Check compatibility first
Your router must have external antenna connectors. Look for small threaded or snap-fit sockets, usually behind a rubber flap on the rear or side of the unit, and confirm the connector type in the specification — SMA, TS9 and CRC9 are all common and are not interchangeable without an adapter.
Count the ports as well. Most 4G and 5G routers use two antenna ports for MIMO, and a MIMO antenna needs both connected to deliver its benefit. Connecting one cable to a two-port router will give you a fraction of the improvement and will confuse the diagnosis later.
Record your baseline readings before touching anything: RSRP, RSRQ, SINR and band, at the router's current position and at a consistent time of day. You cannot judge the installation without them.
Choosing directional or omnidirectional
Directional antennas such as Yagi and panel types concentrate their sensitivity into a narrow beam. They offer the most gain and reject interference from other directions, but they must be aimed at the serving mast with reasonable accuracy, and if the network moves you to a different mast the aim may no longer be right.
Cross-polarised panel antennas are a good middle ground: reasonable gain, a wider beam that tolerates imprecise aiming, and both MIMO paths in a single housing. For most homes in areas with fair-to-weak signal they are the pragmatic choice.
Omnidirectional antennas receive from all directions and need no aiming at all. They give the least gain but are the sensible option where the mast direction is unknown, where the network hands you between several sites, or on a vehicle or mobile installation.
- Known mast direction, very weak signal — directional Yagi or panel.
- Fair signal, uncertain mast direction — cross-polarised panel.
- Multiple masts in use or a mobile installation — omnidirectional.
- Always match the antenna's frequency range to the bands your network actually uses.
Mounting: height, line of sight and safety
Height beats gain almost every time. Getting an antenna above the roofline and clear of neighbouring buildings and trees typically does more than upgrading to a higher-gain model at a lower position. Aim to clear obstructions in the direction of the mast rather than simply going as high as possible.
Use a proper pole mount with a bracket rated for the wind loads you get in the harmattan season. The most common installation failure we see is not electrical but mechanical: a mount that flexes, an antenna that slowly rotates out of alignment, and a connection that degrades over weeks for no apparent reason.
Working at height is the genuinely dangerous part of this job. If the mounting point requires a ladder onto a roof, or any work near overhead electrical lines, engage a professional installer. No signal improvement is worth a fall, and the cost of installation is far smaller than the cost of an accident.
Technician’s tip
Assemble the antenna and test it at ground level, connected to the router with the final cable, before you mount anything. Discovering a faulty lead once the antenna is bolted to a pole is a miserable way to spend an afternoon.
Aiming by measurement, not by eye
Aim with the router's own numbers, not with a compass and a guess. Position a phone or laptop where you can see the router status page while a second person turns the antenna, or take a long cable and bring the router temporarily to the mounting position.
Rotate in small increments of ten to fifteen degrees and pause for thirty to sixty seconds at each position, because the readings take time to settle. Record RSRP and SINR at every step and only then choose the best position. The strongest RSRP is not always the best result — prefer the position with the best SINR when the two disagree, since SINR governs actual throughput.
Once you have the best bearing, check the tilt as well. A few degrees of up or down tilt can make a measurable difference on a long path, particularly where the mast is significantly higher or lower than the antenna.
Cable, weatherproofing and surge protection
Every metre of coaxial cable loses signal, and cheap cable loses it quickly. Keep the run as short as practically possible and use good low-loss cable. A ten-metre run of quality coax will comfortably outperform a twenty-metre run of thin, generic cable regardless of the antenna on the end.
Weatherproof every outdoor connection. Wrap connectors with self-amalgamating tape and then with an outer layer of UV-resistant tape, and form a drip loop in the cable below the connector so water runs away rather than into it. Water ingress is the most common reason an installation that worked in March fails in July.
Fit surge protection on the cable entering the building, and bond it properly. An external antenna on a mast is an exposed metal structure, and protecting a few hundred cedis of router with a modest surge arrester is obviously worthwhile in a country with energetic storms.
Verify and document
Repeat the measurements you took at the start — same metrics, same time of day, same method — and compare. Then run a real speed test, because signal metrics and throughput do not always move together.
Photograph the finished installation, the connector weatherproofing and the final readings. If a problem appears in six months, that record turns a long diagnostic session into a short one.