Turn Personal Hotspot to home WiFi network

We can help you if we understand a bit more.

But I agree with MrHoffman.. you will really do better buying the right tool for the job. Apple routers were always designed for ethernet connected internet and don't work well (at all) without.

I can easily connect the iMac to the Personal Hotspot.

You can use the iMac to share internet from the Hotspot to the other devices via the Time Capsule.

Look up Internet Connection Sharing for your particular OS.

It sounds like the Airport Express should be able to function as a bridge to the Time Capsule, but I’m unable to configure this.

This is a much tricker setup and not particularly reliable.

The Express is setup in Client mode.. NOT bridge mode.

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201621

Plug ethernet from Express to the TC WAN port and then double NAT from TC for the rest of the network. You will get errors but that is par for the course.

A proper 4G wireless router with ethernet out.. not just a hotspot is going to be far superior to anything else.

I have tried ideas suggested in other threads with no success.

Not sure what those ideas might be, but if the personal hotspots are actual WiFi networks, I have no problems configuring an AirPort Express to "join" a normal hotspot network.

When an Express joins a WiFi network, the Ethernet port on the device is enabled, so you can connect an Ethernet cable from the Express to the Time Capsule and then set up the Time Capsule to act as your network router.

In a sense, the AirPort Express acts like a "modem" in this type of setup, although it does not connect to the Internet signal using a normal wired Ethernet cable connection, it connects using wireless.

The big downside to this type of setup is the very limited bandwidth that is provided by the hotspot WiFi network. Things are going to be S---L---O---W and even slower if you thinking of backing up your Mac to the Time Capsule using WiFi.

It would be much better if Verizon could supply you with a hotspot WiFi router that had a built in Ethernet port. Then, you could connect the Time Capsule directly to the Ethernet port and set up the Time Capsule as your WiFi network router, and the AirPort Express could be set up to "extend" the Time Capsule WiFi network.

I cannot the configure the Time Capsule or Express to extend this by WiFi.

That is correct because Apple's "extend a wireless network" setting will only work with other Apple routers. It is not compatible with 3rd party devices.

I don’t think that tethering with your phone will get you where you want.

There are firewall-router-gateway boxes with Wi-Fi capabilities, which would probably be the easiest approach. This are basically cellular hotspots with Wi-Fi. Check with your cellular provider, as most have boxes for this situation; Mi-Fi or such.

https://www.att.com/internet/fixed-wireless.html

https://www.verizonwireless.com/internet-devices/

https://www.uscellular.com/devices/router/d-link-4g-router.html?productId=prod8910141

https://www.sonicwall.com/support/knowledge-base/?sol_id=170505961420387

https://documentation.meraki.com/MX/Cellular/3G_-_4G_Cellular_Failover

I’d be surprised if Verizon Wireless, AT&T and other carriers didn’t have suggestions here, too.

Pretty much everything that can run Sierra can run High Sierra, given enough disk storage space, FWIW.