Considder doing this:
Use the shield to mound a suface mount SMA connector directly over the point where the antenna starts.
Drill a small hole trough the antnenna as close to the amplifyer as possible. Disconnect the rest of the antenna by removing a small section of the lead. Do this directly behind the hole.
If needed extend the center pin of the SMA connector so you can solder it on the opposite side of the board.
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This is a new board! Looks like the ground plane is all around the unit! @Jin_Gotenna @Rahul_Subramany what’s the 411 with the new design?
The addition of the metal shield appears to be for suppressing unwanted emissions as a result of the higher duty cycle (40ms to 400ms).
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The shield looks like it’s attached to the ground plane, the - of the antenna the + of the antenna is the fractal antenna and is to the left of the shield.
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Yes the Shield is and should be attatched to the same ground 
Thats why I would solder the connector directly on it. Just like when you look inside a tranceiver the PL antenna conenction is also attached and therewith grounded to the same plane. All that is needed is an as short as possible lead from the board to the center pin of the connector.
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You all are like RF detectives 
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Are the 2016 versions of the units going to also change duty cycles?
With this new design my question:
Where does the center of the coax go?
Where does the outer part of the coax go?
And when I mean go I am soldered to.
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Oh I gotcha! That is going to be NOT an easy thing to do. Like at all!
You mean this would be impossible?
You can make the hole in the shielding a bit larger so you have room to position the center pin of the SMA connector.
The idea about drilling the hole trough the board and solder it from the other side was to make it easer to solder with the SMA connector mounted to the shield.
Disrupting the antanna on the board is just a matter of using an exacto knive to remove a quater inch.
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If I could super like this I would!!!
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Nothing is impossible. Some things are just RFH: Really !@#$ing Hard lol
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All right keep us posted. Hopefully I can soon install my unit to Sulpher Mountain. Depending on interest and results I might take a “crack at it”. Pun intended 
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Last night I had my Mesh unit on my rear view mirror had auto location on every minute and this is the first ping that got through. Not a lot of testing has been done with this new antenna has been done BUT so far it seems to be working better. I am actually leaving for work early now to do more testing from the 520 bridge to contact the MOAN unit and one of my other guys in the “For sure Mesh service area” I got going on.
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A rant on range testing…
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Did some range testing tonight of the MOAN to the north, northeast and east. Depending on topo I got some great results! LOTS of hills here. The new antenna is definitely doing an awesome job! Next: Testing to the southeast, south, southwest, west, and northwest.
This is local area testing. Not setting records here, just seeing the functionality of the unit in its current location / configuration for reliable coms.
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I Currently live in West Seattle on the west side of the hill. I just found and skimmed over this feed and I’m interested in possibly making one of these now and trying to connect more of the Seattle, especially if there is someone with one between us. I’m pretty tech savy but I would need to do a decent amount of learning/following a guide to make it happen. But I’m very intrigued, especially if I can always take it on trips with me if needed!
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