MIMO antenna for T-Mobile 5G home internet gateway?

  • 30 August 2021
  • 32 replies
  • 44641 views
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32 replies

magenta9856549
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I live in an HOA and outside mounting would be prohibited so I am going to use inside antenna mounted up against a window facing the tower.

 

The flip side is that I live in 3 story house and the 3rd level is my bedroom so no biggie to have the Waveform antenna face the tower from inside.

 

Will update once this is completed.

S
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Interesting. Wonder if they actually can’t do anything if you did mount outside though, because like with satellites, etc. it’s illegal to “ban” them. So most HOA’s here say no to them, but they can’t actually do anything for those who install them. 

 

I am just debating because I really don’t want to go into the attic to pull another cable for the device when now I have like R80+ blown in up there. If it was a year ago, I would have done it in a heat beat lol 

S
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I recently rolled the dice on waveforms external antenna. My parents chose T-Mobile for home internet because of the awesome results I have had at my home. They also lacked any other real options. I would strongly consider moving before I ever considered settling for CenturyLink or HughesNet and this is what they faced. Luckily T-Mobile was available so they signed up. Gateway arrives, I set it up, and run the first speed test. 21mbps up and 4mbps down. This was super disappointing considering I consistently see speeds over 250mbps down and 35-40mbps up at my home from T-Mobile. They have a tower 0.83 miles west of their location so I expected much more. The issue they face is that their property is densely wooded including a high volume of large trees that completely surround the home. So, I took a gamble on an external panel 4x4 mimo. Super simple to connect to gateway. I used a gps to determine the exact azimuth to the nearest tower. Ran some test speed test with the antenna on the same side as that tower and pointed in its direction. I also tried it in various other locations on all sides of the house running test from each. Ultimately the location on the same side and pointed at nearest tower showed best results so I mounted it up. Not difficult to do at all. The only issue I could see being a problem would be if the best location ended up being on the front center of the home. While it isn’t this massive sore thumb on the house it is noticeable. Luckily our spot ended up being the back corner of the house. With install complete I went back to run a series of speed tests. Using the external antenna saved us from the 21mbps down we started with. Now, my parents consistently get speeds of 350mbps down during the peak use times and sometimes as high as 500mbps down during off hours (1:00 am). Honestly, I was absolutely floored. I never expected gains like that. Now that I have seen the possibilities I don’t see why everyone would get one. If you are going to rely on you primary internet service arriving via 4g or 5g why wouldn’t you do everything to grab every extra bit of signal strength or speed or reliability you can. For me and my family it is totally worth every penny.

If anyone has any additional questions about it feel free to reach out. I would be happy to help. 

Did you have to dissect the router to install or is this plug and play? If so what’s the connector type to plug and play 

Look at the OP. He has a link which goes into how to do it, etc. Simple answer is yes, you have to take the gateway apart to a point to do it. 

J

My Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway automatically switches, using B2, between N41 and N71.

For the first few days I recorded between 200 and 300 download and 20 to 35 upload.  Then it slowed down to between averageing 40 to 70 download 10 to 20 upload. Yet, this slower speed was more consistent.  When I was getting the higher speeds it was between 11:30pm to about 10 or 11 am the next morning until it started slowing and sometimes freezing a a few seconds or videos buffering.   It no longer gets over 175 download even using N41.  I think it’s the trees growing here this spring.

I found out that the slower yet consistent speeds came from being on the N71.  The faster speeds came from the N41.  So, I’ve learned to trust the gateway to use the band that provides the best consistency.  Wondering what an antenna could do in this situation, I took the gateway and sat on the roof ridge for a few speed test.  The three tests were all just over 300 download and between 40 and 60 upload. 

If I want to optimize  the use of that signal that’s on my roof ridge would using an antenna at that spot bring that signal providing over 300 download speeds down to the gateway where I place it in my house?  Or, should I expect it to slow down a bit?  (Based on the above antennas people have mentioned.)     Thanks!

J

Anyone knows what are these ports on the new Tmobile Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway? M, M1, M2, D, 4, and 5 ports.  Which ports give the best signal and speed? 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqyGXm3yASc&list=PL8d9FovK2dNQHp0KWk8gG8XXvaKzaoSB3&index=12

J

Anyone knows what are these ports on the new Tmobile Arcadyan KVD21 Gateway? M, M1, M2, D, 4, and 5 ports.  Which ports give the best signal and speed? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqyGXm3yASc&list=PL8d9FovK2dNQHp0KWk8gG8XXvaKzaoSB3&index=12

T

I recently rolled the dice on waveforms external antenna. My parents chose T-Mobile for home internet because of the awesome results I have had at my home. They also lacked any other real options. I would strongly consider moving before I ever considered settling for CenturyLink or HughesNet and this is what they faced. Luckily T-Mobile was available so they signed up. Gateway arrives, I set it up, and run the first speed test. 21mbps up and 4mbps down. This was super disappointing considering I consistently see speeds over 250mbps down and 35-40mbps up at my home from T-Mobile. They have a tower 0.83 miles west of their location so I expected much more. The issue they face is that their property is densely wooded including a high volume of large trees that completely surround the home. So, I took a gamble on an external panel 4x4 mimo. Super simple to connect to gateway. I used a gps to determine the exact azimuth to the nearest tower. Ran some test speed test with the antenna on the same side as that tower and pointed in its direction. I also tried it in various other locations on all sides of the house running test from each. Ultimately the location on the same side and pointed at nearest tower showed best results so I mounted it up. Not difficult to do at all. The only issue I could see being a problem would be if the best location ended up being on the front center of the home. While it isn’t this massive sore thumb on the house it is noticeable. Luckily our spot ended up being the back corner of the house. With install complete I went back to run a series of speed tests. Using the external antenna saved us from the 21mbps down we started with. Now, my parents consistently get speeds of 350mbps down during the peak use times and sometimes as high as 500mbps down during off hours (1:00 am). Honestly, I was absolutely floored. I never expected gains like that. Now that I have seen the possibilities I don’t see why everyone would get one. If you are going to rely on you primary internet service arriving via 4g or 5g why wouldn’t you do everything to grab every extra bit of signal strength or speed or reliability you can. For me and my family it is totally worth every penny.

If anyone has any additional questions about it feel free to reach out. I would be happy to help. 

Did you have to dissect the router to install or is this plug and play? If so what’s the connector type to plug and play 

performance depends on a lot of factors.  how close you are to the tower, your geography, hills and or trees. line of sight, antenna elevation to name a few.  I went with a 4x4 panel, lmr400 (n-connectors) from antenna to ground level, lmr 240 ground to inside (n and sma connectors) and 12 inch pig tails sma to u.fl, I also got the fan assisted box to put the  router in.  my nearest tower, 4g only is 1 mile los, the nearest 4/5g tower is 2 miles away los.  because of height the 5g tower isn’t seen. I’m currently at 20 feet until I get the rest of the mast hardware and right now performance sucks.  hopefully another 20 feet of antenna will put the project in the worth while category because 5 mbps up and down is not good.

 

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