ROADTEST POLL: Would You Be Interesting in Roadtesting a Multi-Hub Antenna?

This is an interesting hub antenna for a roadtest, I vote no because I don't have the skills or equipment to test this antenna o any other antenna. I hope there's someone who has the expertise for this kind of roadtest, because this technology is really amazing, and I would learn a lot watching those roadtests.

I voted no because I have not equipment and skills to properly test this kind of devices.

I think this one will be a tough one to draw a crowd. It's difficult to test antennas for performance objectively in ordinary environments, although perhaps use in an application is easier to demonstrate. The design seems to be most suited for vehicles or constrained space applications where the vehicle's own systems need an antenna to connect to various networks and for GNSS.

While it may be tested or applied outside of a vehicle, I think it would be fairly tricky to get a single system that would have all the necessary radios and the adapters necessary to connect them all just to make sure they work together. Instead, testing each input separately may be easier, but then we don't see the "self-interference" potential. Many cellular phones, for example, don't even have external antenna connectors nowadays and even when they do, it's usually cellular only - nothing for Wi-Fi or GNSS. Perhaps a laptop with a cellular card may be a better candidate - but they will probably use tiny MHF or smaller connectors, not SMA. I do have a gateway device that has SMA GNSS, LTE-M/NB-IoT, LoRaWAN but not Wi-Fi.

It's a tricky one for sure ... ideally one would have a VNA to sweep each antenna for some real data, something I don't have. A proper anechoic chamber and calibrated automated measurement for radiation pattern would be a proper test but you probably won't find more than a handful of labs in the world equipped to do it. The manufacturer (Molex) likely has good data here already, so replicating this is probably not a major point.

- Gough

Alas... no.  It sounds really cool, but I don't have anything to really plug into most of it.

good to know there will be more activities around antennas, but for this one I voted Maybe. Would be very difficult to measure its performance other than compare it to other antennas, without a anechoic room.

If I were to road test it, I would do an application based test.  I actually have a setup that uses LTE, WiFi, and GNSS antennas.  Probably would compare performance against the existing setup.

There is definitely a trend towards systems that leverage more than one frequency band, and size is always an issue. No question this road test would be useful in gaining knowledge in this area. Unfortunately with my current backlog this isn't high enough on the priority list to hijack my previously planned projects.

If I were to test this, I would use some of my other road test, evaluations that have LTE Wi-Fi, loraWAN  antennas and compare them

I am fascinated by antennas, and that they work as well as they do.  These seem mostly designed for 5G, and I don't have anything with those high frequencies.  I have LoRa boards.  And I have a cheap VNA, only goes up to 2Ghz though.  I said maybe, but doing a thorough test is difficult.

Nice documentation! They have clearly paid a lot for the antenna hub to be tested, there are 100+ pages of antenna measurements. This would be really neat for burying a load of antennas (not all would need to be used on day one) in vehicles, perhaps even classic cars which need trackers and GPS hidden.

A VNA won't help much, at best it can only help with a small subset of tests for an antenna unfortunately. Only some scalar measurements are possible, because at those frequencies a VNA calibrator is required for vector measurements, and those cost several $k (although I have seen one set for $500-600 which kind of looks reasonable. But even then, it's just a subset.

It's possible to do other tests with cheap equipment (for instance measuring the radiation pattern doesn't need a lot of equipment at all can be sub-$50 as shown in that RoadTest). An SDR is more practical here than a VNA. I think it's good for a ballpark estimate if the antenna is functioning as expected, and there's nothing wrong with such a (literally) field-test, equipment manufacturers test outdoors (if they have a license for it).

Personally I think it's better to either just use the device and write up the usability and practicality of it (doesn't necessarily need to use all antennas), because no end equipment manufacturer is going to pay the hundred $k or so for that level of antenna testing when Molex has already done that, so it wouldn't help the reader (if the reader is an end equipment manufacturer). Personally I think what would help the reader more is seeing it in use, and the practical issues surrounding it, and any (inevitable subjective in this case but it is what it is) findings in the environment it is used in (e.g. mounted against a metal chassis and so on).