input. I should probably expand what all I have going on in the RV

  • Pepwave MAX BR1 Mini with an AT&T Sim card installed and WAN license installed
  • WeBoost Drive 4G-X with internal antenna (have for a year or so)
  • Weboost external antenna - Drive X OTR Cell Phone Signal Booster - weBoost - mounted on the roof of the RV
  • Apple Time Capsule (setup the internal wifi and storage)

My thought was I would use the WeBoost to increase the cellular signal and should increase to the MAX Mini. I would then add an additional antenna to the roof for the wifi signal. However, I didn’t know what would be the best antenna. Since I already had the WeBoost I was steering away from a multiband.

Does that change the recommendation?

Thanks

Chuck

You could use the same 4-1 antenna, with 1 cell lead going to the weBoost amplifier, the other unused. The GPS and WIFi would still be used as well. This would give you a single antenna doing the job of WiFi, GPS, and cellular vs putting up another mast.

My concern about the small all in one antenna is that it’s a low gain or negative gain antenna. Given the fiberglass shell you might as well mount it as close to the ceiling as possible. Clear from other metal obstructions.

An other approach could be to mount the MAX BR1 outside the RV on the roof or near the top at the back in a weather proof box (you might already have a storage compartment). If the enclosure is big enough you might get away with the stock antennas. Otherwise you have more options for connecting larger antenna’s that can be taken down (fold down) during travel.

This even opens up the opportunity to use a directional antenna to pull in even the weakest signals.

I did the Panorama 5 in 1 for my fiberglass RV. Mounted on the fridge vent works great, consistently increases raw signal strength 10db over my AC791L inside with no antenna. Also the WiFi elements work well with my Surf SOHO WiFi WAN, although due to the scanning interval issue causing LAN problems when WiFI wan is enabled I will need a different solution. I may do a refreshed BR1 when it comes out with CAT6 modems and hopefully ac wireless for wan duties with the Panorama similar to your setup with the time capsule for LAN wifi.

Note the WFR Sky2 in the pic I used for WiFI wan until it died then got the Surf SOHO to replace my WFR equipment.

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