Suitable Coaxial Cable for 4G Antennna

[Sligo_23]

Hi all,

I am currently running a Huawei B535 4G router and sim from three which is my only option for semi-decent internet speeds. I am located in the countryside and am only in reasonable distance to one three mast/tower so decided to get a panel antenna from Rural Wifi. https://ruralwifi.ie/product/panel-anten...l-booster/

Only when i decided to go up on the roof to install the antenna did i realise that the 10m of RG-58 coax cable attached to the antenna was not enough to get into the house. Went on google to see could i just buy more RG-58 and connect it in, and found this very helpful post by Sean. https://editorsean.com/articles/3g4g-antenna-advice/

In the post, it is mentioned that RG-58 coaxial cable should no more than 10m. I measured what I required to reach from the antenna to my house and it'll be about 16m in addition to the 10m already attached to the antenna, so 26m in total. I researched other 50 ohm coax cables such as RG-8 that performed better over longer distances but they seem to be a crazy price, in the high hundreds. There are SMA connectors on the back of the router which don't even seem to suit any coax apart from the RG-58.

Have I backed myself into a corner here? I'm not willing to spend hundreds on coax cable but also think the antenna would make a big difference to my internet speed if i got it working. I realise now that i Should have researched all this before I bought the antenna, but its too late now! 

Does anyone have any suggestions on this?

Thanks

[Seán]

I suggest testing the antenna with the 10m cable run to see what signal readings you get on either LTE H-Monitor (link) on a laptop or the huaCtrl Android App and also the band you are on.

The RSRP reading is the signal strength and ideally you want to get this above -100dBm, i.e. the less negative the better.  For extensions, I suggest using HDF-195, LMR-200 or LMR-240 cable which have lower loss compared to RG-58.  For example, LMR-200 loses about 3dBm per 10m on 800MHz (band 20) and about 4.5 to 5dBm per 10m on 1700-2100MHz (bands 3 and 1).  So if let's say the RSRP is about -90dBm with the antenna's 10m run, adding a pair of 10m LMR-200 extensions would drop this to around -93dBm on band 20 or -95dBm on band 1.

If your RSRP signal is already below -100dBm with antenna's own 10m coaxial run (e.g. -105dBm), I would avoid buying any extension.  Instead, either install the Huawei in the attic or in a weatherproof enclosure (such as this) and run an Ethernet cable up to the Huawei using a PoE injector and 12v PoE splitter to supply power (such as this and this). For Wi-Fi, you can use a Wi-Fi mesh kit or access point to provide indoor Wi-Fi.

[Sligo_23]

Thanks for the reply Sean, very helpful as expected. Downloaded the LTE H-Monitor and will give it a go when i next have the antenna connected. Found out I'm on band 3 also. Thanks for the cable extension suggestions.

To ensure the best performance of the antenna, i think your suggestion to install the huawei in the attic/roof is the way to go. While I'm doing the job, I'd like to think there will be as little losses as possible. This seems to be best achieved using Ethernet instead of extending the coaxial. Also have a spare access point lying around too.

Will have to buy two new SMA connectors now to fit on the end of the coax cables of the antenna as I plan on shortening the cables since the router will be located on the roof too. 

Thanks a million Sean for the help.