Tuesday 27 November 2012

3G, 4G, ISM antennas and more available online

Connex Technologies Ltd is an online retailer of antennas, RF cables, RF connectors and access for 3G/4G access, M2M, WLAN and VHF/UHF wireless applications. A sister company of Embedded Antenna Design Ltd and Specialist Antenna Solutions, Connex has a range of products available for purchase online.

Historically, Connex has focused on external high gain antennas for 3G wireless broadband applications offering antennas for Huawei, Sierra Wireless and Option datacards, modems and dongles. With quality products including high gain omni blade antennas and high gain compact directional panel antennas, being able to call-upon in-house assembled cables and pigtails terminated in dongle-specific connectors such as TS9 and CRC9, enables Connex to offer rapid delivery of suitable 3G access antenna bundles.

More recently, Connex has broadened its ranage of antennas to offer a number of clearance antennas i.e. quality antenna products from excess stock now to be sold off at attractive prices. This include mobile antennas for GPS and Multiband applications, VHF/UHF antennas and much more from leading antenna vendors. Clearance antennas include products from EAD, Laird, Smarteq, PCTEL, Sirio and Pulse.

In addition, there is an increasing range of clearance cables and pigtails - popular connectors and connectors on cables available at clearance pricing whilst stock lasts. Included are Murata GSC connectors and pigtails, W.FL to SMA pigtails and single piece adapters.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Introducing a new LTE/4G, 3G, GSM High Gain Magnetic Mobile Antenna

A new magnetic mount, high gain, mobile antenna covering LTE, 4G, 3G and 2G frequency bands is now available. Initally on offer with a CRC9, TS9 connector or simply terminated in a SMA-Male connector, the LTE-HIGAIN-MAG is a robust, low profile antenna based on the Laird Phantom Wideband Cellular antenna the TRA6927M3NW-001. The antenna covers the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz bands therefore covering worldwide cellular frequencies.

The antenna is supplied with a heavy duty magnetic mount and 4M (12') cable.

LTE-HIGAIN-MAG antenna

Offering up to 5 dBi peak gain (band dependent), this antenna is ideal for mobile applications where network signal strength is variable or indeed fixed applications where a metal surface is available on which the antenna can be mounted.

The LTE-HIGAIN-MAG can be ordered online from Connex Technologies here.

If you have any questions on this antenna, please contact us. E-mail.

Friday 2 November 2012

4G/LTE Antenna Headaches!!??

4G and LTE antennas are suddenly becoming a hot potato! Customers are increasingly asking for 4G/LTE (we will use the term 4G for the purposes of this article) frequency band support for many 2G and 3G only antenna requirements. As 4G is topical, they see the 4G support as a must. In many cases it is not required and can simply compromise the antenna solution.

Let's look at the issues from an antenna perspective:

1. Size - Wideband antennas with frequency support for 2G, 3G and 4G are much more complex to design than quad band GSM or GSM/3G antennas. Often to increase the bandwidth for wideband antennas such as blade antennas, terminal antennas, low profile antennas, there is no alternative but to increase the size of the antenna from the normal form factors seen the GSM/3G market. Small stubby antennas covering 700/800-2700 MHz are unlikely to perform across the band completely to a satisfactory level (despite what the manufacturer may claim).

2. Performance - It is a typical trade-off situation, a very wideband antenna by its nature will have compromises. Mechanically if you keep the antenna small, you will forfeit performance. By having a larger antenna (see point 1 above) you have opportunities for better performance. So to keep the same form factors as GSM/3G antennas, antenna performance will generally suffer when designing 2G/3G/4G wideband antennas.

3. Frequency - Unfortunately for us antenna suppliers, 4G does not operate at a single frequency. Unlike Euro 3G at 2100 MHz, 4G networks are already operating at 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz across Europe and LTE is operating at 700 MHz in North America. Not only does this confuse customers, it makes antenna solutions more complicated as customers and suppliers have to be very sure of the correct operational frequencies before committing to an antenna of choice.

We should realise there are going to be some technical challenges for everyone while we all acclimatise to the 4G applications and perhaps we should be prepared to accommodate our thinking in terms of form factors as we embrace wideband cellular antenna solutions.

EAD and Specialist Antennas are happy to work with customers through the maze of antenna options for multiband 2G/3G/4G applications. You can visit our websites at www.ead-ltd.com or www.specialistantennas.co.uk or contact us on +44 1280 824055. Some select 4G applications can be purchased online via our Connex Technologies website.