Not sure what to do next here

Questions and Support related to Antennas & Cables
Forum rules
Use the SEARCH function for related issues PRIOR to posting for assistance.
Post Reply
gettinold
Posts: 10
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2022 7:44 pm
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 0

Not sure what to do next here

Post by gettinold »

Hi,

I live in an exurban area of the DC metro (even dialup is not available here since it is a private road) and I am running an MR1100-1A1NAS on AT&T Firstnet. It lacks Band 14 but my Firstnet phone has it so I don't care.

I am running it as a modem with my Merlin equipped RT-AC68R Asus router. It does a pretty good job overall handling the IOT things in my household and I get the best speeds on Band 66 without CA. As a matter of fact, my download speeds are better than on Band 14 when checking my phone.

More recently though, things have slowed in my area and AT&T advises that one antenna is being serviced and that another is impaired.

It used to be that I could get up to about 80MBPS from my bedroom window with the MR1100 (no external antennas) taped to it facing what I believe to be my closest antenna. Now I often don't see over 8.5MBPS.

I am running the below antenna outside and aiming it where Network Cell Info Lite says has the best signal at about 95dBm or so. I am just running a single antenna to antenna port 1 on the Mr1100:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XB ... UTF8&psc=1

Between the antenna and my home office I am running 100 feet of LMR200 cable back to the MR1100 and Router. I like the convenience of being able to reboot both at the same time with both units being located physically close together.

Unfortunately, I think that I realized too late that such a long run of LMR200 reduces signal by 30dBM!

I have a few questions in this scenario:

1) Being that I enjoy the convenience of my setup all being indoors, close by, and rebootable when I need to reboot it, is there any kind of booster out there that can give me my signal back?

2) What sort of antenna configuration might work the best in my situation. One more Yagi antenna? A directional antenna like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Long-range-cellu ... 276&sr=1-9

or something like this:

https://www.waveform.com/products/mimo- ... ts-routers

I am so confused.

I guess the only other way to handle this would be to setup the Mr1100 outside with an outside case and then run Cat6 cable back to the Asus router....but that is more involved and I have lots of projects on my hands.

Thanks,
gscheb
Posts: 1595
Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2019 10:37 am
Has thanked: 85 times
Been thanked: 329 times

Re: Not sure what to do next here

Post by gscheb »

Hello,
Don't use a booster for data speed. That is a bad idea. Speak from experience no booster. Search this site will find other post saying a booster is bad for home data needs.
Honestly wouldn't go with either one of those antennas. If you are going to get a parabolic antenna like that get one that is mimo for cheaper.
And yes that is way too long of a cable run for that grade of cable.
Post Reply

Return to “Questions and Support”