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Huawei CPE 370 External Antenna Mod

George26

Pro Member
Hi Guys,

I’m trying to modify my CPE 370, but having some problems.

Back story: In July 2022 I bought the router to replace my broadband which was from BT (30/10). I set the router up with a 5G-XPOL-A0002-10m Poynting Directional antenna, connecting the antenna to the 2 ports in the back didn’t do anything for me. It wasn’t until I opened the unit and disconnected internal antennas that it would then use the external antenna. Once connected it would be very stable on 5G, 4G not as much it tends to jump between towers but I am much higher. Using this setup I could pull 400-600 Mbps, I have line of sight with that antenna.

The only problem with that setup, if the router connected to my local sites for 4G, 5G wouldn’t connect. So I’m looking to add a 4G antenna pointed to the correct tower. I bought my router second hand, the past owner has already drilled the holes so I thought it would be easy to just add 2x 5G and 2x 4G ports for the antennas…

I believe the Square antenna with white and black cables is for 5G (Maybe only 3200mhz+) and those 4 rectangle antennas are for 4G. After connecting the antennas, it shows 4G and 5G, but the stats coming from 5G would imply it’s connected to my local tower. (It’s not actually using the 5G)

1772 = Directional antenna pointed 1 Gbps capable
13045 = Local Mast (Speed capped at 100 Mbps) (If you’re downloading something that drops to 20 Mbps)
14213 = 20 Mbps 5G next to the tower.
50820 (It’s changed since cell mapper logged it) = POW and capable.

The problem: I’ve tried all the internal connectors, and still unable to get 5G to work. Am I missing something here?

I’ve also got a the new Three router (nr5103E) when connected to the 5G and 4G antennas, it does a similar thing and uses my local mast for 5G. (Shows signal stats, etc but doesn’t actually use it)
When locked to N78 and B20 only it uses the 5G antenna for 4G and connects to 1772.

4G thru the 5G directional antenna:
RSRP - 74
RSRQ -11
SINR 2

When using both antennas and it connects to 5G theses are the stats: (for 5G)
RSRP - 94
RSRQ -11
SINR -12

Same signal results with both routers.

Many photos:
Any help would be much appreciated, if you need more info let me know :)
 

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Best advice I can give, trial and error.

Disconnect ALL the internal antenna cables. Plug one external connector and try all the internal ports until you've got 4G working, that'll then be your primary 4G port. Do the same but until you've got 5G.
 
The Huawei 370 and 372 Devices both have External Antenna Ports but these Ports are only configured for 5G NR Bands above 3.3ghz and the 4G Bands are still using the Routers Internal Antennas on NSA Networks, so in effect your still relying on the Internal Antennas for 4G use and as an anchor for 5G NSA. Note, that these Routers do not support 5G usage other than n78 in the UK.

How did you set up the Web UI to select the External Antenna Software arrangement on your Huawei 370?

The Antenna Switching Software gives you options for External Only (2x2 MiMo based on the External Antenna Signal and Direction quality), Auto, which the Router then votes on Antennas available and best MiMo, and Mix, which supports only Port 1 of the External Antennas and mix of any of the Internal Antennas.

Another thing to consider is that these Huawei Routers use a Phase Shift Antenna Array within the Internal Antennas and Software, without getting too techy, its a form of Beam Forming to enhance increased Signal Range in any one location and direction plus it also helps with the main MiMo and reflected MiMo Signals.

For the above reason, its not always a good idea to start stripping the Internal Antennas apart without some consideration to the Auto Phase arrangement of the Internal Antennas, as well as introducing longer Feeder Runs (probably Unbalanced) with External Antennas with unknown matching and specs into Huawei's Auto Phase Shifting arrangements.

I would agree with @dazmatics advice on putting everything back together as it was and then starting a fresh again, bit by bit in order to proceed further.
 
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How did you set up the Web UI to select the External Antenna Software arrangement on your Huawei 370?
Thank you @EssexBoy for the detailed reply. I changed the antenna settings thru the advanced section on the admin panel, I’ve also used LTE H, tried Auto, Mixed & External. How it was setup before: Set to external, square internal antenna unplugged and 2 long antennas unplugged. Which caused it to use the external antenna for 5G.
 
Best advice I can give, trial and error.

Disconnect ALL the internal antenna cables. Plug one external connector and try all the internal ports until you've got 4G working, that'll then be your primary 4G port. Do the same but until you've got 5G.
Thank you. I will be trying this soon. I’ll post an update.
 
I disconnected all the internal antennas, then started connecting the 4G external antenna. The 2 long rectangle antennas show Full bars for 4G and 5G (Wasn’t using 5G), all other ports show 1 bar 4G and poor signal stats. So sticked with those and moved onto the 5G antenna, the square antenna with black and white cables didn’t show any stats for the 5G. (Has done before) the other square antenna showed the same 5G stats as before and was connected to my local tower. The 2 smaller rectangle antennas didn’t do anything for 5G, the same happens when trying to use the long rectangle antennas for 5G.

When the 5G external antenna is connected to the 4G ports and locked to B20 I can connect to the 1772 tower it’s pointed at, with the same signal results as posted before.

Using the internal 4G ports but external built in 5G ports the same happens as connecting direct to the board.
 
I have ordered a Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 which will be coming Monday. It’s 4G and directional so hopefully it won’t want to use 13054.
 
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OK, that Mast, the one by the Post Office go a bit further down to the Church, and if you got to the Shell Garage you've gone too far, know it well ..... Not, 😊, OK help me out here, rather than me attempting to reverse engineer Cellmapper to you location 😉, I'm interested as why you believe your new Poynting Antenna will not pick up your "13054", Network?, Freq Band, Mast Sector, Antenna Direction etc.

ENDC can be either Single Mast location, or Multi Mast Area Wide.
 
OK, that Mast, the one by the Post Office go a bit further down to the Church, and if you got to the Shell Garage you've gone too far, know it well ..... Not, 😊, OK help me out here, rather than me attempting to reverse engineer Cellmapper to you location 😉, I'm interested as why you believe your new Poynting Antenna will not pick up your "13054", Network?, Freq Band, Mast Sector, Antenna Direction etc.

ENDC can be either Single Mast location, or Multi Mast Area Wide.
On my first post, one of the photos is cell mapper showing the local masts. The red circle is me, the arrow is were the my external antennas are facing. Using my current directional antenna I can band lock onto the tower it’s facing. At the moment the 4G antenna is omi and gets the best signal from my local mast (13054) so tends to connect to that for 4G.

So I would then be using 2 directional antennas so both 4G and 5G can be provided by 1772 hopefully? Well at least increase my chances.
 
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Have you been able to figure out where 5G is coming from?

Have you got a 5G phone? Might be an idea to pop the SIM into your phone and take a walk to towers and see which picks up 5G strongest.
 
Have you been able to figure out where 5G is coming from?

Have you got a 5G phone? Might be an idea to pop the SIM into your phone and take a walk to towers and see which picks up 5G strongest.
Yeah, I’ve got an iPhone 12. I’ve ran tests on the masts: All 4 Masts have 5G.
1772 = Directional antenna pointed 1 Gbps capable
13054 = Local Mast (Speed capped at 100 Mbps)
14213 = 20 Mbps 5G next to the mast.
50820 (It’s changed since cell mapper logged it) = POW and capable. 1 Gbps.

The signal stats and speed would imply I’m using 13054 for 5G while I’ve been testing. But it’s possible that it’s just picking up a reflection, showing 5G stats but not actually using it? The speed was 60-80 Mbps which can be done with just 4G or 4G/5G.

Edit: I’ve attached a photo of my external antennas, the red dot is 13054 mast about 600m away and behind one or 2 trees.
 

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Having had a quick look at your Sites and some quick cross referencing I would say the following is probably the case.

14213 - 4G Only.
13054 - 4G and 5G
1772 - 4G and 5G
50820 - 4G and 5G, although this is still an unconfirmed Mast on CM, needs User Placement.
 
Having had a quick look at your Sites and some quick cross referencing I would say the following is probably the case.

14213 - 4G Only.
13054 - 4G and 5G
1772 - 4G and 5G
50820 - 4G and 5G, although this is still an unconfirmed Mast on CM, needs User Placement.
Thanks @EssexBoy. 14213 is very backhaul restricted, when I went and ran speed tests I had full 5G signal next to it, with a max speed of 40 Mbps. I’ve attached a photo of 14213, Google maps shows it’s current setup. 13054 does have a speed cap restriction which can be bypassed using a VPN.

50820 location is about right, it’s a three POW. I believe the ID has now changed for that mast too. I think it has 100 + 40 5G too which would be nice. My speed test got to 900 Mbps, but could just be my phone.

Sadly I’m an iPhone user with no acesss to an android phone.
 

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13054 has a speed restriction of 100 Mbps, all the time even at 4AM. Using a VPN I can get back my old speed before this happened. On the 1st of December the speed restriction was added. Before the cap or Now with using a VPN I can reach from 200 to 400 Mbps depending on the time of day. There is 2 schools which this masts serves, peak time is normally school time.

Just to add this is the same for 2 different phones and 2 different routers. With smarty SIM cards or Three Business data only which is what I’m currently using in my routers. I have 2 of those sims. APN settings don’t change much, but the connection is more stable on three internet APN.
 
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While at peak time and using a VPN my upload drops to next to nothing sometimes and the ping is very bad. These screen shots were all taken now. This is 13054 my local mast, I have the NR5103E setup while working on my Huawei set up. When I changed the test sever to use the same one and ran again, the ping was better but the same upload speed.
 

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Thanks @EssexBoy. 14213 is very backhaul restricted, when I went and ran speed tests I had full 5G signal next to it, with a max speed of 40 Mbps. I’ve attached a photo of 14213, Google maps shows it’s current setup. 13054 does have a speed cap restriction which can be bypassed using a VPN.

50820 location is about right, it’s a three POW. I believe the ID has now changed for that mast too. I think it has 100 + 40 5G too which would be nice. My speed test got to 900 Mbps, but could just be my phone.

Sadly I’m an iPhone user with no acesss to an android phone.
In the absence of an Android Device your a bit knackered for collecting useful Real Time Data but especially on the 5G Bands side.

But what you can do on the Huawei is use an Api Command on the Admin age, log in to your 192.168.8.1 blah blah, then once logged in either use the same page or open another Tab (windows) then go to -

192.168.8.1/api/device/signal

This should return a string of useful info for both 4G and 5G something like this -

439 8708XXX -5.0dB -84dBm -59dBm 12dB 7 20MHz 20MHz PPusch:2dBm PPucch:0dBm PSrs:0dBm PPrach:0dBm mcsUpCarrier1:28 mcsDownCarrier1Code0:11 mcsDownCarrier1Code1:20 DL:1617 UL:19617 1 10671 3 No1:440No2:397No3:89No4:439 23430 0 17517 18467 TM[4] 00340XX 32639 32639 1751700kHz 1846700kHz 40MHz 40MHz NRmcsUpCarrier1:20 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code0:0 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code1:0 PPusch:15dBm PPucch:12dBm PSrs:20dBm PPrach:10dBm DL:637333 UL:637333 3560000kHz 3560000kHz 9dB -102dBm -10.0dB

Basically the first part is mainly 4G info like Signal Info, Cell ID, eNb, Connected Frequency, Bandwidth etc, then the second part -

40MHz 40MHz NRmcsUpCarrier1:20 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code0:0 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code1:0 PPusch:15dBm PPucch:12dBm PSrs:20dBm PPrach:10dBm DL:637333 UL:637333 3560000kHz 3560000kHz 9dB -102dBm -10.0dB

Contains a lot of 5G info, note the n78 Bandwidth on mine is 40mhz and the 5G Cell ID is 637333 Freq 3560000kHz and Signal etc, nrRSRP -102db and nrSNIR 9db etc

From this info you can start to colliate your own Local Info of the Towers in your Area including which Mast have there Own 5G Cell ID's etc this should help you in identifying which Mast are 5G, Bandwidths, Cell ID's etc.

Note, re above, the 5G Info isn't necessarily coming form the same 4G Mast, but you can normally work this out from the Signal Strength info and some cross referring. if last part of the 5G Info is missing from the Return Text this means you are connected to 4G Only or you are Connected to 4G+5G but not connected to the 5G Signal Layer at that moment in time. Also note that APi Command will probably time out after a time if you keep sending refresh request, so just Login again and start over.

If you want a Full Breakdown of what All the Return Info translates to, I've Posted this before on the EE Community Forum, head over there or when I get time I link the Post here.
 
In the absence of an Android Device your a bit knackered for collecting useful Real Time Data but especially on the 5G Bands side.

But what you can do on the Huawei is use an Api Command on the Admin age, log in to your 192.168.8.1 blah blah, then once logged in either use the same page or open another Tab (windows) then go to -

192.168.8.1/api/device/signal

This should return a string of useful info for both 4G and 5G something like this -

439 8708XXX -5.0dB -84dBm -59dBm 12dB 7 20MHz 20MHz PPusch:2dBm PPucch:0dBm PSrs:0dBm PPrach:0dBm mcsUpCarrier1:28 mcsDownCarrier1Code0:11 mcsDownCarrier1Code1:20 DL:1617 UL:19617 1 10671 3 No1:440No2:397No3:89No4:439 23430 0 17517 18467 TM[4] 00340XX 32639 32639 1751700kHz 1846700kHz 40MHz 40MHz NRmcsUpCarrier1:20 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code0:0 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code1:0 PPusch:15dBm PPucch:12dBm PSrs:20dBm PPrach:10dBm DL:637333 UL:637333 3560000kHz 3560000kHz 9dB -102dBm -10.0dB

Basically the first part is mainly 4G info like Signal Info, Cell ID, eNb, Connected Frequency, Bandwidth etc, then the second part -

40MHz 40MHz NRmcsUpCarrier1:20 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code0:0 NRmcsDownCarrier1Code1:0 PPusch:15dBm PPucch:12dBm PSrs:20dBm PPrach:10dBm DL:637333 UL:637333 3560000kHz 3560000kHz 9dB -102dBm -10.0dB

Contains a lot of 5G info, note the n78 Bandwidth on mine is 40mhz and the 5G Cell ID is 637333 Freq 3560000kHz and Signal etc, nrRSRP -102db and nrSNIR 9db etc

From this info you can start to colliate your own Local Info of the Towers in your Area including which Mast have there Own 5G Cell ID's etc this should help you in identifying which Mast are 5G, Bandwidths, Cell ID's etc.

Note, re above, the 5G Info isn't necessarily coming form the same 4G Mast, but you can normally work this out from the Signal Strength info and some cross referring. if last part of the 5G Info is missing from the Return Text this means you are connected to 4G Only or you are Connected to 4G+5G but not connected to the 5G Signal Layer at that moment in time. Also note that APi Command will probably time out after a time if you keep sending refresh request, so just Login again and start over.

If you want a Full Breakdown of what All the Return Info translates to, I've Posted this before on the EE Community Forum, head over there or when I get time I link the Post here.
Thank you again for the detailed reply. I will post the signal stats on here once I’ve got a chance to test it again. I’ve been keeping my eye on the forum since I got my first 5G router and have learnt a lot. I have also been keeping track of signal strength, bands, bandwidth, etc but only in my head.
 
Using the NR5103E like an android device to show me which bands I’m using and there bandwidth. I’ve worked out 13054 is 40MHz, 1772 is 100 MHz. I’ve also picked up 100 + 30 and 100 + 40 with very very poor signal results or showing 0 for signal stats using internal antennas for the last 2.
 
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