G4AR Gateway external antenna use

123Wiley wrote:

bmorgan99 wrote:

I've been trying to use the G4AR gateway with my external antennas but see little improvement when connected. I have been using another provider's cellular modem with a T-Mobile sim (so same tower and provider) for 3 years with no reception issues.  I called tech support and was told the antenna ports are for wi-fi reception in my house, not cellular.  Can anyone confirm or refute support's statement? 

Yes, it is not for cellular.  Frankly its not for anything at all except lightening your wallet of $100.00.

I have been told by two techs, (after buying an antenna) that its only function is to "aid placement of the gateway ".  It will not boost your signal.

People!  Save your money.

Sorry, I wasn't very explicit in my last message.  The 3rd modem I tried does indeed work with my external antennas.  The first 2 had to have been faulty, as this one gets plenty of signal strength with them attached and next to none without them.  Hard to believe that failure rate,  but I'm glad I didn't give up.

bmorgan99 wrote:

I've been trying to use the G4AR gateway with my external antennas but see little improvement when connected. I have been using another provider's cellular modem with a T-Mobile sim (so same tower and provider) for 3 years with no reception issues.  I called tech support and was told the antenna ports are for wi-fi reception in my house, not cellular.  Can anyone confirm or refute support's statement? 

Yes, it is not for cellular.  Frankly its not for anything at all except lightening your wallet of $100.00.

I have been told by two techs, (after buying an antenna) that its only function is to "aid placement of the gateway ".  It will not boost your signal.

People!  Save your money.

I got a third modem and it works well.  Getting 150-200 down which is double what I got before, but as I said that modem only accepts 2 antennas and I have 4 now.  Probably a coincidence, but the working modem is a G4SE and the others were G4ARs,

I'm no expert, but the FCC regulates power outputs for about everything...WiFi, Bluetooth, CB radios, etc., because of concerns about interference with your neighbors, particularly in dense areas. If there was no limit, you could drown out your neighbors. 

It stands to reason that Gateway's radio amplifier is "sized" to the internal antenna array, so that the radiated power is at whatever the spec limit is.  If you put on a more efficient antenna, then the radiated power will go up and over the limit.  In other words, the radio amplifier should be putting out less power when using this new wonder-antenna to maintain the limit on radiated power.   As I understand it, the TM app requires you to set a "switch" to enable the antenna ports (I could be wrong)...it may be that this "switch" not only enables the ports, but cuts back on the power of the radio amplifier.

None of this may be correct.  But it would explain why the new antennas don't seem to be doing much.  A potential hack would then be to by-pass the TS-9 connectors, don't enable the switch, and connect to the internal antenna connectors directly. 

Again, this is just morning coffee banter...I have no direct experience with any of this.

I don't see how the FCC could or even would want to ban efficient antennas.   Excessive power, definitely.

Yes the antennas are "passive", but they have efficiency ratings, and bigger external antennas are more efficient...which is why you want them in the first place. The problem then becomes, for a given input power, the radiated output power will be higher...and possibly over the FCC limit.

My attennas are totally passive as I expect most are, so I don’t think that’s the issue.

Not this is helpful to anyone, but I always thought...perhaps...the reason the original gateways didn't offer antenna ports was because the internal antennas where already Spec'd to the FCC maximum permissible transmission power for the band.  Adding an external antenna , which you can do but really isn't "approved", would put you over the FCC limits.  Just a speculation, but maybe the "legal" ports on the new model are power-restricted to keep you within limits and don't really offer an advantage (maybe other than better positioning).  Just a theory anyway to think about over coffee.

Installed a 4x4 yagi mimo setup and tried a second G4AR from T-Mobile:

Good News: wi-fi reception in my yard is much better

Bad News:  the modem couldn’t see my tower at all.

Now to figure out why so many YouTubers are convinced otherwise.

Yeah, the antenna doesn't really help much. You did switch to external antenna on the Gateway? For the $100.00 I didn't get much improvement, but did get a little more stability. Oh, by the way, I'm less than 3 miles from three cell towers.

The Gateway is for WiFi, not cell. While they say the Tmobile Gateway and Tmobile CELL SPOT (for boosted cell) are not compatible, it works for me.