In many access points, the QCA9880 chip is paired with this to give 3-chain 5GHz 11ac, and clearly when Mikrotik supports it on a mini-PCIe card, we can upgrade to dual-channel 11n + 11ac.
The obvious question is, can we run the QCA9558 at 2.4GHz? If so, what is the performance impact of the onboard antenna connector spacing being 15mm, when the half-wavelength is ~60mm at 2.45GHz; this would obviously multi-path diversity. It’s just a pity to not use the ample spacing on the side to optimise diversity as in other designs.
I’m ordering as soon as available, so what casing will it use?
Can you answer why did you change connector to SMA not RP-SMA ? or even MMCX ? how to connect this board this days - i can’t find any reason to do this.
Pawel
Originally SMA was used for professional antennas outside, and RP-SMA for indoor and home antennas.
Because they were not readily available, RP-SMA connectors have been widely used by Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers to comply with specific local regulations, such as those from the FCC, which are designed to prevent consumers from connecting antennas which exhibit gain and therefore breach compliance.
But since RP-SMA is becoming widely used and more popular, we will most likely change to RP-SMA in future.