High Gain 9dBi 4G LTE Antenna SMA Male for Router/Modem/Gateway - Enhanced Signal for Cellular Trail Cameras, Wildlife Hunting & Security Cameras | Outdoor & Remote Area Use

The first thing to do is have a stable test environment, where you can repeat tests. Also ensure that the 4G router is correctly configured for external antennas.!) First test was to find a repeatable position, where reflections are minimal to movements made in the room.2) Go into the router configuration and enable ONLY External Antennas. Do NOT set to Auto, as both internal/external antennas could be enabled or the router could keep switching between them.3) When fitting antennas, ensure the small SMA coax connector is done up tight and secure. Even slightly loose could mean poor RF connection.4) In the router settings, find a signal strength reading. around -70 dBm is excellent, higher the value the worse the signal strength5) Repeat tests more than once - also remembering that the signal strength indicator can take a few seconds or more, to update. It is not an instant real-time reading.6) Depending on the router, you may need to reboot to initialise the antenna configuration changes.Based on this, I then completed a number of tests using the internal and external antennas. The router was kept in the same position.Internal (typical; -79 dBm Good)External Paddle type (typical: -69 dBm Excellent)External Patch LTE Antenna with RG174 coax (typical: -76 dBm Good)The paddle and patch antenna is directional. Moving them slightly can make a difference. Also rotating from the upright position can also improve, or not, the signal - due to polarisation changes.When using the paddle type antennas, these will make direct RF connection to the wireless in the router.The Patch antennas which typically have a cable using RG174 coax, may well offer, or advertise, high gain but you MUST remember that the coax will be lossy and in fact, you could easily lose 3-10dB due to coax losses.NB. The advertised '35dBi SMA 4G LTE Antenna, SMA Antenna Indoor Network Antenna with Dual Mimo SMA Male Connectors', performed appallingly, as seen above.Finally, depending on where you are sited, signal reflections do exist and sometimes pointing the antennas in a odd angle can provide surprising results. When testing in the hotel, I had a better signal tucked in the rear corner of the room, than by the window.Conclusion, direct Paddle antennas provided the best overall performance. Hope you found this of use.