EricGermann
Posted a question earlier today on laptops and got some good answers. One thing they brought up was the how indispensable WiFi is, so that leads to another question (and another thread to keep it clean).
Again, outfitting a truck for 2 purposes: 1) ARES (Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for Digital Comms) and 2) storm spotting in conjunction with EMA, personal interest, etc.
I settled on Alltel for a mobile broadband solution for the time being based on posts from here. I also have a Sprint modem from work. My next thought is to move to a Cradlepoint router. I'm looking at two models:
1. CTR500 with external antenna capability
2. MBR1000 with 11n
Now, I know 11n for speed isn't an issue since the EVDO modem will only do 3.1Mbps peak.
Main purpose is to provide connectivity in the truck (could even be wired to the router for that matter, since there will be a snake of cables to the back for ham gear). It would be nice to be able to then flip to a mobile Go-truck mode for disaster support. If 3G connections are available, being able to use it as a hotspot for EmComm would be great. Note I already do email over HF at very low speeds.
It comes down to this logic:
1. With the CTR500, it's 11b/g with less distance than 11n, but you can hook a higher gain outside antenna to it to make an external hotspot.
2. With the MBR1000, it's 11n which MAY give you more distance but the antenna's are permanently attached. This also appears to support multiple modems so I could use Alltel and Sprint if I wanted (although 6M in a rolling car is a little ridiculous I think ...)
I'm sort of leaning towards the 1000, although the extended distance may be a function of 11n, so you may need an 11n wireless card to get it. I suppose for greater distance, one could always slap up a second access point attached to the LAN ports of the router.
What would you do if you were starting from scratch?
Eric Germann
N1ICS
Again, outfitting a truck for 2 purposes: 1) ARES (Assistant District Emergency Coordinator for Digital Comms) and 2) storm spotting in conjunction with EMA, personal interest, etc.
I settled on Alltel for a mobile broadband solution for the time being based on posts from here. I also have a Sprint modem from work. My next thought is to move to a Cradlepoint router. I'm looking at two models:
1. CTR500 with external antenna capability
2. MBR1000 with 11n
Now, I know 11n for speed isn't an issue since the EVDO modem will only do 3.1Mbps peak.
Main purpose is to provide connectivity in the truck (could even be wired to the router for that matter, since there will be a snake of cables to the back for ham gear). It would be nice to be able to then flip to a mobile Go-truck mode for disaster support. If 3G connections are available, being able to use it as a hotspot for EmComm would be great. Note I already do email over HF at very low speeds.
It comes down to this logic:
1. With the CTR500, it's 11b/g with less distance than 11n, but you can hook a higher gain outside antenna to it to make an external hotspot.
2. With the MBR1000, it's 11n which MAY give you more distance but the antenna's are permanently attached. This also appears to support multiple modems so I could use Alltel and Sprint if I wanted (although 6M in a rolling car is a little ridiculous I think ...)
I'm sort of leaning towards the 1000, although the extended distance may be a function of 11n, so you may need an 11n wireless card to get it. I suppose for greater distance, one could always slap up a second access point attached to the LAN ports of the router.
What would you do if you were starting from scratch?
Eric Germann
N1ICS
