Switching Between SIMS on MAX Transit CAT-18

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

Sorry if this has been asked, but searching didn’t turn up my specific question. I’m coming from a Max Transit Pro to a Max Transit CAT-18 for my RV (I had both, with the Max Transit CAT-18 purchased for someone who ended up not wanting it). In running some performance tests, it seemed like the CAT-18 got better signal in some areas.

I have a ATT SIM and Verizon SIM, and while on the Max Transit Pro, I could toggle between them, I do understand that the CAT-18, is limited to a single radio. However my thinking was that since it has A/B slots, sure it can’t connect to both networks like the DUO, but I should be able to say ‘don’t use slot A, use slot B’ to manually switch between the two to find out what network was getting the best signal and speeds.

However, this doesn’t seem to be the case. The modem will detect ‘oh, I see X available on SIM A’, and won’t let me change to SIM B manually. I’ve set the SIMS to different priorities (not on the Dashboard but on the Cellular subpage), but doesn’t do what I was hoping it would. Now this may be expected behavior since Slot B may just be a redundant so that if the connection is lost on SIM A, it drops to B, but I figured I’d check.

Worst case, I could manually pull out the cards and swap them by hand to see which is best when I arrive at my destination, or hook up the DUO since I still have it, and move the external antenna’s between the two to see which is best, but I thought I’d check.

Hope this makes sense.

2

Have you tried custom selection of the SIM? Note: after changing this it takes 5 to 6 minutes as the cellular modem literally switches firmware for the new SIM and then eventually reconnects. Also for this to work the Network Mode higher up on the page needs to be set to Auto and not to a specific carrier.

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Thanks! Let me give that a shot. I did try disabling the SIM I didn’t want it to use (like your example, I unchecked SIM A, thinking it would then switch to SIM B), however, not only was I not giving it enough time (I only waited maybe 2 minutes before going back to change settings to try something else), but I don’t think I had it set to Auto as I don’t remember changing it and I know I had set the carrier when I first set it up.

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Ok, thanks to you, I have a working method. On mine I need to give it about 8-10 minutes to complete the process (it may be due to the fact that cellular service is not great where I live for any of the carriers), but I can now switch between ATT and Verizon, and get the improved signal over the DUO (that may be misperception, but I do get faster speeds when I test the two devices).

Not as easy as the DUO, but to be fair, I only need to do it when I arrive at the site the first time to see what’s best in the area, and I never used any of the functions of the dual radios in the Duo.

Thank you again!

-stephen-

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