CW9163E with 2.4/5 omni antennas only?
I have some CW9163E APs to replace EoS MR84s and I've seen that the top two antennas (ports A&B) are for 6GHz only and the lower two (ports C&D) are for 2.4/5GHz.
The tri-band antennas from Meraki are extortionately priced so I plan on reusing the third-party dual-band antennas I already have, capping off the 6GHz ports, and disabling 6Ghz in the settings.
While this might not meet "certification", will it work?
If the cost of the tri-band antennas comes down in the future I'll reevaluate, or perhaps look at getting dedicated 6Ghz-only antennas for ports A&B, if such a thing exists.
Thoughts?
9 comments · 100% upvoted · other discussions
Get 3rd party antennas.
Jumpy_Mountain9671 1 points · Sep 2026
Meraki's pricing on those tri-band antennas is absolutely absurd, I looked into this exact setup for a client a few months back and nearly choked when I saw the quote.
Capping the 6GHz ports and running dual-band antennas on C/D will work functionally, the AP doesn't do any hardware checks that would prevent it from operating. The certification part is mostly about regulatory compliance and not voiding your support contract, but if you're comfortable with that tradeoff it's a solid workaround.
One thing to watch for is the antenna gain matching what the AP expects, mismatched gain can cause the radio to dial back power more than necessary or in rare cases throw constant alerts in the dashboard. Test one unit first before deploying the whole fleet and keep an eye on the RF profile for a few days.
thetoastmonster [OP] 1 points · Sep 2026 · CMNO
Yeah the pricing is insane, especially considering you'd need four per AP, and I have 11 outdoor APs!
Any suggestions on brand and models?
thetoastmonster [OP] 1 points · Sep 2026 · CMNO
Any suggestions on brand and models?