Antennas for GT-AX11000

[Cleanev]

I just picked up a GT-AX11000 and failed to read that the router is without antennas.
Is it required to have specific antennas available?
Reason for the ask is that GT-AX11000 is tri-band and I would rather purchase antennas that support 3rd band if there is such a thing WRT antennas.

Your inputs or experiences with third party antennas you may have used will help.

Edit: Corrected router model

 

[drinkingbird]

I just picked up a GT-AXE11000 and failed to read that the router is without antennas.
Is it required to have specific antennas available?
Reason for the ask is that GT-AXE11000 is tri-band and I would rather purchase antennas that support 3rd band if there is such a thing WRT antennas.

Your inputs or experiences with third party antennas you may have used will help.

How is that possible? The antennas are not supposed to be detachable on 6E routers (maybe outside of the US they are)? Are you sure they aren't broken off - I'm assuming you bought this used?

 

[Cleanev]

Apologies for the confusion - the router I purchased is not GT-AXE but GT-AX (corrected in original post)
Yes this is a used router.

 

[Kingp1n]

Are you missing all 8 antennas?

You might be able to find used antennas for this router thru eBay or even maybe thru Amazon. Prices can range between $10-35 (each) which can easily get expensive. The router will still work with some missing antennas but the signal range might be less powerful.

 

[Ripshod]

As with any radio transceiver don't operate it with any missing antennas. It can damage the electronics. Not even just for a test.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Reason for the ask is that GT-AX11000 is tri-band and I would rather purchase antennas that support 3rd band if there is such a thing WRT antennas.

Despite the marketing claims this is not a tri-band router. It is a dual-band router, 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Yes it has two 5GHz radios (for the lower and upper channels) but that doesn't make it tri-band. A quick look at the FCC test report shows that the part number of each antenna is exactly the same so there is nothing functionally special about these antennas. Any dual-band 2.4/5 GHz antenna with a gain of about 1.9 to 2.3 dBi should do.

As the post above said, do you need just one antenna or all eight?

 

[Cleanev]

@ColinTaylor - unfortunately all 8 are missing so will need to figure out something that is sold in bulk on ebay or Amazon
@Ripshod— thanks for the guidance on not turning it on with missing antennas - I will wait for the antennas before testing

 

[Tech9]

unfortunately all 8 are missing

In addition to what @ColinTaylor said above (dual-band, tri-radio - "tri-band marketing") the original antennas of this router are part of the "visual marketing". They are just bulky non-functional plastic with 5cm standard dipole inside for $1 or less. Antenna 2dBi has spherical omnidirectional radiation pattern. In other words the legs of this spider are mostly for show. Don't spend unnecessary high amount for "original" Asus plastic. All you need is dual-band 2-3dBi antennas with matching connector.

s with any radio transceiver don't operate it with any missing antennas. It can damage the electronics. Not even just for a test.

Nothing bad is going to happen with this device in particular. All home routers I've seen with detachable antennas have terminated and protected power amplifiers. You can remove and replace the antennas any time you want without powering off the router. The only thing messed up temporary will be the data streams, but the router will recover soon after. If the routers get damaged this way the manufacturers would never offer removable antennas.

 

[doczenith1]

As with any radio transceiver don't operate it with any missing antennas. It can damage the electronics. Not even just for a test.

Hijack alert! I've have heard this in the past and always respected it with my electronics. I recently upgrade my computer and the new motherboard came with wifi. I have no intentions of the using the wifi and thus did not attach the antennas. So, at first boot, I entered the BIOS and disabled the wifi. Once Windows was installed it recognized the wifi and in device manager it shows the Intel 6E AX211 device. The computer has been running for 6 days now sans antennas. I'm hoping the device is showing but not transmitting so as to not damage anything???

 

[Tech9]

I'm hoping the device is showing but not transmitting so as to not damage anything???

Keep fire extinguisher near by just in case.

 

[MrOtto]

What kind of replacement antenna specification do I need for GT-AX11000? Original antennas are very expensive and I doubt they have anything special hardware within the expensive plastic.

 

[ColinTaylor]

What kind of replacement antenna specification do I need for GT-AX11000? Original antennas are very expensive and I doubt they have anything special hardware within the expensive plastic.

See post #6.

 

[MrOtto]

1.9 dBi or 2.3 dBi? Lower dBi, less power loss? Reverse SMA plug. Any good sources to buy this kind of antenna?

Edit: lower dBi = less directivity?

 

[MrOtto]

EU, different types of antennas, all are sets of 8:

 

[ColinTaylor]

1.9 dBi or 2.3 dBi?

Anything roughly in that range. That table is just showing you the antenna gain at different frequencies. Most (all?) antenna adverts just state an overall gain for both bands rather than giving you a gain vs. frequency graph.

Are you wanting to replace a single antenna?

 

[MrOtto]

I need 8x antennas, so it's not an option to buy the original antennas. Not finding antennas as low as 2dBi, some are 3dBi and are very short.

 

[Tech9]

some are 3dBi and are very short

Original ones are long and bulky because of the "gaming" marketing involvement. What's inside is a standard dipole about 5cm long.

 

[ColinTaylor]

If you're replacing all of them then they just need to have the same gain as each other. 3dBi will be fine, just don't use something way off like 6 or 9 dBi.

 

[Tech9]

Most "high gain" antennas sold on Amazon and eBay are actually fake with 2-3dBi real gain or worse. This is the experience so far. I have like 4 sets different ones purchased for experiments. All turned fake and worse then the original supplied antennas.

This thing is about 2-3dBi for example, not 8-10dBi as advertised:

My own testing results match this feedback:

Will work as replacement antennas though and the price is okay. In reality much cheaper than this, but Amazon delivers fast.

 

[MrOtto]

These are 5dBi: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...!sea!NO!138673840!&curPageLogUid=YGBD9d0K2wGV

Is lower gain "worse"? Low directivity is chosen by a reason for coverage?