Quick and easy way to improve CAB1/CAB2 wireless range

Here's mine...

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Here's mine...

Exactly

Since my Legacy base is down low and around the corner of a concrete wall, I ran an antenna around where it's line of sight for all the basement.  I was still having a few issues, but I had this left over from my old 5000 sq/ft house we left a few years ago, so I pressed it into service again.

I'm sorry, I didn't follow you.  I run plain old TMCC.  How does it plug into a Command Base?

Thanks,

George

@G3750 posted:

I'm sorry, I didn't follow you.  I run plain old TMCC.  How does it plug into a Command Base?

Thanks,

George

This only works with the Legacy Base between Cab1L or Cab2 using 2.4GHz.

The original TMCC/Cab1 uses 27MHz between base and remote and doesn't have an external antenna on the base.

@Adrian! posted:

OK I have to ask, what is this for?  Thanks.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Here's mine...

And you guys have been keeping this a secret why???  Even with a 2.4 GHZ antenna placed in the center of the layout on the ceiling, I still have dead spots.  Ordering right away.  Thanks Adrian

@superwarp1 posted:

And you guys have been keeping this a secret why???  Even with a 2.4 GHZ antenna placed in the center of the layout on the ceiling, I still have dead spots.  Ordering right away.  Thanks Adrian

Gary, I've posted about a 2.4ghz amp for the command base several times, it's not much of a secret.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Gary, I've posted about a 2.4ghz amp for the command base several times, it's not much of a secret.

Well I missed it.  You should of emailed me.

Thanks Marty.  I suspected it was related to the CAB-1L.

Come on, Adrian and John - everyone knows you guys have working flux capacitors in your basements.   

George

@superwarp1 posted:

Well I missed it.  You should of emailed me.

If I email you for every post, you're gonna' need a bigger mailbox!

All kidding aside.  I'm looking forward to adding this.  While getting a dedicated 2.4 GHZ antenna for this under Gunrunners recommendation which helped with reception two fold, my long cable run I'm sure is still causing the issues I'm still having.  Hoping this will help.

Installed, and I now have perfect coverage.  Thanks @Adrian! and @gunrunnerjohn

We put one in at the club, along with Dale's TMCC booster and have 100% signal throughout the layout, which can't be said for DCS signals.

DCS is very dependent on some wiring practices, so that's where you want to start to improve that mode of operation.

@MartyE posted:

OK I have to ask, what is this for?  Thanks.

I’m asking the same question that Marty asked. What is this?

I work for a coaxial connector manufacturer, so here's a word of caution when playing with these antenna connections (skip ahead to the last paragraph if you don't want the history and engineering lesson).

The connector interfaces on most wireless antennas are what is known as a "Reverse Polarity SMA" connector ("RP-SMA" for short). Way back when, the normal SMA connector was designed and adopted as a standardized interface. The SMA plug (the part with the hex coupling nut and 'male' contact pin) came in two flavors: thick wall (for brass construction) and thin wall (for stainless steel construction).

The RP-SMA has the center contact genders reversed from a normal SMA, so the 'female' center contact is now in the plug.  Due to geometries required for proper coax line transmission, RP-SMA plugs can only be build using the thin wall SMA body design. However, many manufacturers still make the bodies out of brass instead of stainless steel, like it was intended to be. The result is that when the hex coupling nut is torqued down on a brass bodied RP-SMA, especially with a wrench, the connector body is crushed slightly and results in what are known as "insertion loss suck-outs", or very narrow frequency bands in which your signal is escaping the coax line. Whether this is a problem depends on the extent of the crushing and the transmission frequency of the system.

When mating these connectors, despite them having hex coupling nuts, do not wrench tighten them, only hand tighten them. A hand tightened RP-SMA will still have good signal integrity at any frequency used for a consumer product, and it is very unlikely that you will be strong enough to damage them. The opposite is true with the Type-F connectors found on cable box connections; always wrench tighten those, the number one cause of poor cable TV reception is a loose connector.

~Chris

John, I have had your signal enhancer on the layout since you offered it, some time ago. Will this signal enhancer give better performance than that, ie. should I replace the old one?

Thanks

@PeterA posted:

John, I have had your signal enhancer on the layout since you offered it, some time ago. Will this signal enhancer give better performance than that, ie. should I replace the old one?

Thanks

Apples and oranges.  The TMCC Buffer deals with the 455khz track signal, the 2.4ghz booster amp we're talking about here deals with the CAB to BASE signal.  They're two totally different data streams and have widely different frequencies.

There is no "upgrade" that I know of for the TMCC Buffer, it's one of a kind.

Thanks John, and it should help in areas of my train room.  However, I clicked on:

JWA Electronic Enhancement Products at Henning's Trains

and do not see it there.

@Adrian! posted:

So our AGHR layout is very long like 220ft and skinny (30ft across) and down at the ends the remotes don't work well because the RF signal isn't making it all the way to the base.....

To me, finding a solution to having a 220' layout layout and having problems with wireless range is a little like someone saying he found a way to easily lengthen his runway because his Gulfstream G700 was having trouble taking off on his existing runway.

In other words, sending RF signals to engines over 2/3 the length of a football field away isn't a problem I'm ever going to have!

@breezinup posted:

In other words, sending RF signals to engines over 2/3 the length of a football field away isn't a problem I'm ever going to have!

Maybe you want to run trains from the neighbor's house!

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Maybe you want to run trains from the neighbor's house!

Well, yes, there's that.  But more like from my neighbor's house 3 doors down.