I'm not an expert on WiFi, but I learned a lot while researching directional external antenna for a Mikrotik Groove52ac.
1) Regular dipole antennae like on the ax3/ac3 are omnidirectional like a donut ("round" in the XY plane but not spherical in X, Y, and Z axes).
2) The higher the gain of the antenna, usually the narrower the angle it covers. For a dipole antenna, the angle in question would be vertical, as in how tall the donut is along the Z axis.
3) For a two-antenna system (2x2 MIMO), it's generally best to have the two antenna together at an optimal distance from each other, since they work on wave interference when arranged in parallel polarization*. In other words, you cannot think of them as two separate antennae. You're thinking you can simply move one antenna on the other side of the wall, but that will not work. You have to treat them like a partnered pair of antenna.
4) The stock antenna are dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Inside, each antenna might actually be two separate dipole antennae connected to one RP-SMA connector, but I don't know this. Most likely it is one dipole antenna tuned for dual-band capability.
So, to answer your overall intention: you probably cannot get much better coverage by moving or changing the antennae. At best, you could experiment with the distance between the two parallel antennae (both arranged with their center axis pointing up at the sky), but the distances we are talking about are small (under 40cm). The easiest thing to do is mess with the transmit power (if you have the international version) and choose a band that allows you to increase the transmit power. There are several discussion threads on this forum about how some people set their hAP ax3 to Taiwan regulatory domain and then chose a specific 5GHz band and were able to get much higher power measurements. This may be illegal in your regulatory domain.
* Note that some 2x2 MIMO antennae are designed to operate perpendicular to one another, i.e. one is vertically polarized and the other is horizontally polarized. The hAP ac3 and ax3 appear to be designed for parallel antennae. I am not sure if they can handle perpendicular, though this is exactly the situation I want to use the hAP ax3 for--with an Alfa APA-L2458M912 directional dual-band outdoor panel antenna.
1) Regular dipole antennae like on the ax3/ac3 are omnidirectional like a donut ("round" in the XY plane but not spherical in X, Y, and Z axes).
2) The higher the gain of the antenna, usually the narrower the angle it covers. For a dipole antenna, the angle in question would be vertical, as in how tall the donut is along the Z axis.
3) For a two-antenna system (2x2 MIMO), it's generally best to have the two antenna together at an optimal distance from each other, since they work on wave interference when arranged in parallel polarization*. In other words, you cannot think of them as two separate antennae. You're thinking you can simply move one antenna on the other side of the wall, but that will not work. You have to treat them like a partnered pair of antenna.
4) The stock antenna are dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Inside, each antenna might actually be two separate dipole antennae connected to one RP-SMA connector, but I don't know this. Most likely it is one dipole antenna tuned for dual-band capability.
So, to answer your overall intention: you probably cannot get much better coverage by moving or changing the antennae. At best, you could experiment with the distance between the two parallel antennae (both arranged with their center axis pointing up at the sky), but the distances we are talking about are small (under 40cm). The easiest thing to do is mess with the transmit power (if you have the international version) and choose a band that allows you to increase the transmit power. There are several discussion threads on this forum about how some people set their hAP ax3 to Taiwan regulatory domain and then chose a specific 5GHz band and were able to get much higher power measurements. This may be illegal in your regulatory domain.
* Note that some 2x2 MIMO antennae are designed to operate perpendicular to one another, i.e. one is vertically polarized and the other is horizontally polarized. The hAP ac3 and ax3 appear to be designed for parallel antennae. I am not sure if they can handle perpendicular, though this is exactly the situation I want to use the hAP ax3 for--with an Alfa APA-L2458M912 directional dual-band outdoor panel antenna.
Statistics: Posted by dchang0 — Wed Jan 31, 2024 11:00 pm