I’ve placed a HaLowLink in my 4WD to create a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi hotspot around the vehicle, so that the car (and people inside) can get internet access when driving around the property. The HaLowLink in the vehicle connects over sub-GHz 802.11ah to the HaLowLink plugged into my Starlink at the house, which works well.
To get even longer range I am looking to mount an external antenna on my vehicle. Curious if anyone here has experience with 900MHz antennas that can be mounted on a bullbar?
There seem to be a number of LTE antennas that support the 900MHz band, see eg:
This app note explaining how to use HaLowLink to bridge internet access via Starlink was a great source of information by the way: Wi-Fi HaLow Uplink | App Note 35
I’ve done a lot of this - it’s a good use case. I started with gaffer tape and tape HaLow and battery to roof rack. For higher gain/more permanent you can buy a nice antennae from Digikey or the RF Shop in Adelaide - there are many cheap Chinese antennas on AliExpress. (They tell porkies about gain in general though). Next thing is how to mount - I mount antenna and radio in IP65/68 box on the bullbar or on the roll bar. Use an Anderson Connector for 12V power then it’s easy to put in and out. Zetifi in Wagga actually produce an antenna that has all the fittings and an SMA connector. I must admit to having one, but not having tried it but it should work well. Once you’ve done the mobile go back to the base - put a 9dBi vertical on your base up high. ( Diamond Antenna BC920 Diamond Antenna BC920 Base Station/Repeater Antennas | DX Engineering ) With your 3-5dBi mobile antenna you’ll get 10-15Km coverage.
Dan here from Zetifi. We haven’t launched a commercially available 900MHz antenna yet but are working on some prototypes. If anyone is interested in being involved in testing etc please let me know.
I’ve a HaLow STA on my ATV. The issue I had (very rough terrain) was the AP aerial. I ended up using a fibreglass 3dbi 40mm LoRa aerial which gave me 400m range from the AP in dense forest. Didn’t have to have anything special on the vehicle. Starlink was my backhaul but I switched to a 4G solar router as Starlink was a bit heavy on power.
