Confusion about the two WiFi Antenna ports

General
1

I have a BR1 Mini 5G WiFi and I’m confused about the two WiFi Antenna connectors.

The PepLink is installed in my motorhome. Currently I have a single external wifi antenna that is part of my Winegard 360+ 5g rooftop antenna connected to Wifi antenna port A. Everything seems to work fine like that.

However, if I additionally connect a paddle antenna to port B my reception becomes really bad. For instance, with only the external antenna I can see all 4 of my APs at at my house broadcasting my 2.4GHz SSID and connect to that SSID and use it as WiFI as WAN for the motorhome. However, if I add the paddle antenna to port B, I can only see two of the APs and their signal strength is really low.

My assumption was that the external antenna connected to WiFi port A would be used for WiFi as WAN and the paddle antenna connected to Wifi Port B would be used for the 2.4/5 GHz AP on the inside of the motorhome. But it seems I’m mistaken.

Does anyone know best practice for using these two Wifi antenna ports?

2

Nope, both antennas are going to be used for everything WiFi. So your system is trying to do MIMO (multiple inputs/multiple output) between the two antennas and the one with the paddle is unable to ‘see’ your inside APs. The ‘right’ solution is to get a replacement for the Wineguard that has 2 WiFi antennas in it (and probably 4x cellular plus GPS), and if that doesn’t provide enough interior coverage add an AP (unlikely to be needed in an RV).

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3

Thanks so much! That makes sense.

Any drawbacks to just using the one WiFi antenna that’s in the winegard and leaving the WiFi Antenna Port B disconnected?

4

Lower speed, less range, and more susceptible to interference than a MIMO setup, but if it works it works =)

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