USING AN EXISTING VISION PLUS AERIAL POLE FOR WIFI.

[trevskoda]

Thanks trev. How can I tell the one I need please?

Sorry there are folk on here know more than me on which model.

 

[trevskoda]

You're a Radio ham too trev.

Sure am, MI 1 DTI full licence.

 

[merl]

Good evening friends. I'm in the process of transferring our WiFi set up from our campervan to our "new to us" motorhome. I don't want to drill any holes in the roof so I'm thinking of doing away with the current vision plus aerial, but using the pole to mount our WiFi aerial to, the feeding the twin WiFi cables down the existing pole. I would like to have some sort of TV aerial still and have read on a forum that someone had used a stubby magnet mount TV aerial and got good signal from it on a non metal motorhome roof, but obviously couldn't mount it permanently to the motorhome roof. My plan would be to use 3m vhb tape and Sikaflex to secure the magnet mount to the roof permanently then feed the cable along with the WiFi aerial cables down the vision plus mast. I'd then plug the mag mount TV aerial cable into the vision plus amplifier, then to the TV. Has anyone done this? What are everyone's thoughts?
Thanks. Colin.

Can you mount your WiFi antenna to the vision plus antenna? This is what I did and then fed the WiFi cable down the vision plus pole along with the TV coax cable.

When I fitted my 4G antenna I changed the solar roof gland for a large weatherproof box and fixed the antenna to that and then routed the antenna cables through the same roof hole as the solar.

Personally I wouldn't want to give up the ability to steer the TV Ariel from within the van where I'm out of the rain. Also your WiFi antenna will be easier to mount than a massive TV antenna so maybe mount the WiFi antenna to the roof and then route it's cable down the TV Ariel pole?

 

[Fisherman]

Can you mount your WiFi antenna to the vision plus antenna? This is what I did and then fed the WiFi cable down the vision plus pole along with the TV coax cable.
View attachment 147158
When I fitted my 4G antenna I changed the solar roof gland for a large weatherproof box and fixed the antenna to that and then routed the antenna cables through the same roof hole as the solar.
View attachment 147159
Personally I wouldn't want to give up the ability to steer the TV Ariel from within the van where I'm out of the rain. Also your WiFi antenna will be easier to mount than a massive TV antenna so maybe mount the WiFi antenna to the roof and then route it's cable down the TV Ariel pole?

Merl can you still set your tv aerial up for local transmitters in the vertical mode, and does that affect the wifi.

 

[merl]

Merl can you still set your tv aerial up for local transmitters in the vertical mode, and does that affect the wifi.

Yep, it's still 'spinable' for vertically polarised TV transitions Bill.
The WiFi antenna is pretty directional, signal can sometimes be improved by slightly tilting away from dead upright so that adjustment can sometimes help but yes typically the WiFi gets pretty much killed if it's spinned through 90 deg out of polarisation. Obviously because both antennas are strapped together both TV and WiFi get moved at the same time so if both sources are weak or fringe then there's no chance of using both at the same time unless you get extremely lucky but if we're on a pub car park the pub WiFi is often strong enough to use at the same time as the TV antenna.
If adjusted correctly I can pick up the WiFi from a house about 250 metres away from us with enough signal to be able to WhatsApp video call someone.

 

[Mtbcol]

That’s exactly the set up I use.
Fire stick so I can watch Sky sports, YouTube etc etc and iPad for internet. To date never had to use my dedicated Poynting antenna I bought for the Netgear Nighthawk 5 and in 2 years of use never failed to get reception throughout England and Scotland.
I just leave mine permanently plugged into a usb port when out and about on my travels.

Thanks Obanboy, and nice Greyhound by the way

 

[wildebus]

There is a bit of confusion here I think of what "Wi-Fi" is referring to?

Now I think - and Colin can correct me if I am wrong - the original question was on how to run cables from an externally mounted antenna to a router in the van. And that router was a Mobile LTE e.g. 4G/5G router and the external antenna was to pick up better mobile phone ie. LTE reception
In that situation , the "Wi-Fi" bit of the Router stays INSIDE the van for your devices like Firesticks, Tablets, etc and you don't have Wi-Fi Antennas outside, but you might 4G or 5G antennas outside. These 4G/5G antennas are almost never directional and while it can be done with some units, it is very rare for anyone to try and point an LTE (i.e. Mobile phone service) antenna to try and improve their signal strength and usually a waste of time.

Before Mobile Phone Data packages became both very cheap and very fast, it was a bit more common to have a setup where you WOULD have a Wi-Fi Antenna outside in order to pick up services like Wi-Fi Hotspots such as provided by some Shops, Shopping Centres, the FON network (BT FON in the UK) and also on Campsites. To get the best from those Hotspots, pointing a Wi-Fi Receiver/Antenna to the Transmitter had a benefit.
But times have moved on and publically accessible Wi-Fi hotspots are dying. FON is gone and I don't know if any of the other providers still operate theirs beyond just having Wi-Fi as a handy thing within their business (as opposed to it being an actual service, like for example the O2 Hotspots were.

Companies like Motorhome WiFi originally sold a Router Package with directional Wi-Fi antennas to pick up hotspots, etc. Now the "Motorhome WiFi" package is a WiFi Router with a Mobile SIM and probably an optional 5G Antenna (fixed, not directional) on the roof. Virtually no one should be contemplating fitting a Wi-Fi Antenna to their Motorhome/Campervan roof unless they have a very specific reason for doing so (and watching the TV via a Firestick is not one).

 

[Mtbcol]

Good morning all, well after sleeping on it I've just flexed the credit card and purchased a Netgear Nighthawk 2 ( most welcome can afford after our recent motorhome purchase ) Hopefully we won't need an aerial, the van is aluminium bodied I believe ( 2007 Burstner Solano t615), so we might but if so I'll run the cables through the "solar hole" . Thanks again friends.
Colin

 

[Mtbcol]

There is a bit of confusion here I think of what "Wi-Fi" is referring to?

Now I think - and Colin can correct me if I am wrong - the original question was on how to run cables from an externally mounted antenna to a router in the van. And that router was a Mobile LTE e.g. 4G/5G router and the external antenna was to pick up better mobile phone ie. LTE reception
In that situation , the "Wi-Fi" bit of the Router stays INSIDE the van for your devices like Firesticks, Tablets, etc and you don't have Wi-Fi Antennas outside, but you might 4G or 5G antennas outside. These 4G/5G antennas are almost never directional and while it can be done with some units, it is very rare for anyone to try and point an LTE (i.e. Mobile phone service) antenna to try and improve their signal strength and usually a waste of time.

Before Mobile Phone Data packages became both very cheap and very fast, it was a bit more common to have a setup where you WOULD have a Wi-Fi Antenna outside in order to pick up services like Wi-Fi Hotspots such as provided by some Shops, Shopping Centres, the FON network (BT FON in the UK) and also on Campsites. To get the best from those Hotspots, pointing a Wi-Fi Receiver/Antenna to the Transmitter had a benefit.
But times have moved on and publically accessible Wi-Fi hotspots are dying. FON is gone and I don't know if any of the other providers still operate theirs beyond just having Wi-Fi as a handy thing within their business (as opposed to it being an actual service, like for example the O2 Hotspots were.

Companies like Motorhome WiFi originally sold a Router Package with directional Wi-Fi antennas to pick up hotspots, etc. Now the "Motorhome WiFi" package is a WiFi Router with a Mobile SIM and probably an optional 5G Antenna (fixed, not directional) on the roof. Virtually no one should be contemplating fitting a Wi-Fi Antenna to their Motorhome/Campervan roof unless they have a very specific reason for doing so (and watching the TV via a Firestick is not one).

Yes, you are correct wildebus.

 

[merl]

There is a bit of confusion here I think of what "Wi-Fi" is referring to?

Now I think - and Colin can correct me if I am wrong - the original question was on how to run cables from an externally mounted antenna to a router in the van. And that router was a Mobile LTE e.g. 4G/5G router and the external antenna was to pick up better mobile phone ie. LTE reception
In that situation , the "Wi-Fi" bit of the Router stays INSIDE the van for your devices like Firesticks, Tablets, etc and you don't have Wi-Fi Antennas outside, but you might 4G or 5G antennas outside. These 4G/5G antennas are almost never directional and while it can be done with some units, it is very rare for anyone to try and point an LTE (i.e. Mobile phone service) antenna to try and improve their signal strength and usually a waste of time.

Before Mobile Phone Data packages became both very cheap and very fast, it was a bit more common to have a setup where you WOULD have a Wi-Fi Antenna outside in order to pick up services like Wi-Fi Hotspots such as provided by some Shops, Shopping Centres, the FON network (BT FON in the UK) and also on Campsites. To get the best from those Hotspots, pointing a Wi-Fi Receiver/Antenna to the Transmitter had a benefit.
But times have moved on and publically accessible Wi-Fi hotspots are dying. FON is gone and I don't know if any of the other providers still operate theirs beyond just having Wi-Fi as a handy thing within their business (as opposed to it being an actual service, like for example the O2 Hotspots were.

Companies like Motorhome WiFi originally sold a Router Package with directional Wi-Fi antennas to pick up hotspots, etc. Now the "Motorhome WiFi" package is a WiFi Router with a Mobile SIM and probably an optional 5G Antenna (fixed, not directional) on the roof. Virtually no one should be contemplating fitting a Wi-Fi Antenna to their Motorhome/Campervan roof unless they have a very specific reason for doing so (and watching the TV via a Firestick is not one).

Both BT and EE broadband customers have access to the internet via other BT and EEs customers wireless routers so the availability of hotspots for BT and EE customers has increased. As you say times have changed and unlimited data packages and cheap data Sims mean that we rarely use our WiFi antenna but it does come in handy now and again and use it occasionally when the 4g signal is poor.

 

[trevskoda]

Its not a good idea to have any antenna close to another one, one deflection 2 out of fase, keep them over a wave length apart.

 

[Tezza33]

I'm sure Tezza33 (@Tezza33 ) has done this
Maybe message him?

Regards,
Del

I removed a semi automatic pole mounted satellite dish, I left the pole in position and mounted a 5G WiFi antenna to it and ran the cables down the centre, it works brilliantly be cause I can turn the pole from inside the van to get a stronger signal, I have also attached my old Motorhome WiFi antenna to it so that I can pick up BT/EE from a good distance away

 

[YeoBlade]

Or you could simply buy yourself a Netgear wifi router and simply don’t bother with a wifi aerial. I had one of these for my last van and they’re an amazing bit of kit. Try it without an aerial, if you’re not happy, then you could connect it to a roof aerial. But I think you won’t need one. The first model below is the 4G version, you can buy the M6 5G version which is an incredible router pre owned for £199. You can control them using the app

Pardon our interruption...

Pardon our interruption...

This is the Route I'll be going down with my new van, whilst I fitted satellite dishes to the last two, at around £2K a go, I'll take a far amount of data contracts and VPN fees to to get to up to£2k. And fitting the dish isn't the easiest to do.
With such improvements in TVs to almost seamlessly handle data channels now where they were to clunky before.

 

[Fisherman]

This is the Route I'll be going down with my new van, whilst I fitted satellite dishes to the last two, at around £2K a go, I'll take a far amount of data contracts and VPN fees to to get to up to£2k. And fitting the dish isn't the easiest to do.
With such improvements in TVs to almost seamlessly handle data channels now where they were to clunky before.

I have used Netgear equipment, and I swear by it. I only have a 5G system fitted in my current van because the dealer did it for free owing to a mistake they made with my order. It’s a Motorhome WiFi system, and it’s good. But even with a 5G aerial on the roof it’s not much better than my old Netgear M2. I can only wonder what an M6 with 5G would be like. The Op is worried about drilling holes for an aerial, I honestly don’t think he would require an aerial with a Netgear router. I regret selling mine, I should have kept as a back up.

 

[YeoBlade]

I have used Netgear equipment, and I swear by it. I only have a 5G system fitted in my current van because the dealer did it for free owing to a mistake they made with my order. It’s a Motorhome WiFi system, and it’s good. But even with a 5G aerial on the roof it’s not much better than my old Netgear M2. I can only wonder what an M6 with 5G would be like. The Op is worried about drilling holes for an aerial, I honestly don’t think he would require an aerial with a Netgear router. I regret selling mine, I should have kept as a back up.

I've just bought this one on ebay for £199 :NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 5G (MR6110) Mobile Router Unlocked. (used)
Thanks for your recommendations Bill, and if it's no good I'll sell it to you so you then have a backup

 

[Fisherman]

I've just bought this one on ebay for £199 :NETGEAR Nighthawk M6 5G (MR6110) Mobile Router Unlocked. (used)
Thanks for your recommendations Bill, and if it's no good I'll sell it to you so you then have a backup

You won’t be disappointed.

 

[Nabsim]

I have vents in the back of a couple of cupboards from when a 3way fridge was fitted. Top cupboard I used to use an antenna for the small router. Not used that for years now though. Have a puck antenna on the roof and Teltonika router in the cupboard if I need to use roof antenna.

Over the years I have found the vision type aerial very annoying and pretty below par. I ended up junking the last one and blanking the hole. If I ever need to use an aerial I have one of those figure of 8 Avtex jobs but usually strea m anything iwant

 

[Mtbcol]

I have used Netgear equipment, and I swear by it. I only have a 5G system fitted in my current van because the dealer did it for free owing to a mistake they made with my order. It’s a Motorhome WiFi system, and it’s good. But even with a 5G aerial on the roof it’s not much better than my old Netgear M2. I can only wonder what an M6 with 5G would be like. The Op is worried about drilling holes for an aerial, I honestly don’t think he would require an aerial with a Netgear router. I regret selling mine, I should have kept as a back up.

Hi Fisherman. I've just purchased an M2 now, so hopefully no holes in the roof

 

[Fisherman]

Hi Fisherman. I've just purchased an M2 now, so hopefully no holes in the roof

Your only issue may be if you have a metal van.
But you will be able to move the M2 around to find the best signal. I would reckon up front on the dash or near any window would be best. Those with plastic vans don’t have this issue. I hope you are pleased with your M2

 

[merl]

Those with plastic vans don’t have this issue.

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