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Antenna for CF-33 Toughbook with Gamber Johnson Dock

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weaverra

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I'm looking to possibly add an "external" antenna to my docked CF-33 to improve cellular reception on my MDT. I can't add any permanent external solution. However I did have the thought of adding an external antennal via the connectors on the dock. When my CF-33 is docked it seems to degrade the signal. If I undock the CF-33 it seems to do better with less dropouts. The bios is set to use the internal antenna. Would adding an external antenna set on my dash help with the cellular reception? I was thinking something like this https://www.amazon.com/AntennaPlus-LTE-GPS-Antenna-Panasonic/dp/B07KQJH8QC
 

FFPM571

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that air gain antenna needs a 3/4 hole in your roof to mount properly.. setting it on the dash really wont get you anything
 

mmckenna

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Yeah, I agree. Sort of a waste to spend that much on an antenna and then just stick it on the dash. Part of the problem is that the antenna is inside the vehicle, which can act like a Faraday cage.

Getting an antenna outside the vehicle would provide much better performance.

And if this is an issue, I'd talk to your agency and find out why they didn't do the install correctly in the first place. We run external antennas on all our MDT's.
 

weaverra

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that air gain antenna needs a 3/4 hole in your roof to mount properly.. setting it on the dash really wont get you anything

I do believe they have an adhesive version. For example when sitting in front of my house I get nothing when it's docked. However when I undock it I immediately get a good signal. I can't see the actual reception in gain, but I go from zero bars to 3 immediately. It was docked for several minutes while testing and as soon as I undocked it I immediately got a signal. I tried this several times.
 

weaverra

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Yeah, I agree. Sort of a waste to spend that much on an antenna and then just stick it on the dash. Part of the problem is that the antenna is inside the vehicle, which can act like a Faraday cage.

Getting an antenna outside the vehicle would provide much better performance.

I totally agree that it being external would be better. However I'm just puzzled as to why I can sit in front of my house with it docked and I get no signal, but the moment I undock it I immediately get a usable signal.


And if this is an issue, I'd talk to your agency and find out why they didn't do the install correctly in the first place. We run external antennas on all our MDT's.

Honestly, I don't really understand the rational behind it. I've asked and IT just told me they don't use external antennas. Sometimes our A units have trouble inside the vehicle, but the in car radio with an external antenna will get out just fine.
 

mmckenna

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GPSC-7-27 | Dashboard / Windsheild 2G/3G/4G LTE + GPS/GNSS Antenna

I actually ordered this antenna that was recommended on the Gamber Johnson website. It's seems perfect for the situation I need it for. I figured for $50 I could try it to see if I get an improvement when docked.


That is probably a good solution. I was going to recommend one of the 'stick on' antennas. There's some companies that make a thin blade type antenna that sticks to the inside of the window and you'd route the coax up through the headliner and trim. Locally our sheriffs office uses them for WiFi. When the vehicle pulls back into the yard, the MDT uploads/downloads stuff over their WiFi network. Goes back to the days when the cellular networks had data caps, so storing big files/updates until it could be done over WiFi made financial sense.

Let us know how it works.
 

weaverra

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That is probably a good solution. I was going to recommend one of the 'stick on' antennas. There's some companies that make a thin blade type antenna that sticks to the inside of the window and you'd route the coax up through the headliner and trim. Locally our sheriffs office uses them for WiFi. When the vehicle pulls back into the yard, the MDT uploads/downloads stuff over their WiFi network. Goes back to the days when the cellular networks had data caps, so storing big files/updates until it could be done over WiFi made financial sense.

Let us know how it works.

It's just really bizarre even after switching to another CF-33 I have similar issues and similar symptoms. I'm in a 2005 crown vic and they just bolted the dock on the existing mount which is bolted to the floorboard down the middle of the seats. I know when I had the older GETAC tablet we did use external antennas for GPS and LTE. It's very possible that for some reason the actual mount may be interfering with the reception. I looks like plate steel bolted together.
 
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