I'm fed up with p*ss poor tv signals, fiddling with interior/exterior aerials. Reading an ad in the Caravan club for Avtect "Mobile Internet Solutions". How do they work? Are they any good? Will they work abroad? Are they worth the money?Are there any monthly subscription or other charges? Comments and advice very welcome.
Not commenting on brand/device specific set up, however, I paid a lot of money to have a super duper MiFi system, 5G ready with a roof mounted antenna, so that I could have internet access for work when I am on the road in the van.
I discovered no matter how good a system, it cannot boost a signal where there is none, and pockets of mobile signal blackholes still exist in remote areas.
I now have a mobile phone contract with data with all 4 major service providers, and still perform signal checks as part of my site recce process just in case it does not have any coverage.
Good luck, hopefully others will chime in soon.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
I have a mifi router a bought a used TP-LINK ARCHER MR500 which states upto 300Mbpsfor £55 off fleabay, I also have an external aerial Poynting A-XPOL-0001-V2-21 X-Polarised also used off ebay £60 and use EE sim card.
I fitted it in June this year and doing speed tests it varied even from day to day on the same site (20Mbps to 100Mbps) so like dk168 said it all depends on the signal. I would look at Youtube, which I did, go down the used route, save money then decide it its worth it.
We use 2 Firesticks (not all the time and not always at the same time) and 2 mobile phones, most of the time seem less depending on signal that is.
Your TV solution depends as much on your camp site locations as any particular 'technological' solution - VERY MUCH horses for courses!
Personally, many of my chosen camp sites have been in very poor mobile phone signal areas, or at least there may only be one network with any significant signal, so you NEED a sim card for that particular network! - which means as you travel around, you may need a selection of sims to cover ALL the networks, and utilise the best one to be anything like sure of reception!
As DK and others have found, expensive top grade equipment cannot magically make a signal appear from nowhere! If the signal is not there, it's NOT there! Only hope is that the equipment can capture a weak signal better than say a regular phone would! TBH, the mobile network signal coverage maps they make available to users can be wildly optimistic in marginal areas! 50 or 100 yds can see you in or out of a reception zone when actually on the ground! It's really not so different to trying to get a signal with a TV aerial!
Whilst I've often been 'off grid' in terms of a mobile phone signal, can't think of a time I've failed to pick up a TV signal with the bog standard OEM fit Vision Plus directional aerial on my caravan, even when in amongst trees it's worked well enough to receive most available channels to an acceptable degree.
Well known that the directional aerials you need to manually align with a transmitter are superior to omni-directional ones which are supposed to pick up any local signal without manual alignment, but often struggle. But to get the best out of directional ones, you need to know location of best and most powerful transmitter for your location, and whether the broadcast signal is horizontal or vertically aligned, and set your aerial accordingly. It's not at all difficult when you learn how to do it.
Also, if you have an aerial amplifier and you are in a very strong signal area, you can compromise the reception quality if the amplification is set too high.
Just to confuse reception issues further, there are two types of transmitter to be found, one broadcasts the full range of terrestrial channels, the other known as Freeview Light/Lite or Local Service transmitter only broadcasts a fraction of the channels to usually outlying communities who are screened from the main transmitters by things like hills or tall buildings etc.
I also carry a portable satellite dish in the van, but that is not always usable if there are trees or other obstacles that interfere with a clear view of the necessary bit of sky.
Putting all of the above together, you come to the conclusion than no one solution is fool proof, to be certain of reception, you may need to cover all the means available - horses for courses!
There are a few free Apps for mobile phones that can give you TV transmitter location and type details for you camping location, if your phone has an inbuilt compass, they even help you align aerial with the transmitter.
I gave up on getting good TV signals, and carry over 90 DVDs instead.
Now that I have more chances of getting a good internet connection with a data SIM for all for network providers, I should be able to stream using my laptop.
However, it would mean not being able to do anything meaningful on my laptop while streaming, so I don't usually bother and have a DVD in the background instead.
I don't what much TV or streaming when I am at home, so it is fine by me. Classic FM is good enough.
DK
------------- Apple The Campervan - A Van For Work, Rest & Play!
- 2027: ? NL+DE+FR
- 2026: FR+DE
- 2025: 17/77
'24: 10/49; '23: 9/47;'22: 8/46; '21: 9/34
* Ex-tenter
* Treat life events like a dog: if you can't eat it, play with it or hump it, p1$$ on it and walk away!
For something specific on tv that’s less good on demand when we get home (golf..) we tether the iPad to the mobile that has most data. We’re usually in Scotland where Vodafone covers the biggest area. If you can’t get them, you’re unlikely to get any of the other providers up here; different elsewhere.
We do have an aerial, but what a faff to get it pointed in the right direction. Many sites have a TV socket in the EHU stanchion.
We’re radio people but sometimes we can’t get anything at all.
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Topic: Avtec Mobile Internet
via mobile 26/11/2025 at 4:14pm
