The Geodrone unmanned vessel, communicates using POYNTING antennas

Do you sometimes dream of hitting the road and visiting beautiful spots off the beaten track? This #VanLife dream turned into reality for Jason and his family. As this was a working holiday, he needed a stable and reliable internet connection.

The Background

Jason Robertson had planned a seven-week working family holiday from July to August driving from the Orkney Islands, a group of more than 70 islands and islets in Scotland, lying about 20 miles (32 km) north of the Scottish mainland across the strait known as the Pentland Firth, and down the west coast of Scotland into Ireland.

The Challenge

As this was a working holiday, internet connection was very important.
They knew that cellular coverage would be intermittent and that their phone coverage in the motorhome wouldn’t be able to provide them with the connectivity that they needed.

With three small children who are home schooled and running a business using video calling, email, audio calls, virtual meetings and synchronizing photos and videos to iCloud, Cloud Storage, good internet connection was non-negotiable.

They were also travelling in tandem with their parents in another motor home that would need to piggyback off their internet connection.

POYNTING MIMO-3 and PUCK.

The Solution

They needed external antennas that would be compatible with the Celerway 5G Arcus modem. The antennas needed to be easy to mount on the roof of their motorhome and watertight, safe, and secure. They opted for three POYNTING antennas secured to the roof of the motorhome which gave optimal signal and omni-directional coverage, so whatever direction the signal was coming from the antennas picked it up.

When their phones only had one bar of signal on 4G, the POYNTING antennas on the roof had two or 3 bars of 4G, whilst driving through Ireland, Scotland, and the very remote Orkney Islands. Jason installed the antennas using a traditional set up, running the coax cable directly into the 5G modem, which lives inside the motorhome. He drilled a hole through the motorhome roof and mounted the antennas using the supplied waterproof seal and nut clamp assembly that comes standard with the antennas.

The setup:

  • Two 5G Modules with 8 LTE connections in total
  • One 4G Module with 2 LTE connections in total
  • 5-in-1 POYNTING transportation antenna – connected to 1 x 5G Modem with 2 x Wi-Fi and 1 x GPS
  • 7-in-1 POYNTING transportation antenna – connected to 1 x 5G Modem with 2 x Wi-Fi and 1 x GPS
  • 3-in-1 POYNTING Puck antenna – 2 LTE on the third SIM card and 1 x Wi-Fi.

“The peace of mind it gave us, even when roaming far afield in remote parts of Scotland was second to none. We would never venture off on a motorhome journey without this setup again.” – Jason Robertson

Location of vacation

The Result

According to Jason this was the perfect solution for their needs. Connectivity was not a consideration when deciding where to go next. They simply plotted a course and ventured where they wanted – knowing that their 5G modem would have coverage while travelling to remote uninhabited locations, including islands that are only accessed by ferry.

Jason often did speed tests while driving around. He measured speeds of up to 108 Mbps download and 39 Mbps upload. The measurement that impressed him most was taken on the ferry in the middle of the Pentland Firth. His mobile phone did not get any signal, but with the POYNTING antenna they got 17 Mbps down at the peak and 9 Mbps up!

MIMO-3 & Puck Roof Installation

Speed test using the POYNTING Antennas while on the ferry across Pentland Firth

MIMO-3 Roof Installation

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