Reallocating a 4G directional antenna to the attic

[Keith]

hi Sean, I have a huawei b525 on three network. I got a 4g directional antenna and faced it towards the nearest mast. My speeds improved greatly from 7mbps to 12mbps however in the evening i lose my speeds again to 0.20mbps. I was told if I re-direct my antenna to another mast which is west of the mast Im currently using my speeds would increase more as three have two masts at this location. My antenna is mounted on back of my house and to face it the other direction I would have to move to front of house but cable is only 10 meters and not long enough. My router is in the back of house and can’t move to front. will my antenna work in attic if i face towards that mast?. I mounted it on gable of house but it is now facing straight at house gable wall for me to point the direction I need it for new mast. Im getting speeds of up to between 22 and 32mbps upload. I can put it back of house again on higher pole but it still won’t be clear of roof for clear line of sight to mast. Would my roof block signal?

[Seán]

As the antenna now faces the gable, you would be much better off moving the antenna into the attic as the signal will no longer need to penetrate that gable wall.

There are two other options you can try:

If the leads were 10m longer, could you mount the antenna at the front? A pair of 10m HDF195 leads will reduce the RSRP by about 5dB on band 3. With the signal passing through the gable and the far end, these are potentially reducing the signal by 20-30dB, so you would definitely be better off running extension leads to move the antenna to the far end. These leads cost around €60 for a pair of 10m with SMA connectors, such as these (choose CAB-094 option). There are cheaper leads, but they reduce the signal much further.

If you can provide power into the loft, move your antenna to the far end and place the router in the loft. Then use a mesh Wi-Fi kit such as a pair of Tenda MW6's to bring the connection to where you had the router. This is effectively how I have my current set up, i.e. my router is in the loft and have one Tenda MW6 connected to it and the second MW6 node downstairs connected to my PC. If you have a long house, you may need to run an Ethernet cable between the router and the MW6 in the loft to bring it closer to the downstairs node.

[Keith]

Thanks for your fast reply. Can I also ask. When checking comreg for masts I noticed there is mast in nearby town which is 4 km away me in line of sight. I can point antenna there no problem but would it pick up signal. I maybe wrong but I thought I read in another article of yours that masts in towns and urban areas dont send signal far enough. Hence reason I'm attempting to line it up with mast in rural area. The mast I was pointing to which is nearest to me has one mast and that has umts and lte. Another mast which I'm now pointing through gable wall has two masts both list umts and lte. But the one in town also has both listing umts lte. I can point it to town from back of my house as I can see mast tower clear

[Seán]

It's worth giving the town mast a try, particularly if it's something you can do without taking down the antenna. 4km should be near enough, particularly if there is just one mast with Three in the town.

You can use the Android App huaCtrl to check the signal reading, i.e. try to get the highest positive SINR (signal quality) value, then check how the speed compares.