topic Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub in Mobile Broadband

Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

benashmore — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 22:32:07 GMT

Im on a 5G plan with EE. Had endless trouble with 5GEE router but appears faulty so gone for repair.

EE have loaned me a 4G smart hub router.

I have a panorama antenna (4G / 5G) - if I connect the SMA connectors to LTE port my speeds are faster but signal ironically weaker looking at hub status (attaches to different cell).

obviously as a 5G antenna it has 4x4 but I am trying it with one pair. Any ideas? Labelled 4G / 5G A. Next cable is 4G / 5G B. Have C / D cables as well.

Assume A & B are a pair and C & D?? Perhaps. Then there are two LTE ports….

any ideas for best settings / ports / cables? Cannot find any instructions on www

thanks

ben

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

Leanne_T — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 08:48:47 GMT

Hi @benashmore

Have you managed to get this set up since you posted?

If not, hopefully someone has the same device and set up the same way as you are looking to do, on the community and will share their experience.

Leanne 🙂

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

EssexBoyEE — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 14:42:30 GMT

Hi Ben, your assumptions for the Cable ID's sound correct to me, If you Antenna as a 4/5G 4x4 Mimo, and you are connecting this Antenna to a temporal 2x2 4G Device then you would only connect one of the Mimo Pairs.

Mimo Pairs for 4/5G 2x2 MiMo are Cross Polarised (+45 and -45) and are normally labelled, Main and Diversity, + and -, or 1 and 2 or A and B, then this theme normally continues for the next Pair on 4x4 Mimo Antennas.

The is nothing to stop you from testing different Pairs against Speeds, ie, you could try A and C or A and D, or try B and C or Band D, (Reboot the Router after each Antenna Feeder Swop).

Bare in mind not each Speed Test will be the same anyway due to Traffic Demands on each Mast, and Signal Strength Reporting is normally only taken from One on the Antenna Ports (normally Port 1).

Also check the WebUI Admin Settings of the Router do not have any strange or mix of External Antenna Settings.

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

benashmore — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:05:31 GMT

Thanks very much for advice.

Tried A&B. Got faster speeds, but oddly in the webUI the RSRP / RSSI became
more negative (weaker)

I assume the antenna reached a different (faster) but further away cell.

It dropped out overnight, so squeals from kids.

Might have a p[lay when they are in bed, but might just rely on internal
antennas.

At one point got lovely RSRP (-70) and RSSI (-50) - but no viable
connection - everything was lit up and connected to internet but no devices
ran of it. Hence I wondered if port one / two on router were important to
A/B or C/D etc

Normally -91 / -73 or so on internal.

Will keep fiddling

Thanks

Ben

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

EssexBoyEE — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:12:23 GMT

Ok, RSRP is the important one, normally anything below -99 is good and workable, might also be worth turning the Antenna or having a play with direction and position ( not all antennas are Omni Directional even though they say they are), could be your picking up a reflected Signal from Somewhere? this can sometimes help with MiMo Speeds.

Cellmapper is a good source for Mast Locations but bare in mind its not always up to date.

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

XRaySpeX — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 21:20:30 GMT

@EssexBoyEE : -70 is above -99. You should be saying "anything above -99 is good" or if you prefer "anything absolutely below 99" is good.

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

EssexBoyEE — Fri, 25 Aug 2023 22:43:58 GMT

@XRaySpeX I know what you are saying, but I also know from experience and have said in the past anything above -99 dBm, peeps automatically assume that a -105 or a -110 dBm Signal is better than - 99.😉

RF Signal Strength is measured as a Negative Number referenced to 0 dbm and RF Power is measured as Postive Number referenced to 0 dbm, so technically you are correct.

I think it also depends how people persevere the numbers, ie, which end you hold the measuring stick or is the Glass half full or half empty 🙂

So just to clarify on my above Post and as @XRaySpeX points out on the negative values, an example, -70dbm is a better Signal Strength value to -99dbm, it's a lower Number but it's higher Negative Number reference to 0

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

XRaySpeX — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 00:48:31 GMT

@EssexBoyEE wrote:

I also know from experience and have said in the past anything above -99 dBm, peeps automatically assume that a -105 or a -110 dBm Signal is better than - 99.

It goes both ways. Those peeps who understand numbers will auto know that -70 dBm is above, & therefore better than, -99.

To cater for both fraternities, could you not say "ignoring the minus (-) sign, normally anything below 99 is good and workable"?

Re: Antenna on 4G Smart Hub

EssexBoyEE — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 02:12:12 GMT

@XRaySpeX - It goes both ways. Those peeps who understand numbers will auto know that -70 dBm is above, & therefore better than, -99.

Hopefully for those Peeps who have a good understanding of the dbm numbers game could possibly work out what I was banging on about in my first post, 😉 hopefully. 😊

@XRaySpeX - To cater for both fraternities, could you not say "ignoring the minus (-) sign, normally anything below 99 is good and workable"?

Not really because the above peeps you mentioned who know the dbm numbers would then work out that 99dbm is in actual fact 7,940,000 Watts!, anyone who has a Recieve Signal of over 7 Mega Watts of RF coming in to there Homes has a real serious problem on thier hands. 😁😉