Vesper Cortex Cellular Antenna

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by michaeld

I contacted Vesper about the antenna cable length. It was recommended NOT to go longer. I didn't get any background details as to why.

Cell signal loss on antenna cables is far worse than the horrible loss on VHF cables. 20' may well consume all the benefits of the high gain antenna (or more!). I have an antenna for my hot spot, and for this reason use a 6 INCH antenna cable. When I need the high gain performance, I take the hot spot on deck and dangle it from the antenna. Yeah, clunky, but I wanted to minimize signal loss.

[Nate24]

I have a Cortex. I have the same problem with the reception because I chose to mount it in the ER. I have also looked at the Vesper antenna and agree that it is over priced. A friend of mine has the same setup on the same boat in Annapolis, while I am on the Tennessee River. He gets reception at his marina, but not out in the bay marginally away from towers.

We were both struggling with WiFi reception on the hand held. We connected the stock WiFi antenna to an rp-SMA cable which connected to the WiFi antenna output on the vesper. I may buy a cell antenna and cable and run it up under the lower helm and see I get the same improvement that we got from the WiFi antenna. Two very different use cases, but saw an improvement when moving the reception out of the ER.

I do have a Pepwave 42G antenna up top and might try a connection there (35 foot run) to see if that would work. The cable connection at the Vesper is RP-SMA while your cellular antenna may be straight SMA (or something else). First buy the antenna, then get the cable to match. By the time you are done, you may decide the price differential isn’t that much.

I too would like to see if anyone has hooked another antenna up successfully. I believe the SIM card they Besper uses is T Mobile.

[subdude]

Originally Posted by pbyrne

Starlink would be a great! But, I don't have that. The issue with Wifi is that it isn't going to be near by, and I won't have the uid or pwd even if it was.

My primary use case for cell is off the boat, and monitoring any dragging, while at anchor, and I'm not on the boat. I don't see any alternative other than a cell antenna... assuming the internal isn't enough.

Same boat. My Cortex M1 is mounted inside a cabinet next to the breaker panel and has only the internal cell antenna. Add to that, the boat is moored on a ball in a dead zone. Because the hub doesn't receive cellular updates on a regular basis, the monitor app doesn't receive updated tracking 2x daily, as it does with a good signal (LITE version). Updates average around 2x a week depending on when/if a signal is available (unhelpful if you're on the hook).

I agree the Vesper external antenna is probably a waste of money. So, wondering if a cell booster like the weBoost Marine might be required: https://powerfulsignal.com/marine-we...panel-antenna/, spendy but maybe worth it?

I echo the earlier poster: it would be nice to be able to share the booster with other devices aboard, too.

In Cortex setup, you can choose to use the internal, external cellular antenna--or an existing onboard network (modem, router, etc) = $$

Garmin TS is slow and not all that helpful on Vesper questions. Following this thread, curious what we come up with