Hello,
I am trying to setup secondary antenna in WR21 because of a poor signal at one of my installation location. As Installation Guide states “If a unit is equipped with a secondary cellular connector (WWAN secondary), it is highly recommended to connect an additional antenna to this connector for diversification. Dual antennas will provide improved signal strength thus better performance.”
But, testing it in the lab I cannot see any difference using one or two antennas. Am I missing something in the device config?
So far only one antenna worked fine in other locations.
Thanks
Hi,
In situations where the signal is low strength or poor quality, using the secondary antenna for Rx diversity is certainly recommended and should improve the wireless signal quality. The Tx (upload) is only done via the main antenna so the second antenna has no effect on Tx performance. The cellular modules have the ability to determine if there are 1 or 2 antennas connected and enable/disable diversity accordingly.
If the performance is good with only 1 antenna connected, there is usually no need to connect the secondary. We advise people to connect both as it will certainly help in situations where there is a poor signal quality, but wont cause problems if the signal strength and quality is good.
Hope this helps.