Thanks, I was thinking polarity in terms of + / - , but it's more of a physical distinction.
Got it, off to void my warranty
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Appreciate everyone publishing this. Iām going to be giving this a try too. Iād rather have reliable zwave than a warranty!
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The pigtails from amazon won't ship for a couple weeks. Maybe I can salvage one off one of my 87 routers, that I save for no good reason
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Lots of pigtails available. I used these... ships tomorrow. 
Edit: The RG-178 may be overkill to some, but most of what I use things like this is with GPS. Having better cable doesn't hurt... it's just a little less bendy.
Okay folks, we need to be careful here. Just came back from reading some 100+ antenna reviews on amazon. Apparently there are lots of mismarked, poor performing antennas out there. Confirmed by people with spectrum analyzers, and people saying "it made signal worse". Antennas marked as 915Mhz but actually are 2.4g router antennas. Other antennas shorting out peoples equipment due to improper antenna construction. Nothing worse than tweaking it till it breaks...
I was trying to avoid spending ~40.00 on an antenna like @lewis.heidrick did, but at least he got his from a legit supplier.
Why is this "hobby" kicking the stuffing out of my bank account?
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Perhaps @lewis.heidrick should start a business on the side selling kits to do the antenna upgrade. He has so much spare time, anyway.
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You might be able to find someone with an SWR bridge that works in the 900mhz band to test your antenna... though relying on reviews is probably a LOT easier. It won't necessarily tell you whether your antenna is giving you the 5db it claims, but it will tell you whether it will blow up your radio.
The main reason for me going with the supplier I chose was for this exact reason. I don't really care what things cost, as long as it does what it says and I'm willing to spend more on better quality, but I realize this isn't the same approach others take. As with any mod, there's always some implied risk and you just mitigate what you can within reason.
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Soon as I do and buy a huge stock of supplies, Hubitat will release their C8 with externals.
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Rather than reading reviews, I would read specs and look at RF diagrams. I guess that overall, I wouldn't recommend ordering antennas from Amazon. You're just not sure what you'll end up with.
I would recommend an antenna from a known source like L-Com or Lynx (I have tested both on mine). You can order direct from either or via a supply house like Mouser or Digikey. I think it's worth the extra few days to get a known quality product.
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If the circuit board is being produced at a different time and place from the final assembly time and place, then the use of u.fl connectors makes the final assembly easier by allowing the connection of the antenna by snapping it in. But there is really no electrical benefit to the use of u.fl connectors in this application. It really just makes the process more difficult by requiring soldering of those tiny u.fl connectors, and adds an additional component and point of failure. The HE hub has the factory antenna wires soldered directly to the circuit board pads, and there is no reason not to replace those with wires soldered to an SMA connector and then directly to the circuit board.
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Yes those 2 sites came as recommended. Another thing I discovered. That in general, those antennas with the higher dBi amplification say 5dBi vs a 2dBi antenna, tend to be more directional, all other things equal,as they focus the signal in a tighter pattern. Which I'd imagine can have worse performance depending on your particular layout.
The amazing amount of science behind antennas blows my mind..and I thought it was just a wire 
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Most antennas are "omni directional" and that means that they are sending almost as much energy (signal) straight up and straight down as they are to the sides. In the real world that is rarely needed or beneficial for a stationary antenna (it is beneficial for the antenna on a handheld device where the antenna may not always be pointing up). My 9dBi gain antenna still has ample vertical coverage for my 2-story house.
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good to know. Can you please provide a link to the 9dBi
You probably already know this but to clarify for others considering this hack...
Reaching for the best quality in the shortest pigtail possible isn't overkill as much as one might think. The combination of connectors and cabling to the antenna itself is actually is a huge (in relative terms) source of signal degradation... so the shorter and higher quality the better. To the point that you can still bend/route it where you need it.
Of course this is a much bigger issue in longer coaxial runs but the point is, people put on antennas with labeled signal quality boost expectations and under spec cabling only to have that diminish a good chunk of their gain expectations.
On the note as to whether this hack is going to benefit our configurations or solve mesh problems.
In all but the most egregious situations, like say...living in a Faraday Cage and expecting a bigger antenna to solve your problems, it is almost always the case that improved signal quality & strength off a base station radio helps many things.
We've all added repeaters or repeating devices to improve the mesh but I can bet there is more than one of us that have some collection of devices whose batteries may be declining faster than others precisely because they aren't as proximal to their mesh peers as others. I believe this is one outcome of being a "fringe" device, I am pretty sure at least one vendor of ZigBee devices I've deployed has said as much in their documentation.
So yeah, making this an "as built" feature of, or option on, the HE is a good idea. To underline a comment somebody else made, it doesn't have to be a honking big antenna to make a big improvement on the current status quo...it just has to be a more optimal design and a wavelength increment above what can be squeezed in the current case. This can all be dealt with in a manner to stay within the FCC requirements.
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Here are the radiation patterns from the antennas I use:
2.4GHz 5.5 dBi Rubber Duck Antenna HG2405RD-RSP
900MHz 5 dBi Rubber Duck Antenna HG905RD-RSP
Here are some general range characteristics at different dBi levels assuming no obstacles:
2.5 dBi 300ft
5 dBi 500ft
7dBi 800ft
9dbi 1200ft
900 MHz pushes through obstacles better than 2.4GHz.
Here are signal propagation maps from my AP's for my house as an example:
2.4GHz
5GHz
I realize I can relocate the AP's for better coverage but my wife didn't want to see them so that's why they ended up where they are.
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you really did your homework.
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Sorry, not at home. But it is the only 900mhz 9dbi antenna i found on Amazon.
Mine are on the way. Hubitat zwave has been so unreliable this is my last ditch effort.
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