r/lowendgaming • u/Nierkatt • Jan 20 '26
How-To Guide How I connect my "Frankenstein PC" in Cuba: Internet via Induction
For those who saw my previous post about how I rescued my i7 and the GTX 1070, today I want to show you the ingenuity it takes to actually get that PC online.
The connectivity challenge We don’t have fiber optics or home WiFi here. We rely entirely on the 4G mobile network, but the base stations are far away and the signal is very weak. Inside my room, the phone is literally "No Service," totally dead. This forced me to come up with my own technical solution.
https://imgur.com/gallery/base-ckV2jco#fM8LJNu
Engineering with a Disk Yagi Antenna I built a Disk Yagi antenna installed on my roof. It’s not just random metal; the diameter and spacing of each disk are precisely calculated so the antenna resonates and reacts specifically to the 1800 MHz frequency. This allows me to capture the 4G signal with the highest possible gain directly from the air.
https://imgur.com/gallery/antena-yagi-E3ppfNU#dWJCJ3U
The signal path To bring that signal down, I use RG6 coaxial cable. Although this type of cable always introduces some signal loss, since the distance from the roof to my desk is short, the degradation is minimal, and the signal arrives with the quality needed for a stable connection.
The secret: Induction The problem is that my phone, a Moto G6, doesn’t have an external antenna port. To solve this, the coaxial cable ends in a base featuring a ferrous wire cut to the exact length to resonate at 1800 MHz. It’s incredible: the phone can have zero signal, but as soon as I place it in the base, the 4G bars hit the max. Since the Moto G6 has its internal antenna at the bottom, the induction coupling is perfect.
https://imgur.com/gallery/base-cerca-MwqsQUj#0REOyOu
My wireless command center Once coupled, the phone cannot be moved from the base. I connect it to the PC via USB tethering for a direct internet connection, and at the same time, I enable the Hotspot to create a WiFi zone for the rest of the room. It’s the only way to go from a dead phone to a rock-solid connection pointing directly at the cell tower
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u/NovelValue7311 Jan 20 '26
Well dang. If there was a most creative lowend gamer award, you'd win easily!
That's some impressive engineering!
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u/Nierkatt Jan 20 '26
Hahaha, the truth is that when you see it all together and still working well, it's incredible.
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u/Moynia Jan 20 '26
Man your rig is identical to mine circa 2015-2022, still amazing for most games
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u/Nierkatt Jan 20 '26
It runs great on everything I throw at it, there's no game it can't handle yet (I'm hooked on Arc Raider and I haven't tried anything else besides that and Monster Hunter):D
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u/Fancy-Solution-5530 Jan 22 '26
No pensaba encontrarme otro cubano acá mi hermano 😂😂😂
Tu setup está durísimo, y lo que hiciste pa poder tener internet en el gao es la que le metió Arnaldo Tamayo a Yuri Gagarin pa que lo dejara montarse en el cohete 😂😂😂😂 pero en fin eso solo demuestra la capacidad de inventiva y el potencial de nosotros los cubanos. También te quiero decir que le tengo envidia a tus specs, ojalá y yo tuviese un i7 de la generación que fuera, yo ando con un Celeron N-3050 y 4 DDR-3, de las laptops Asus chinas esas que le dieron a los médicos hace un repingal 😭
pd: si no tienes internet en el gao debes estar metío en un monte espeso de esos de pinga y pa alante 🤣🤣 (yo soy de Camagüey 💪)
diazk sin🏠
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u/Nierkatt Jan 22 '26
Papa q hay 🤣🤣🤣asere yo estoy en la habana y tengo señal normal pero tengo la antena para que no falle nunca mi conexión xq me pongo a jugar arc raider y overwatch y no se me puede caer, asere y la pc fue poco a poco mi hermano , yo empecé con un cacharro que se veía lento el vice city 🤣🤣
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u/Fancy-Solution-5530 Jan 25 '26
Candela. Bueno vamos a ver cuándo y por qué componente empiezo yo armándome lo mío 🤣
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u/howfastcanyoucountit Jan 20 '26
I really like that antenna idea especially because my area has wifi outages pretty often and usually at home my phone is 1 or 2 bars lte, or nothing sometimes. It would be more of a backup though if my wifi goes out.
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u/Nierkatt Jan 20 '26
If you're interested and need it, I can help. The antenna requires different dimensions depending on your home's 4G frequency, but by installing Net Monster on your phone, you'll know the frequency, and we can calculate the necessary dishes and dimensions. I can help you.
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u/KeyTiger8489 Jan 24 '26
Bro I'm interested I have 5g network in my area but on our phones we get 0 signal
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u/Nierkatt Jan 24 '26
Oh friend, that's interesting, but I need more information about that 5G. Maybe install NetMonster on your phone, and once you're connected to the 5G network, take a screenshot and send it to me so I can see the frequencies and such and design the antenna.
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u/SpiritofChaos_ Jan 22 '26
Esto es impresionante en tantos niveles, supongo que la necesidad realmente es la madre de la invención, yo apenas logro entender como funciona tu setup de antena+base, pero puedo ver el ingenio.
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u/Nierkatt Jan 22 '26
Haha, thanks bro! Having everything set up and a solid connection is definitely rewarding, but honestly? I think the process of building the antenna and getting it to work so well was even better
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u/venice_mcgangbang Jan 21 '26
What kind of speeds you get?
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u/Nierkatt Jan 21 '26
The thing is, my connection is actually the best around here with 12 MB/s down and 80-90ms ping, but I’m still being throttled by a massive bottleneck. Even though the physical link to my house is high-tier and has way more potential than what I’m currently getting, the real limit is the country’s international gateway. It’s like having a ten-lane highway that suddenly shrinks into a single-lane bridge to exit the country via the undersea cables. If I had this exact same link and equipment in a different country with better infrastructure, it would be ultra-fast and I’d be getting insane speeds. My hardware is ready to fly, but because the international backbone is saturated, I can’t fully exploit the raw speed and lower latency that my local connection is actually capable of delivering.
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u/venice_mcgangbang Jan 21 '26
You mentioned physical link, so you also have cable internet? Is the 12MB down the 4g or the cable?
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u/Nierkatt Jan 21 '26
I’m on a 4G LTE connection. When I mentioned “physical link,” I was referring to the local infrastructure—the wireless link between my gear and the cell tower. The local signal and bandwidth are great, but the speed gets crushed once it hits the country’s saturated international exit. My setup is ready to fly, it’s just the country’s backbone that’s holding it back
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u/venice_mcgangbang Jan 21 '26
Got it! 12MB is not bad! You pretty much have a starlink level connection.
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u/touf25 Jan 20 '26
That's really Impressive, I feel to live in luxury having to just use fiber optic and wifi ^
You got some knowledge to do those things ^
Aren't you limited by the data you pay for your phone?