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The ranking of 5Gstore’s premier products is determined by a blend of their popularity, the quantity of customer reviews received, and the average rating bestowed by customers. Several perennial favorites from this year’s winners, such as the IP Switch Dual Outlet and Cradlepoint IBR600C, have consistently made appearances on our “Top Products” lists in previous years. On the other hand, newcomers to the list for this year include the Digi IX10 and the Sierra Wireless RV55.

If you’ve purchased any of these items (or others!) from 5Gstore, remember that you can log in at 5Gstore.com to share your own review. We publish ALL reviews and value your feedback!

A big congratulations to all the manufacturers of our top products for 2023!

Are you interested in learning more about these products? Please reach out to the 5Gstore team for assistance!

In our business, even before the pandemic, we’ve been helping customers find ways to work remotely. As an experiment I wanted to test this out for myself. So, I took a week trip to our family farmhouse in Isonville, KY. This is in a remote area with lots of hills and little to no cellular reception. In the recent past we have been able to achieve a better signal, though it usually teeters around one bar, if we are lucky!

Knowing the challenge of getting a good enough cellular signal – and that I would need to be able to maintain VoIP calls and load webpages and videos correctly – I decided to go with two styles of antennas. One would be an outdoor omni-directional antenna and the other would be an outdoor high gain Yagi antenna. The Omni-directional antenna I went with was a SureCall Ultra-Wideband LTE/5G Antenna. The Yagi antenna was a SureCall Ultra Wide Band Outdoor Yagi Antenna.

I also decided since this would be a test for future use, I wanted to do a temporary setup. I bought some standard 2 foot length 1.25 inch PVC tubing from the local hardware store and a few fittings to fashion a temporary mounting pole in the upstairs room of the farmhouse. The Peplink router I used was a Pepwave MAX BR1 Mini LTE-A.

Armed with my Pepwave Max BR1 Mini, the antennas and the PVC I went to work on getting the antennas mounted and aligned for the best signal acquisition I could obtain. I used the data from cell mapper to get an idea of where I needed to aim the Surecall Wide-Band Yagi Antenna and an app on my phone (which I use when I go hiking) called GPS Status (iOS Link | Android Link) to aim the antenna precisely.

Using the stock antennas on the Pepwave Max BR1 Mini on the second floor I had a signal value of -119dBm, and this is a horrible signal to be sure. After connecting the omni-directional antenna to Cellular Main and the Surecall Wide-Band Yagi Antenna to Cellular Diversity I was able to acquire a signal value of -73dBm. This was a HUGE improvement. I ran a speed test with the stock antennas, and I was only able to get about 4.5Mbps down and 0.4Mbps up. With the antennas in place, I was able to get 19.8Mbps down and 8.7Mbps up. This was about 15.5 miles to the nearest tower from the farmhouse.

Distance from farmhouse to tower; Frequency bands use in the area

As another test I decided to try and use my old cellular router, a Netgear LB1120. This is what I had used prior to receiving the Pepwave Max BR1 Mini. With the stock antennas I had absolutely no signal. With the SureCall Wide-Band Yagi antenna, I aimed it at the one and only cellular tower that had the band it supported in the area (Band 4.) The result was staggering, to say the least. I went from no signal to a signal of -89dBm. Now while that doesn’t sound like a huge improvement, let me explain why this result was so jaw dropping. The tower I was connected to was just shy of 24 miles away!

My results with these antennas have given me the ability to have a future permanent setup at a very remote rural location that I can reliably work from. With a relatively low budget. I know that other people in “Rural America” have this exact same issue with not being able to get steady service in an area that is usually not serviceable. My results are a testament to how well these antennas perform.

You can check out the products we used (just with longer cables) at the following link: https://5gstore.com/cart/33660

If you have any questions please give us a call and we will be happy to assist you Monday – Friday 9am to 6pm CST (833) 547-8673.

Tests performed and addressed in this article were done, and details written by David W. with the 5Gstore team.

Rank	Product	Reviews
1	Peplink MAX BR1 Pro 5G Ruggedized router with embedded 5G/ LTE Cat 20 modem and WiFi 6 for power users.	“Using with a prepaid data only plan from AT&T. Everything works great.” Read more reviews
2	Peplink MAX BR1 Mini Affordable router with embedded LTE Cat 7 modem – for home, travel, and small business.	“Great Modem at a reasonable price.” “Excellent full function mobile router, InControl makes for easy remote management. I opted for the Wifi as WAN option.” Read more reviews
3	Cradlepoint IBR600C Compact, semi-ruggedized small business/ IoT router with embedded Cat 4 LTE modem.	“Works as advertised. Fast shipping. Great service and follow-up. Thanks 5G.” Read more reviews
4	UIS-622B Simple to use device that allows you to remotely monitor and reboot up to two pieces of equipment via smartphone app or cloud.	“For those that are out of town and monitoring things remotely at home or vacation location this switch can really help. Good improvements in the latest model.” Read more reviews
5	MobileMark LTM-502 5-in-1 through-roof mount antenna for LTE/ 5G, WiFi, and GPS.	“Well built product.” Read more reviews
6	Sierra Wireless RV55 Rugged LTE router designed with IIoT and public safety in mind.	“Purchasing this Modem was a bit spendy but after installing it and configuring the unit the cellular antenna has been considerably improved. The unit is completely hidden and provides me with excellent connectivity while i am on the road. Working while camping is not much of a challenge anymore.” Read more reviews
7	Panorama WMM4G-6-60 Outdoor directional 4×4 MiMO antenna with wide frequency range support.	“The antenna works as advertised and works to allow for carrier aggregation where supported.” Read more reviews
8	Digi IX10 LTE cellular router that is purpose-built for industrial applications.	“Great router, but does not include DIN rail mount.” Read more reviews
9	SureCall SC-588W An ultra wide band outdoor antenna that can support cellular and 2.4GHz WiFi signals.	“This was purchased to replace an older model of the same antenna. The new model will receive the new lower frequency bands in the 600 MHz range.” Read more reviews
10	Peplink Balance 20X Best in value SD-WAN router with embedded Cat 7 LTE modem and expandable 5G or LTE modem options.	“A business class router with great security features that is within the reach of home owners looking for a better solution than what is typically marketed towards general consumers.” Read more reviews

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5Gstore Top 10 Products of 2023

Working Remote in Rural Kentucky on LTE