Very much this. The antenna mod is well within my soldering skills, but probably not for many users, and the cost of failure is high. @Ghuntz said this is a "game changer" and I agree completely. A model with external antennas for all radios would be something I would gladly pay a good bit extra for, along with PoE support on board.
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It's right near the beginning, in a post by some guy. I think his name was Lewis. It was around post #28
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for those of us new to u.fl connectors, do you mind saying a bit more about how to ohm test it? I assume use a multimeter in continuity test mode, but where do I place the probe for ground and should the unit be powered off or on (or doesn't matter)?
Leave it off. Center pin is towards the pad farthest from the ethernet jack. The ground pads are the one closest to the ethernet jack and on each side. Resistance check should show high resistance between ground and center pin but depending on sensitivity not OL and not 0.
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I didn't read every post, but thought I would mention for anyone that's not experienced with soldering small components, and especially around SMD, you might consider using Mylar (heat) tape placed over nearby SMD devices in case you slip or get things too hot for too long and "float" an SMD.
I did see several point out to use sufficient heat to reduce dwell time, you don't want to "heat soak" your work and melt things.
Food for thought.
Good suggestion but doubt many people have that laying around. I didn't have any myself until I started doing this on a large scale. I'd still favor higher heat and lower dwell time over the tape as you can just as easily damage the components through the board heating up. The tape works best when using hot air as the air can blow over a large surface area.
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This is interesting. Is this a problem you've spotted before?
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10224200970585565&set=gm.1130911624333192
It's a post in the FB group Hubitat Users Group. You need to be a member to see any posts.
The author of that post was saying the antenna on their HE wasn't connected correctly, and they've replaced it with an external antenna instead. Two people have pointed them to this thread.
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@lewis.heidrick do you have the exact part numbers for the antennas you used?
The links you provided just give you a list not the exact one 
These are the ones I use.
HG2405RD-RSP
HG905RD-1-RSP
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Thanks, that explains it. I don’t do Facebook, never have.
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@lewis.heidrick what are your thoughts on this one, HG905RD-RSP? For some reason I ordered them instead of the HG905RD-1-RSP.
It's the same thing just has an import fee. I got a few of those before someone pointed out the -1 version.
I just found this thread and smacking myself for not thinking to search for it before. I have many devices, but the scene execution and other 'mass change' events are always very flaky. I'd say 50-75% of the time they don't complete.
I got all excited and then checked my stats to see how many direct connections i had, but was surprised I had as many as I do... But I'm wondering if the size of my network, having about 1/3 not directly connected is resulting in the mesh being overwhelmed... thoughts? Don't want to start this soldering and such if it's not likely going to make a difference in my situation... @lewis.heidrick
You may have a lot of direct connects but if you look at your RTT, it's pretty slow. Not sure how many Z-Wave Plus devices you have but assuming some of those that are connecting at 40k are plus. Those should jump to 100k also.
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I haven't seen any situation where this has not helped. However, my suspicion is that updating the zwave radio firmware to 7.17.1 will also make a big difference to large busy meshes. And I'm hopeful that the next platform release will include that firmware update.
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My parts are ordered
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Thanks for chiming in @lewis.heidrick and @aaiyar - I just placed my order for the connectors, pigtails, and both antennae. Thanks and fingers crossed i don't catch it on fire when pretending to be skilled at something 
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