SG Broadband Community

i have a 40' outdoor TV Tower with 20' schedule 80 pipe at top that was hooked up in 1980's with AstroPlane CB antenna on top of pipe and large wine guard TV Anntenna below feed down thru tower top to now non-working rotor that I U-bolted to keep winds from lifting. Tower has heavy duty guide wires.

Would like to rip off all old antennas and install hi DB wifi Anntenna to reach around all my property, to get great signal from wireless cameras and allow neighbor access to my wifi. I am disabled and live with my 82 year old mother and neighbor does everything for us.
Wondered if I had to do some type of antenna adjustment like we use to set SWR back in days of CB's or if I would be able to remove one of the 4. WRT 1900 AC router small antennas and run a 50' cable to some type of Omnidirectional Anntenna to place at top of tower and then give caretaker the RE6500 and allow him to hook up to my high speed connection or if him being 800 feet away he may be just given guest access.

Can anyone recommend an omni directional antenna and tell me if I can attach to one of the WRT 1900 AC antennas and leave other 3 in place and then put the RE6500 out on other corner garage to pick up those antennas?

I have a lightning protection from a 2006 cell Yagi antenna repeater for verizon cell I no longer use and hoped I could use that, but have not found a site or person that can tell me if an antenna hooked to a router would possibly damage the router as we use to say back in CB days burn out the finals.

Also a good site to buy an antenna from?

Thank you for your help!
BCS

The WRT-1900ac has dynamic "beamforming" and basically provides slightly different coverage area with each antenna, here is a reference link: http://kb.linksys.com/Linksys/ukp.aspx? ... leid=29289 All 4 antennas are dual band (2.4/5GHz). The router will automatically use the three best antenna signal rates to transmit/receive data, and it uses MIMO technology, allowing multiple signals to be transmitted simultaneously from the router using the different antennas. Replacing just one of the antennas will forego the use of this MIMO capability, it will be slower (using that single antenna), it is not ideal, but it should work in theory. I believe the antenna connectors on this model are RP-SMA.

Theoretically, you should be able to connect one of the antenna leads to an external antenna on your tower. However, your neighbor will not only have to receive, but also transmit a high-enough signal that your antenna can pick up, this may require a high-gain antenna on his end as well. Your best bet is installing a directional antenna on a client device (router in client/repeater mode?) in his location, and either a directional, or Omni 2.4GHz antenna on your tower (depending on whether you have to use it for coverage on your own property, or just for his use). 2.4GHz should give you better range than 5GHz.

Your existing antennas may work if they're designed for the 2.4GHz frequency bands, otherwise, the cheapest solution would be eBay/Amazon.. The cheapest ones are 18-25dbi Yagi antennas for $15-20, but they'd have to be oriented well, and you'd need quality antenna cable. You can also choose a directional panel antenna, or some omni antenna. Better antennas can cost well over $100.

He may also be able to reach your network with a YAGI antenna and an "Alfa USB" wireless adapter, instead of a router (in client mode) on his end.
You may also be able to forego getting the antenna all the way up the tower, if you have direct line of sight to his property/antenna. This would reduce the long antenna cable loss - a 40-50 feet antenna cable+connectors would introduce at least 6-7dB signal loss. Here is a chart for cable attenuation: http://www.w4rp.com/ref/coax.html