Suggestion Pepwave Max BR1 external antena

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

I recently dealt with a Jetpack 8800L blow up at my parents house after 2 years of no issues. The Verizon support said that this unit is not meant to be used in the way it was…doubt that is true but at this point i have purchased a Pepwave MAX BR1 Cat6 device as this solves the main issues with jetpacks and USB tether to a home router.

I have setup the Pepwave with IP Pass-through and plugged it in to my Ubiquiti setup and out of the box it has performed.

My parents are in rural Illinois at a farm and their are only 2 towers each about 4-5 miles away. they usually get 2 bars which results in about 7-10Mbs but depending on where i move the jetpack i could get that to 40-50Mbs. Land is flat and corn and soy beans about all that is around.

Questions

I would like to increase signal strength but unsure on what hardware would be best for their setup. ( i can provide more details if needed.)

  • Flat Land
  • Tower are about 4-5 Miles away
  • They are in thunderstorm territory

We are going to move over to 2 Verizon prepaid 30GB plans as this is much cheaper and more data usage than the single device post paid plan.

  • Are there any concerns with prepaid vs post paid accounts with Pepwave MAX BR1?

With dual sim cards is there a way to control data usage and have the secondary sim take over when first sim hits 30GB cap?

Any support or suggestions would be great, i am just unsure on options to use external antennas

2

Lots of questions…

First, yes, the jet packs are not meant to be up and running 24x7, that should be obvious. Always important to remove the battery if you are even going to attempt that…

Second, you could go with directional antennas pointed to one or both of the towers. Is there a clear LoS? Most do omni directional. Check out Wilson or Poynting antennas.

As for lightening, I would definitely consider proper protections and groundings. Shorter run on the LMR-400 cable the better so you may have to re-locate the peplink unit to the attic or an outdoor enclosure.

3

Hello @norrissium
Welcome to the Peplink Forum,

You may like to ask your local authorised Peplink Partner for a copy of the Antenna Selection Guide available to them from the Partner section of this forum.

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Your local Certified Peplink Partner can help you with a copy of the Antenna Selection Guide for Peplink Partners . The detailed guide is only available to the Peplink Partners so to ensure that you get helped in working through it to get the most suitable antenna solution to your application.

Happy to Help,
Marcus :slight_smile: