Repair or Replace Severed WiFi Antenna Cable?

[wingman358]

Hi all, I just discovered I have a severed WiFi antenna cable in my T400. There are still two intact antennas, so I can live with a moderate hit in the signal department. That being said though I love tinkering and fixing stuff.

My question is this: has anyone repaired one of these coaxial antenna cables? I'd prefer not to buy replacement parts, but I also understand that might be the most feasible solution in this case.

[rkawakami]

Welcome to thinkpads.com!

I'd say that if the break was near enough to the U.FL (Hirose) snap-on connector, then it might be possible to attach another connector. However, the crimping tool to do that costs way more (~$90; part number 798-U.FL-LP-IN at mouser.com) than the antenna assembly you could probably get off of eBay for <$10.

If the break is somewhere closer to the middle of the coax, then patching it together is probably out of the question. Assuming you could successfully deal with the tiny center conductor (re-attaching the ends together and avoiding shorting it to the coax shield), you'd probably have enough signal loss / mismatch / VSWR to make it useless as the third antenna.