USB dongle with SMA connector - advice please

We're going on holiday soon and the place has virtually
zero mobile phone signal. In the past I've been able to
get maybe 1, sometimes 2 bars on my 6233 with Vodafone
and less with any other provider. This signal just about
gives us a GPRS signal, but isn't good enough for 3G.
Since there's no landline, this pretty much kills off any
possibility of internet access.

The plan is to get a 3G USB dongle and connect it up to
an external antenna, like the one here:
http://tinyurl.com/3rykuo
This has an SMA connector, so we'll need a device
that can take this. It would be nice if it worked with
Vodafone or was unlockable.

Any ideas?

Pete

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pete <[email protected]> wrote:
> The plan is to get a 3G USB dongle and connect it up to
> an external antenna, like the one here:
> http://tinyurl.com/3rykuo
> This has an SMA connector, so we'll need a device
> that can take this. It would be nice if it worked with
> Vodafone or was unlockable.

I think some dongles have an SMA connector under a rubber cover, but don't
know of any examples.

However, a few other ideas:

How about stringing up the dongle where the antenna would go, and running a
long USB cable? Maybe use a bowl as a parabolic reflector to boost the
signal?

How about sticking a Bluetooth or wifi phone somewhere with signal
(windowsill, balcony, roof?). Then use a laptop or another phone to connect
to it. I've done this in reinforced concrete buildings where GSM signals
don't penetrate too far, but the balcony was too hot to sit for long
periods.

Theo

> Pete

What about a router with a USB port which suports 3G dongles such as a
Draytek2800g http://www.draytek.com/product/adsl2plus/vigor2800G.php

or there are 3G routers on the market with antenna conectors eg:
www.westbaseuk.com but these tend to be big money!

Phill

"pete" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We're going on holiday soon and the place has virtually
> zero mobile phone signal. In the past I've been able to
> get maybe 1, sometimes 2 bars on my 6233 with Vodafone
> and less with any other provider. This signal just about
> gives us a GPRS signal, but isn't good enough for 3G.
> Since there's no landline, this pretty much kills off any
> possibility of internet access.
>
> The plan is to get a 3G USB dongle and connect it up to
> an external antenna, like the one here:
> http://tinyurl.com/3rykuo
> This has an SMA connector, so we'll need a device
> that can take this. It would be nice if it worked with
> Vodafone or was unlockable.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Pete

1. That is a picture of a log periodic to cover several bands. If you know
what band you will be using you should be able to buy / make a smaller yagi
with larger gain.

2. If you can find a USB dongle with an aerial socket at all, you can
probably get a converter to SMA see
http://www.pasternack.com/searchresu...-wizard&page=1,
but there will be a small insertion loss.

3. Use a USB cable to get to a good position and then a very short
connection to the aerial.

4. If you can work out where the antenna is inside the dongle, you could try
and construct a yagi, with that at the dipole position, or as you say a
parabolic dish (e.g. use an el cheapo satellite dish and tape the dongle
where the LNB goes..

On Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:06:41 +0100, R. Mark Clayton wrote:
>
> "pete" <[email protected]> wrote in message
...
>> The plan is to get a 3G USB dongle and connect it up to
>> an external antenna, like the one here:
>> http://tinyurl.com/3rykuo
>> This has an SMA connector, so we'll need a device
>> that can take this. It would be nice if it worked with
>> Vodafone or was unlockable.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Pete
>
> 1. That is a picture of a log periodic to cover several bands. If you know
> what band you will be using you should be able to buy / make a smaller yagi
> with larger gain.
>
> 2. If you can find a USB dongle with an aerial socket at all, you can
> probably get a converter to SMA see
> http://www.pasternack.com/searchresu...-wizard&page=1,
> but there will be a small insertion loss.
>
> 3. Use a USB cable to get to a good position and then a very short
> connection to the aerial.
>
> 4. If you can work out where the antenna is inside the dongle, you could try
> and construct a yagi, with that at the dipole position, or as you say a
> parabolic dish (e.g. use an el cheapo satellite dish and tape the dongle
> where the LNB goes..
>
Thanks for that Mark. As you imply, the reason we want to use a USB
dongle is to reduce the RF cable length to it's absolute minimum -
something that the routers which take PC cards aren't designed for.
By having just a short run of RF cable and a long run of USB, we'll
keep losses to a minimum.
The dongle we have in mind is the LM-003, but were hoping for some
other recommendations from the group - it looks like there aren't
any alternatives.
We had considered the satellite dish approach (as well as an up-scaled
wi-fi antenna: a larger version of the pringles can) but want something
that's got a more robust attachment between the dongle and the passive
element. Hence the reason we were looking at commercial antennas.

Pete

pete <[email protected]> writes:

> a long run of USB

The longest standard USB cable is 5 m.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB#USB_cables

--
Pete Forman -./\.- Disclaimer: This post is originated
WesternGeco -./\.- by myself and does not represent
[email protected] -./\.- the opinion of Schlumberger or
http://petef.22web.net -./\.- WesternGeco.

Pete Forman wrote:
> pete <[email protected]> writes:
>
> > a long run of USB
>
> The longest standard USB cable is 5 m.

You can string several together, if you use a range extender or a usb
hub between each.