Wifi booster aerial connection

wizard

wizard

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I have just set up an R36a wifi booster kit which came with a unit which attaches to the aerial with a usb socket inside for a usb cable frm the R36a.

I would rather have the aerial connected to a lead and then to the usb connection on the inside of the boat for reliability reasons.

Has anyone done this and can reccomend a suitable system?

Reception is now unbelievably stable.
 
If you start to extend the coaxial (antenna) conn3ction, you’ll loose your current gains very quickly and be back to where you were before as coax cable is ordinarily very lossy unless you start fitting LMR, etc

Be best come up with a practical solution on waterproofing your current system.
 
matthewriches said:
If you start to extend the coaxial (antenna) conn3ction, you’ll loose your current gains very quickly and be back to where you were before as coax cable is ordinarily very lossy unless you start fitting LMR, etc

Be best come up with a practical solution on waterproofing your current system.
Click to expand...

Good point, thanks.
 
I fitted the system you describe in spring 2014. I ran a 5m USB cable through a cable gland into the accommodation to the r36. Self amalgamating tape around the external USB connection has kept it functioning since then.
 
I have extended USB cables significant (10M +) distances which is way over spec.

You need a four core cable. I cut a usb cable near one end, spliced in the new cable. Worked fine for years.

I used Cat6 cable, and spliced wires together to double the effective size. On a boat i would solder and heat shrink the spliced areas.

This also makes it easy to pass a cable through a tight hole.
 
A well-made coax lead of suitable cable should not introduce disastrous loss if it's not stupidly long.
A 2m cable might have a loss of 3dB, which sounds like 'sod that, it's half the power', but it's often a price well worth paying to get your antenna higher up, into something a lot more like free space transmission.
I evaluated some cheap cables from ebay and elsewhere a while back, I don't recall the exact numbers, but the gist of it is that if you have problems, trying an extension cable is a reasonable approach.
Bear in mind that the path loss budget for wifi is over 100dB, so a few dB in cable isn't out of order.
 
lw395 said:
A 2m cable might have a loss of 3dB, which sounds like 'sod that, it's half the power', but it's often a price well worth paying to get your antenna higher up, into something a lot more like free space transmission.
Click to expand...

But if you can make the radio small, attach it directly to the antenna and send it up as well, on the end of a data connection not subject to coax loss, then you get the best of both worlds. That’s exactly how the OP’s system was designed to operate; I’m not familiar with his specific kit but it’s quite a common approach for WiFi and other high frequency (not HF :)) data radios.

Pete
 
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