Does the New Antennas on the RT-AC87 and RT-AC3200 Improve Signal Quality?

[Just Checking]

I noticed that the antennas on the Asus RT-AC87 router changed from the previous Asus models and changed again on the RT-AC3200 model. Does anyone know about the specifications of these antenna?

In particular, I am always looking for other antenna which can improve the 5GHz signal quality of my RT-N66, RT-AC66, and RT-AC68 routers. I use aftermarket 16dBi and 20dbi antennas on my routers to significantly improve the 2.4GHz signal quality but I have not found any antenna that are not huge which can improve over the stock Asus antennas for 5GHz performance.

I was wondering if it was worth it to try obtaining these antennas from the newer models to see if they gave any improvement. If someone has tested this, I would appreciate the information.

 

[bones5050]

I have the RT-AC87 (upgraded from the RT-AC66U) and notice a significant improvement in signal strength in both bands.

 

[L&LD]

bones5050, thank you for the observation. I'm sure it is not just the antennae that have improved though.

 

[VANT]

hmm i will try connect antenas form 87U to 66u for test (ofcourse if it's compatibile)

 

[bones5050]

bones5050, thank you for the observation. I'm sure it is not just the antennae that have improved though.

LOL - Agreed! Much different architecture between the two devices.

 

[L&LD]

Still, I'm interested to see what VANT's results will be with his testing.

 

[TonyH]

Still, I'm interested to see what VANT's results will be with his testing.

Hi,
IMO, stock antenna is just standard antenna, not hi gain type(2dbi-ish each stick) The higher the gain it's b/w becoming narrower. When they mention gain figure it's at the tuned frequency.
Antenna parameters: gain, H and V radiation pattern and angle, reasonable b/w, all interact
each other.
Antenna design is very complex in nature. All calculation is assuming radiator is in free space.
After proto type is assembled based on calculation, hours and hours of field test will yield
final product. If dealing with big antenna(on lower frequency like in HF) we test with scaled
model to begin with. I have some actual field experience upto SHF climbing up/down towers.

 

[L&LD]

Hi,
IMO, stock antenna is just standard antenna, not hi gain type(2dbd each stick)

Oh, I know. Just is an easy way to keep as many components the same between two routers and really see what the internals deliver.

 

[Just Checking]

Thanks everyone for the posts.

I agree completely that antenna design is important and that TonyH is correct that as the gain of the antenna is greater, other parameters are sacrificed. That is why I use a combination of stock antennas and 2.4GHz omni-directional antennas on my RT-N66, RT-AC66, and RT-AC68 routers. The high gain 2.4GHz antennas give very significant improvement in signal strength and range (both uplink and downlink) over the stock antennas when I replace just one out of the three antennas with that. Replacing two or more of the stock antennas with the 2.4GHz high gain antennas degrades the 5.8GHz signal strength while not making significant improvements in the 2.4GHz band.

I have tried many different 5GHz antennas. Only very large physical size antennas that have to be connected by cable to the router give significant improvement to the signal quality. I was hoping that the antennas on the newest Asus routers (the ones on the RT-AC3200 in particular look larger) might provide some improvement in gain over the old stock antennas while still being able to be mounted directly on the router.

I also agree with L&LD and bones5050 that other components of the router are providing higher signal strength. I have changed out the antenna between a RT-AC66 and a RT-AC68 router. The antenna look identical and perform identical between the two routers but the RT-AC68 router puts out higher signal strength at any given power input setting than the RT-AC66 on the 5GHz band. It is measurably higher even though it doesn't necessarily translate into higher throughput (upload or download).

I was reading somewhere (I could be wrong about this) that there were specific antenna to be connected to specific RP-SMA connections on the newer Asus routers which would indicate there were antennas optimized for either 2.4GHz or 5GHz bands. I'd like verification on that.

I am very interested in the results of testing that VANT does by switching the antenna on the RT-AC87 to the RT-N66 to see if there is a difference.

 

[VANT]

Default RT-n66u

and RT-n66u with antenas from RT-AC87u

So.....for me no differencess

 

[Just Checking]

VANT,
Thanks for the testing.

There does appear to be a 2dBi difference in the signal strength with the different antenna. The RT-AC87 antenna giving a -40dBi signal vs. -42dBi for the stock RT-N66 antenna. If that is reproducible, it is significant.

Whether it is worth purchasing these antennas for that increased signal strength is a another question. It would depend on the cost.

Hopefully someone who has the RT-AC3200 (Hint Hint THiggins) can switch out the antennas to an earlier model and rerun the tests for me to see if those are better.

 

[L&LD]

I too think the 2dBm difference might be significant. Is there any way to test other channels too?

 

[Just Checking]

VANT is in Poland so they have other channels than in the USA or Canada. I think that he can access some of the higher frequency channels but I am not sure which ones. I too would be interested in results for channels 149-165.

That is an Apple program that VANT is using. I don't have access to any Apple products myself except an iPhone from work which doesn't have that software. It seems useful and I think it is free for people who have Apple IOS.

 

[zerodegrekelvin]

Hi,
IMO, stock antenna is just standard antenna, not hi gain type(2dbi-ish each stick) The higher the gain it's b/w becoming narrower. When they mention gain figure it's at the tuned frequency.
Antenna parameters: gain, H and V radiation pattern and angle, reasonable b/w, all interact
each other.
Antenna design is very complex in nature. All calculation is assuming radiator is in free space.
After proto type is assembled based on calculation, hours and hours of field test will yield
final product. If dealing with big antenna(on lower frequency like in HF) we test with scaled
model to begin with. I have some actual field experience upto SHF climbing up/down towers.

I cracked open the antenna for the RT-AC87U and it is simply a 2dBi rubber duck type, there are more plastic than the antenna the only thing I like is the antenna has a nice look! Marketing did a really good job by giving a "meaner" look to the old rubber duck, however this rubber duck is dualband type, nothing special.

 

[Just Checking]

I cracked open the antenna for the RT-AC87U and it is simply a 2dBi rubber duck type, there are more plastic than the antenna the only thing I like is the antenna has a nice look! Marketing did a really good job by giving a "meaner" look to the old rubber duck, however this rubber duck is dualband type, nothing special.

Thanks for the information on the RT-AC87 antennas. Has anyone found any success or improvement with "small" antennas for the 5.2-5.8GHz bands over the stock antennas? I have ordered the following antenna to see if that one provides any improvement:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111554590550?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I'm not sure why I can get excellent 16dBi-20dBi gain antennas for the 2.4GHz band but can't get any good "small" antennas that provide high gain for the 5.2-5.8GHz bands.

 

[zerodegrekelvin]

Thanks for the information on the RT-AC87 antennas. Has anyone found any success or improvement with "small" antennas for the 5.2-5.8GHz bands over the stock antennas? I have ordered the following antenna to see if that one provides any improvement:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/111554590550?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I'm not sure why I can get excellent 16dBi-20dBi gain antennas for the 2.4GHz band but can't get any good "small" antennas that provide high gain for the 5.2-5.8GHz bands.

Hi "Just Checking", your ebay antenna is dualband maybe, to make sure the vendor must give give VSWR chart across the frequency band of interest just to make sure. Also a radiation pattern is also good to have as your ebay antenna surely is omni in azimut but not elevation, meaning covering only 1 floor well but not the whole multilevel house.

I notice the ebay antenna use cheap RG174 cable, this is superbad because at 5Ghz, your RG174 eats all the power from your device before reaching the antenna.

You can look at this link http://www.timesmicrowave.com/calculator to compute cable loss.

If you are handy, it is always fun to build your own antenna