Wireless Access

I am looking to use an AP 104 with a couple of ANT-19 antennas. From photos and specs online, both the AP and antenna pigtail have RP-SMA male type connectors. Any idea why this is the case? I would expect the AP to have female connectors.

I'm going to need a 40' or so cable inbetween and nobody makes a female to female RP-SMA that I am aware of.

Thanks in advance!

According to our 104 install guide, the AP104 includes 4 female RP-SMA connectors.  The pigtails are male.  Is this not the case?

Take a look at the photo above. The AP clearly has RP-SMA connectors with male pins.

Personally I haven't put my hands on an AP-104 but one our Field Tech guys that does installs told me the same thing.

The cable above the AP has female, shouldn't that work?

From - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMA_connector#Reverse_polarity_SMA

Take a look at the pic 

Reverse polarity SMA (RP-SMA or RSMA) is a variation of the SMA connector specification which reverses the gender of the interface, as shown in Figures 1 and 2. The term "reverse polarity" here refers only to the gender of the connector's contact pin, not in any way to the signal polarity. The female RP-SMA connector has the same external housing as a standard or conventional female SMA connector, which consists of an outer shell with the threads on the outside; however, the center receptacle is replaced by a male pin.

That's a Type N connector on that cable. We are trying to get away from having to buy four adapters to use two antennas on an AP-104.

If you are going to run 40' of LMR, it would need to be LMR-400 at least to minimize loss. As such, you will likely want to use RP-SMA to N jumpers regardless for strain relief on the connector. As such, you could use the ANT-2x2-2005 or ANT-2x2-5005 antennas, which do have N connectors, to replace your ANT-19s.

Note that indoor APs with connectors are designed to be co-located with their antennas (ala within an enclosure or oberon box), and in those cases there is no need for ruggedized antenna connectors where longer LMR runs would be used.

Thanks Jerrod. WIll the ANT-2x2-2005 work with the indoor AP-104 if we use converters from RP-SMA to at the AP side?

The AP will be installed inside a climate controlled MCC building but the antennas are mounted on the ceiling in an undergound mine.

We used AP-104 and ANT-19s in one other location with success but had to have custom cables made to connect each side to the N cable. I want to avoid duplicating that if the ANT-2x2-2005  will work.

You just need 2.4Ghz access from the 104? If so then that should be fine and you will just leave the 5Ghz antennas disconnected. You will need RP-SMA to N jumpers on the AP and then can go N to N on the cable to the antenna. Pay attention to the cable ends as the 2005s are meant to be directly attached to the AP. So just make sure you pick the correct genders based on your jumpers and extension cables.

That is correct. Just 2.4 Ghz for client access via controller based LWAP.

Does Aruba sell all of the proper connectors for this application? The N' cables will need to be 50'. If so I will keep everything with the same maufacturer.

For our installations, the AP275 is proving somewhat cheaper than AP104+cable+converter+external antenna+NEMA enclosure+heater+power cabling+etc.

If you're still planning the purchase, I recommend you look at the 275.