jeremyshaw
New member
A while ago I said I’d report on this wifi antenna when I was able to test it properly.
I have now done that and had very good results.
Right now we are in Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I have been able to connect to a hotspot which my plotter tells me is 0.6nm away. I call that good. I have downloaded about 20mb of podcasts and uploaded about 40mb of backup files. I’ve also been able to get a VPN connection. It’s not all that quick, but that could be caused by all kinds of things as well as a weak signal. In about 4 hours of use it has dropped once – maybe when the ferry went past!
The unit (about half the size of a fag packet) is perched on the coachroof in a plastic bag (it is not waterproof, unlike the original Wave RV). I’m using an active extender cable to get the length I need, and Vista.
The hotspot is showing between 2 and 3 out of 5 bars signal strength. In addition I can see one other 3 bar station, 7 at 2 bars and 4 at 1 bar.
But maybe my old Linksys USB antenna would be just as good? I put that out to test and could not see the hotspot at all. All I could see were 4 other stations at 2 bars and none at 1, though the Linksys appeared to be fading in and out a lot more. I am not sure how omnidirectional the Linksys is – the Wave RV is definitely omnidirectional.
I could never get the original Wave RV to work (sent back two) though friends had success with theirs. The problem was with the drivers, but I have had no problems with the Wave RVII, which I got directly from Radio Labs in the US - I don' think there is a UK dealer. At USD130 (plus shipping) it's not cheap, but it does seem to work!
I have now done that and had very good results.
Right now we are in Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. I have been able to connect to a hotspot which my plotter tells me is 0.6nm away. I call that good. I have downloaded about 20mb of podcasts and uploaded about 40mb of backup files. I’ve also been able to get a VPN connection. It’s not all that quick, but that could be caused by all kinds of things as well as a weak signal. In about 4 hours of use it has dropped once – maybe when the ferry went past!
The unit (about half the size of a fag packet) is perched on the coachroof in a plastic bag (it is not waterproof, unlike the original Wave RV). I’m using an active extender cable to get the length I need, and Vista.
The hotspot is showing between 2 and 3 out of 5 bars signal strength. In addition I can see one other 3 bar station, 7 at 2 bars and 4 at 1 bar.
But maybe my old Linksys USB antenna would be just as good? I put that out to test and could not see the hotspot at all. All I could see were 4 other stations at 2 bars and none at 1, though the Linksys appeared to be fading in and out a lot more. I am not sure how omnidirectional the Linksys is – the Wave RV is definitely omnidirectional.
I could never get the original Wave RV to work (sent back two) though friends had success with theirs. The problem was with the drivers, but I have had no problems with the Wave RVII, which I got directly from Radio Labs in the US - I don' think there is a UK dealer. At USD130 (plus shipping) it's not cheap, but it does seem to work!