Cable Extension Question

[dbshelton]

I am thinking about relocating my antenna mast. Right now I am using a pair of Wilson 400 cables that are 30' long. I will really need to extend them approx. another 10'. I would suppose I need to use more LMR400 or equal cables or can I get by with lesser cables like LMR200 for the extensions?

[Didneywhorl]

I would use full length cables. Too much failure and loss points.

[dbshelton]

Thanks, this LTE crap is definitely a money pit. Every little lesson costs me $$$$ and of course it is always my fault for not reading and understanding everything. Like they say "A bought lesson is better than a taught lesson"

[MattB29]

I see no reason that you could not try using LMR 200 extension cables. Yes it might give you a small drop in gain. But in a lot of cases so what? Chances are you would never detect any difference in reception. If it saves money and it works than you are ahead of the game. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.

[dbshelton]

I see no reason that you could not try using LMR 200 extension cables. Yes it might give you a small drop in gain. But in a lot of cases so what? Chances are you would never detect any difference in reception. If it saves money and it works than you are ahead of the game. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough.

Thanks, I get myself caught up in trying to get things "perfect" but this LTE stuff has so many variables, it's just not gonna happen. If I can just get a reliable connection, I may be happy, but I'm not even sure that will happen. Thanks again to all you guys.

[gscheb]

Personally have added extension of LMR 400 before. Just had a connector between them.

[Adm1jtg]

This may sound stupid, but if you need to move the antennas 10 feet farther away from the router is it possible to relocate the router 10 feet closer to the new antenna placement? Maybe put it in an attic? Move the router to an externally closer spot?

I had an issue like yours and ended up cheating and moving my router in such a way so I could re-use the same cabling .

[dbshelton]

This may sound stupid, but if you need to move the antennas 10 feet farther away from the router is it possible to relocate the router 10 feet closer to the new antenna placement? Maybe put it in an attic? Move the router to an externally closer spot?

I had an issue like yours and ended up cheating and moving my router in such a way so I could re-use the same cabling .

Already been through all that. That's why the router is on the patio in a Lexan box I made. I want to move the antennas up.
I think I will leave things alone.

[Adm1jtg]

I can remember back when I was testing antenna location putting the antenna on top of a pole on top of a bucket on top of a ladder and moving the router to areas that made no sense at all but the idea is test with what you got in anyway you can and IF you determine that the new setup REALLY is SIGNIFICANTLY better then buy new cables and do it right.

But as I said in another thread what I have found at least for my setup overall is if it aint broke dont fix it.

The possibility of your being able to improve things over your current situtation will always exist as a possibility. The trick is evaluate what you NEED and once you reach that goal just walk away

In my case my goals were a few things:
1) Be able to make a reliable phoe call through wifi calling
2) Allow me and my girlfriend to both watch a streamed movie at the same time on different roku's without clocking
3) Download my android phone updates in an hour or less
4) Be able to have a zoom meeting even if I had to turn off all streaming devices during the conference.

Once I actually listed these things out I stopped going so crazy about signal levels and all. I can now do all the above things. Technically my speeds range from 50 meg down in the mornings to as low as 6 meg down at like 8pm but it works. The 6 meg drove me crazy at first as it just seemed I could do so much better as shown in the morning times. Could I improve things by moving the antennas more, or upgrading the router firmware to a newer version? Possibly, its also possible i could make things worse and it take me even more time just to get back to what I now have.

Thus why I say define what you NEED and once you reach that set of goals..... STOP. Lock it in place and never look back unless either your needs change or something with the carrier changes.

[dbshelton]

All good advice. I ended up chasing everything. Now I have Starlink, T-Mob Home Internet (With outside 4x4 antenna hacks), 2 ATT tablet plans, and an ATT hotspot plan.
Sure, it's redundant but what the heck. There is always something that works!!