5gee router which antenna

[simonharryharri]

Can someone point me in the direction of the best Antenna for the 5gee router I got delivered today, EE tell me they don't sell one to go with it?!

[EssexBoyEE]

For 4x4 Mimo you need to Plug them correctly in the right order, or you could mess up your Mimo configuration, just think of it as two lots of 2x2 Mimo Antennas in the same Housing.

Example, for 2x2 Mimo, the Cell Mast Transmits 2 lots of Data Stream on the same Carrier but they are Cross Polarised but unlike conventional RF Transmitter Polarisation which is normally Vertical or Horizontal, The Cell Mast Transmits the 1st Polarised Stream with an 45 Degree Offset from 0 Degrees (Vertical) and the 2nd Polarised Stream at 45 Degrees from Horizontal (or the same as -45 Degrees from Vertical) so in simple terms rather than being 0 and 90 Degrees (+) its +45 and -45 Degrees (x).

So just keep the the 4x4 Mimo Feeders in the same order as you would 2 lots of 2x2 Mimo Pairs, so in your case -

Pair 1

Router Connector Port 1 - A1 (+45)

Router Connector Port 2 - A1 (-45)

Pair 2

Router Connector Port 3 - A2 (+45)

Router Connector Port 4 - A2 (-45)

[BoltonSailor]

Thanks very much for this.  I knew there would be a right way.  At a guess, I would have put the A1 and A2 pairs together but would have probably guessed that -45 went ahead of +45, but happy to go with your advise.

[EssexBoyEE]

Its not the end of the world if you pair A1 with A2 as long as each Pair has a +45 and a -45 (or other way around), in other words each Pair of 2x2 MiMo has 2 Aerials that are out of phase to each other, thats the important bit.

Basically what you have in that Aerial Housing is 4 totally independent Aerials all in the same box, two of them are leaning to the left and the other two are leaning to the right, so one left and one right for each 2x2 Mimo Pair.

by the way how did you get on with your 2nd Call Out TSG Engineer, Im sure it was you where they only fitted a single 2x2 Mimo Antenna.

[BoltonSailor]

Thanks again for the response.

The engineer came on Friday.  We discussed the fact that the antenna was only 2x2 MIMO  and concluded it was a wasted visit as the only antennae they have are 2x2.

this prompted a further conversation with EE and basically, their antenna is going to be uninstalled and I'm going to be putting up my own 4x4 one, hence me asking these questions.

[Adman1]

I also got mine from Wi-Fi stock. The only downside… it’s a bit of a beast of a unit! Not ideally what I pictured sticking on the side of my house so trying to work out how to disguise it a bit!! 🤔😬

My wife is not a fan! 🤣

[EssexBoyEE]

@Adman1 tell your Wife the Bigger the Better 🙂         .......as for the Aerial, it's probably made of a ABS plastic housing so you could always rub it down and paint it, ie, Brick Red, Roof Colour, if it's going on a Pole above the Roof Line, leave it is or paint it Black or Grey etc. Just don't use Matalic Paint though.

[EssexBoyEE]

@BoltonSailor they've been out to you twice now, if they only Stock 2x2 Antenna but sold you an 4x4 Router all they had to do was to fit two 2x2 Antennas to get around the problem.

I'm guessing the 100 quid for the Installation Service is subcidieced by EE, no idea what they pay for a Panorama 2x2 Aerial, but let's say for arguments sake with EEs discount it's 50 quid, a lot cheaper than sending an Engineer out again, and now they have to De Install it as well.

[simonharryharri]

Would I get a better signal if I put them in the correct order then?

Or would it just not work in the wrong order and I've randomly put them in correctly?

[BoltonSailor]

@EssexBoyEE I don't think they know what they're doing with the 5G side to be honest, so I wouldn't want to say they've sold me a 4x4 antenna.  I would say they've sold me the impression that I would get speeds similar to that I'm seeing on my mobile, but there is no chance of that happening if they're only supplying 2x2 antennae.  I don't think using 2 2x2s is viable from an aesthetics point of view (ours is on the front of the house).  Hopefully when I get the 4x4 up and running, I'll be sorted, but it still rankles that I'm having to sort this myself (and having to pay more) when I thought I was getting this from EE/TSG.

[Adman1]

@EssexBoyEE  do you happen to know if there is anything like the BT Disk that can be used with the EE 5Gee router? If i have the router at the top of the house in a window I can get 80-90Mbps vs 25-30 on the ground floor. However the wi-fi is then pretty flaky in parts of my house (old with thick walls).

I have a BT Disk so if i can repurpose that that would be ideal.....

Any thoughts gratefully welcomed. Thanks.

Adam