Need to replace one of the antennas that came with my BR1. It seems that most of the antennas being sold are 5dbi instead of the 2dbi the unit came with.
Do I need 2dbi or will 5 work without any changes or degraded signal?
It will work just fine and should give you a better signal, not degraded.
2 Likes
The 5dBi antenna will work and under certain circumstances may actually work better. However, “gain ain’t free.” What happens when gain is increased is the antenna’s effective aperture is reduced. So, the angle between the 1/2 power (3dB) points may be reduced from, say 85 degrees, to maybe 60. So, if all the users are in roughly the same plane (e.g., not two floors above or below) more gain is often a good thing. The antennas Peplink furnishes make a lot of sense given they don’t know where the users will be. So , go ahead and try it!
4 Likes
I guess I should add, these are used for 4G, not wifi.
Right-o. Same principle applies. It’s just a matter of physics. So, in this case, since it is probable that the cel site will be on roughly the same plane (90 degrees from the antenna) as the Peplink device you’ll likely see an improvement in the 4G signal of very roughly 3dB, or double. 
3 Likes