Mikrotik hap ac2 antenna mod

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

I recently changed to the Mikrotik hap ac2 router and I'm quite happy with it despite of its limited wifi range :confused: It has no external antennas.

So I searched for a wifi antenna mod in the mikrotik forums and found this:
https://forum.mikrotik.com/viewtopic.php?t=153582

Since people reported way better wifi range and speed I went and bought the fitting adapter cables, hooked them up and just connected 2 antennas from my old Linksys Wrt1900acs router....
aaand.. was dissapointed to see that wifi range and speed is actually lower with the antennas attached vs no antennas :frowning:
These are the adapters I bought: https://www.ebay.at/itm/185052478425

But I don't want to give up on this that fast so I want to ask a wifi expert here:

  • Are there any specific wifi settings I should change in openwrt when using external antennas?
  • Could the antennas from the Linksys router be the culprit here? They are dual channel antennas for both 2,4 and 4 ghz signal so I thought they will be alright. Should I buy different ones, if yes which ones are recommended?
  • At last, any other considerations to this, is it a complete waste of time in the first place or is there a chance to extend wifi range and speed?
2

Quite difficult to evaluate, without actually seeing the pictures (hidden for anonymous guests on the mikrotik forum) of your device, but signal propagation and antenna design at 2.4/ 5/ 6 GHz are not easy, almost like black magic. half a millimetre copper lane here, a solder drop there can make massive differences.

3

No problem, here's the backside of the router, I circled the connectors

InkedMikroTik_hAP_ac2_por_dentro_LI
InkedMikroTik_hAP_ac2_por_dentro_LI1920×1080 175 KB

These are the antennas I tried: https://www.newegg.com/p/2VT-006A-00029

The adapter cables are 10cm long, I cannot install shorter ones.

4

Those are not U.FL connectors, but Murata test points, used for calibration purposes in production (non-locking).

5

Yes, that's why I bought these adapters https://www.ebay.at/itm/185052478425
not u-fl ones.

6

Any ideas/input from others concerning this topic?
The fact that others successfully extended their wifi range leads me to think it should be possible somehow.
Or maybe sb knows a better place to ask then here in this section?