Guide to Choosing a Mobile Antenna

Which mobile antenna do I need?

Your choice of antenna depends on where you're travelling.

A higher gain means a stronger signal - so when you increase the antenna's gain (i.e. its dBi), you reduce the angle it receives signal - this means that high gain antennas are more suited to flatter areas, and moderate gain antennas (such as a 5-6dBi) are better suited to hilly areas.

The two most popular choices are the 5dBi or 6.5dBi antennas for varying terrain, or the 7.5dBi and 8.5dBi antennas for most highway driving (flat with a few hills).

What sort of range increase can I expect?

As performance is largely determined by the terrain path from the transmitter, the best way to gauge range increase is to look at your network's coverage maps, which shows expected increase when using a simple external antenna.

Often high gain antennas are capable of exceeding the range predicted.

On the image below, the solid colour represents normal handheld range, and the diagonal shaded section represents expected increase in range.

We recommend Australian Made

We always recommend high quality Australian made antennas - such as the RFI and ZCG Scalar brands. These durable antennas are specifically designed for our tough Australian environment and have a sophisticated internal design, allowing most models to operate on multiple mobile networks.