Antenna sharing

Hardware
1

If I have a wideband antenna (say 600-2700MHz), is it possible to share this one antenna between my cellular Notecard, Starnote and GPS hardware, using a 3-way u.FL cable splitter?

1 Like
2

rberkelm

Great idea. I did have the same thoughts. I ordered a few splitters and I will test it. Yesterday got a Notecarrier-XS board in and they are very nice. Not sure when I can report back to you.

Regards
Rob Oudendijk

3

Thanks Rob, I’d love to hear how you go with the splitter. Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to share the antenna for concurrent functions, but then, I don’t think the Notecard allows for e.g. the GPS to perform a fix while also doing a sync. I’d like to hear from the Blue guys have to say on this. I also noticed during the Starnote webinar that TJ had antennas attached to the GPS connectors of both the Starnote AND the Notecard. I wonder if you could just connect the Starnote GPS antenna if you only need to send the lat/longs while on NTN?

1 Like
4

rberkelm

Here is my current setup with a M5Stack AtomLite.

S5630015
S56300152048Ă—1570 242 KB

Regards,
Rob Oudendijk

2 Likes
5

Hi All,

Our opinion is “no” - if transmit occurs on the same line as a receiver it will overload the receiver. If multiple receivers share the same receive-only antenna, they would need to have a custom matching network of some kind.

Thanks,
Rob

2 Likes
6

Rob,

Thanks for letting us know.

Regards
Rob

7

Thanks for clearing that up Rob. Can you also please clarify which GPS is used for getting a fix over NTN - is it only the Starnote?

8

Hi @rberkelm,

When the Starnote needs to update its location, it uses its onboard GPS module (not the Notecards). You can override this by setting a “fixed” GPS position if your deployment won’t be in motion.

Rob

1 Like