Forum Discussion
External Antenna Makes Massive Difference For Me!!!
Ok I decided to see what an external antenna would do and wow.
I got the kit from Waveform as it’s an ok price and reputable money back company.
So I have an n41 tower 3 miles to the SW, a B66 .5 miles to the W, and a n71 2 miles to the NW.
If I put the can in the NW window it get the B66 ok and never holds the n71 for long. If I put the can in the S window it just does not hold the n41 or the B66.
So I have been living with the can in the NW window with the B66 and 75/25 average and solid for days on end slow and steady.
I wanted the n41 tower as my test show it rock on my phone so I figured let’s see if an ext ant can do anything.
So remember can in S window cannot get the B66 to the W and also n41 is to weak. Open up can, remove 3 and 4, snap on new leads, put can back together, hook up ext ant that is just outside window aimed right at the n41 tower. Time to rock great signal and 650/110 speeds.
So not that bars matter but in the NW window B66 was 3 bars almost -100dBm with SNR of 10db so ok but not great. Now in the S window where I had nothing really of used mounting the ant just outside I have that B66 at -76dBm but SNR is 7db 4 bars speed is good. Also that n41 comes in at 4 bars and wow -81dBm with an SNR of 7db so ok. So huge improvement in signal strength and overall quality slight degradation in SNR but bigger ant picks up more of what you don't want too.
They say you will get 9db improvement I have more so I am happy. I mean the b66 improved over 24db and I am not even pointing the ant at that tower. Also if I could get the n41 it was -107db now wow that is at -81db so again same massive gain in power.
The cable they give you is huge 30ft and as thick as your pinky. If this works out for several days I think I need to order a shorter cable as this is to much in my case I need like 3-5 ft max. As you see for testing I have the cable run thru the window with duct tape holding the gap. Again I don't want to go drilling holes until I decide this is good for several days and I am keeping this setup. Plus maybe since my run is so short I can go with a thinner cable and way shorter.
Again only time will tell if this setup hold for several days solid but initial results are looking good.
Timsw wrote:
007BondMI6 wrote:
Even on there site they say if your in the -90’s you many not see much improvement. For me 5G towers were over -100 and 4G tower was high -90’s so I could use the boost.
All the stuff you wrote is good for people to know. Both my signals, B2 and n41 are between -90 and -98.
I have only the one tower 5 miles away to deal with, but it surprised me with the gateway alone, it’s the same inside the window as it is outside the window, and I get no better signal on the roof, like I do with my 4G phone.
But inside my house, there is only the one window, facing the tower, where I get the best signal, and a lot of places inside the house where the speed drop really low.
Probably you would see improvement with the ext ant, worst case you don't and you return it for a refund.
007BondMI6 wrote:
Even on there site they say if your in the -90’s you many not see much improvement. For me 5G towers were over -100 and 4G tower was high -90’s so I could use the boost.
All the stuff you wrote is good for people to know. Both my signals, B2 and n41 are between -90 and -98.
I have only the one tower 5 miles away to deal with, but it surprised me with the gateway alone, it’s the same inside the window as it is outside the window, and I get no better signal on the roof, like I do with my 4G phone.
But inside my house, there is only the one window, facing the tower, where I get the best signal, and a lot of places inside the house where the speed drops really low.
Timsw wrote:
Seems like your lucky day is here finally. Going from 75 to 650 is incredible! Is this the biggest leap anyone has gotten with an external antenna on this or what?
A couple of them I’ve watched or read about, it hasn’t helped at all. Or when it did, it was marginal. But I think people in your situation between towers should pay attention as it might do the trick for them also.
I wish they put an external antenna jack on the gateway to make this easy. Even I would try it, although I’m very happy with my 100 to 350 speeds, and getting over 200 most of the time. I just think you might as well have as much speed as you can get. It’s not like there’s a speed limit.
So does this antenna need an external power supply, or just hooking it up to the can the way Nater Tater did is it? I’ll have to re-watch his video now and take the antenna situation more seriously.
Agreed I am lucky as in my situation with the location of the towers. Also the fact that this can needs both 4G and 5G to operate at high speeds from the 5G network. Since the 4 and 5G towers are not the same being in different directions that causes the issue for me.
I so far am shocked I did not expect the results I have. I mean yes I thought I had a shot at improvement but wow not this much. Real reason is before I could not hold any of the 5G towers so really I was getting only 4G service and speeds so the big jump is to 5G Ultra vs 4GLTE.
An external ant jack would be great but really so easy to hook this up takes like 10 min to take it apart and put it back together.
Lots of pre-planning mapping towers, taking speed reading, noting position of the n41 antennas, using Google maps to plot angles, finding the best angel and placement to catch the towers antenna. I tried moving the ext ant around to see if it got better and my original position was the best so planning and investigation pays off.
No power supply just hook it up to the leads and you are done. There is a guy on youtube that takes the Waveform ant apart its just looks like some big circuit boards with foil. But he says it is the design and placement inside that makes it what it is.
I think you have to have the right situation for there to be an improvement. If you already have a good signal there is not much to improve. I guess it could not hurt but may not help. Even on there site they say if your in the -90’s you many not see much improvement. For me 5G towers were over -100 and 4G tower was high -90’s so I could use the boost.
That guy Tater is a bit all over and not sure his testing is accurate. He put all the test antennas in his window or on the desk chair. That’s just not a fair test as you need to put an external ant well outside and aim it at the tower you want improvement from. So this test of all those antennas is flawed and inaccurate.
In my pre testing to see if an outside ant would improve things I held the can outside that window. While the can was just 1 foot outside that window there was a huge improvement. I cannot keep the can outside so an ext ant is the answer. If I just put this ant on the inside of the window it does not work because I do not get the 4G tower good. So once outside the window the ant has both angles SW and W to get both when inside there is a wall and roof blocking the W so that’s why not 4G inside. This proved that the only way to test an outside ant is outside.
Seems like your lucky day is here finally. Going from 75 to 650 is incredible! Is this the biggest leap anyone has gotten with an external antenna on this or what?
A couple of them I’ve watched or read about, it hasn’t helped at all. Or when it did, it was marginal. But I think people in your situation between towers should pay attention as it might do the trick for them also.
I wish they put an external antenna jack on the gateway to make this easy. Even I would try it, although I’m very happy with my 100 to 350 speeds, and getting over 200 most of the time. I just think you might as well have as much speed as you can get. It’s not like there’s a speed limit.
So does this antenna need an external power supply, or just hooking it up to the can the way Nater Tater did is it? I’ll have to re-watch his video now and take the antenna situation more seriously.
Still holding strong the next day things are looking good still getting 600+/100+.
