Transit Duo with Dual Antennas for Boat Setup

Product Discussion Pepwave MAX
1

Hi,

We were given a Transit Duo with dual sims, and two seperate puck antennas stuffed into our ceiling.

I am trying to get some better performance, with two LTE-A sims and using Speed Fusion Connect, our down rate is only around 10-20Mbps.

Currently, the two antennas are connected across both sims, so one antenna is for example Cellular 1 + 2 Main, and the other antenna is Cellular 1 + 2 Aux/Diversity.

Couple questions come up here, is this the correct way to wire two antennas? Second, do I need to change any settings for dual antennas in the system?

Thank you, and apologise that I am not so technical. We dont have any local support where we are in Hong Kong who can help.

2

Hello!

Great to hear you’re onboard with Transit Duo modem, excellent for onboard.

I generally never recommend fitting antennas internally for anything else than testing, especially low gain antennas such as the puck antennas (Have you got a model to share?).

What’s important to check is the following:

  • What bands are used while testing? Not all will offer same speeds, congestion, interference etc. Maybe share a photo of the dashboard page with cellular details?
  • If you mounted the antennas in the ceiling, what’s the material of the vessel? Fiberglass? Steel? It all matters!
  • What SIM provider are you using? Same on both? Keep in mind not all SIM providers can offer full speed on all their SIMs, or on all bands, or all APNs… Plans, location and such matters too.

I haven’t personally tested much on water in HK but might be worth seeing what Peplink HQ has to say about this.

3

can you get better speeds with any other device?

puck antennas are typically a bad idea on a boat. you want something more vertical in height. better yet locate the transit in a poynting epnt-1.

1 Like
4

I agree - Or the new EPNT-4 (although it might be too large for this one… Haven’t tried a transit inside!).

5

Thank you for the replies.

I am not sure of the bands we are using, but havent set these to be a specific one I believe.

The boat is fibreglass.

We are using one sim on 1O1O/CSL and another on China Mobile.

The same sim can be put into a phone and work on 5G/LTE-A with much higher speeds.

I was thinking of going to the Pepwave Maritime 40G antenna, and trying to mount that on the side of the boat. I am worried if it goes up to the mast, the cable run will be much too long, but that would probably be ideal.

Could I use a single Maritime 40G antenna with the two cellular modems in the Pepwave Duo?

6

yes dont mount up mast, shorter cable better, hence why using epnt1 or a dome is best. most sailboaters i know with masts put a pole up maybe 6’ (right above their heads) off the transom and mount their cellular/starlink gear there.