Is it possible to replace a chip antenna with a wire one?

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - Zigbee
1

I bought two XBee Pros with chip antennas. I’d like to improve my gain by adding a wire antenna. Do I need to remove the chip antenna for that to work? Or can I just solder an appropriate length of wire to the antenna mount point? If so, how long should that wire be?

Thanks,
Damon

2

Let me start off by stating that any modifications you make to the module will void your warranty. This includes any soldering or de-soldering that you do. That being said, if you were to attempt to add the wire antenna, it is recommended that you remove the chip antenna to maintain impedence matching.

Now, as far as the length of the antenna. The wire antenna is a quarter wavelength monopole antenna. If we select a center frequency of 2440MHz then wavelength = (frequency/speed of light). This would yeild a wavelength of approximately 12.287cm. Since the wire is 1/4 wavelength, this yeilds (12.287/4) or 3.07cm in length.