CEL-FI Go Aerial

[timsarg]

Originally Posted by drover

When needing a good signal its all about the aerial and location, my van set up will get a better signal than the SiL's Cel Fi because my aerial is higher and thats the thing its all about location, my Nighthawk WiFi is only available to those logged on, the Cel Fi is only a signal re transmitter and is available to anyone who is in the envelope...... Cel Fi can be used by your phone to Hotspot for data to run your laptop or other gear or a mobile broadband modem will connect ..

If your really techo and know where the tower is you can even lock on to it with a yagi aerial which will give you even greater range for signal reception but a normal stick job on a vehicle unless your on a hill is 50k at most even though they say your good for 100km, my best has been about 40kms with bush around and the aerial about 15 ft above ground.....

If your looking for the nearest tower when travelling or checking camp sites use this site to find it..... https://www.rfnsa.com.au/home Google earth using the elevation module is great for showing if any hills in the way, its surprising how many flat areas aren't.

all of this is made redundant by starlink . Currently in the process of hard mounting my starlink to the car.

[brianvicki]

Cel-fi is a good option initially for phone strength and no fees, Starlink has problems with tress, hills , power drawer and monthly fees, I’m waiting to the end of the year for other products coming on board before going with a Starlink type product….

[drover]

When I'm in a no phone zone, only a Sat phone would be any good........ Starlink I have looked at in depth and is quite attractive if not for the monthly cost, every communication device is trouble by tree's, buildings and hills, when I set up camp its all taken into account, tower location, tree's for Sat dish shadow as well as sun movement for solar ....
Cel Fi being a re-transmitter is really ideal, until they came out something like that was illegal to use mainly because of interference, thats why they are carrier specific so if you buy one you don't want to change carrier and make sure your phones/tablet etc operate on all that carriers frequencies..... where CelFi excells is at home where there is little signal so with the aerial on the roof and the slave inside you can at least get the signal to cover the house area, one would be handy where we live as my mobile broadband needs the aerial on roof to get decent internet and when I get Mrs D a new phone it has to be WiFi Call capable we are in a dead zone and only 5 kms from tower and she has to be in a certain spot to use the phone at present ........ I made a nice Yagi many years ago and stuck it up on the TV pole to pick up 700mhz band 28 ....... at the old place I inverted a sat dish, replaced the LNB with a 2 element set up and locked onto a tower over 11 kms away to get magic internet as our land line was crap, haven't had a land line for 20 years so pulling a signal where there is little or none has been a challenge for many years...

[timsarg]

Originally Posted by drover

When I'm in a no phone zone, only a Sat phone would be any good........

sat phone and starlink at the end of the day are connecting the same . Both need to connect to a satellite . I've ditched the sat phone and now just carrying a plb for those ultra emergency situations and run with the starlink in place of a sat phone . i can wifi call , vpn into work and watch netflix all for $170 a month .

Sat phone if used in the same way is much more expensive than starlink.

[timsarg]

Originally Posted by brianvicki

Cel-fi is a good option initially for phone strength and no fees, Starlink has problems with tress, hills , power drawer and monthly fees, I’m waiting to the end of the year for other products coming on board before going with a Starlink type product….

starlink to some seems expensive but it does one job and does it exceptionally well ALL over australia . Trees are are minor issue and i have camped up in areas with heavy tree cover and only suffer minor dropouts from time to time . Bring clouds and bad weather into the equation and sat phones don't work that well and can be hit and miss. Starlink on the other hand works brilliant during shitty weather


As for power draw well it pulls around 10amp on startup while it is locking onto the satellites but once it is locked on which only takes 5-10 minutes it pulls around 2-3amp which is no more than a fridge .

my starlink runs off 12v.

[drover]

Originally Posted by timsarg

starlink to some seems expensive but it does one job and does it exceptionally well ALL over australia . Trees are are minor issue and i have camped up in areas with heavy tree cover and only suffer minor dropouts from time to time . Bring clouds and bad weather into the equation and sat phones don't work that well and can be hit and miss. Starlink on the other hand works brilliant during shitty weather


As for power draw well it pulls around 10amp on startup while it is locking onto the satellites but once it is locked on which only takes 5-10 minutes it pulls around 2-3amp which is no more than a fridge .

my starlink runs off 12v.

I have been tempted so much for Starlink, especially as our internet is so crappy around here especially since NBN got fired up the mobile speeds have dropped considerably.................. With my Sat dish in areas of lots of tree's I point to north, hold my arm up at 45 deg and find a clear view of sky, thats the spot I park the van so dish has a clear view I would more than likely do the same with a Skylink for a clear view of its part of sky.............

For the internet so long as I have a line of sight to the tower I can pull a signal, sometimes I bring a Yagi for long distance but thats a lot of fiddling, of course line of sight doesn't mean in view, it just means that there's nothing between the 2 aerials, all these high frequency signals need line of sight ... thats why TV, Radio and phones nowadays including UHF CB is short range stuff.
Be nice to have a Starlink for on the road and a Cel Fi as I like gadgets but cost means I have to look for the economy modes which surprisingly can work just as well.

[Robbo1]

Hi mate, great setup.

How does the AM/FM/DAB Radio perform in the car with those antennas nearby ?

Do you get any interference on your sound system, when transmitting on either those antennas ?

Cheers

Robbo