Dual Band WiFi Connectors

[swale]

My Asus Z790 motherboard has the Asus Moving WiFi antenna which connects with two sockets on the rear panel. There is no colour coding to indicate each lead is foe a different waveband so does it matter how the antenna is connected. One of the leads has detached which I'll try to fix but the antenna seems to work with one lead connected. What connectors are used for these leads?

[Murph_9000]

Both connectors are used for both frequencies.  It's a 2x2 card on both frequencies, i.e. 2 spatial streams.  The connector is normally a RP-SMA.  On the Intel AX210 cards, I think one of the antenna connections is nominally "main" and the other "aux", but I don't think there's any way of knowing which way round they are connected inside the IO shield without disassembling the motherboard.

2x2 cards do need both antennas connected to work properly in 2x2 mode, either 2 matched antennas or a single 2x2 antenna.  I don't know if there's a supported way to get them to operate with just a single spatial stream and single antenna.  It's possible the card just automatically adjusts itself for that scenario, but I'm not sure.  You may well lose half the theoretical bandwidth and TX beamforming.

I think Bluetooth only uses 1 of  the 2 antennas, but WiFi certainly uses both simultaneously.

[swale]

Great reply! I'm only connecting to a nearby router at 35Mbps in the lower WiFi band so I guess 2x2 operation won't make much difference to me. I'll try to fix the lead which became disconnected. Is the cable just a push fit into the connector>

[Murph_9000]

It's a coaxial cable (core and shield), and will normally be crimped or soldered into the connector.  I doubt you will get a good connection by just pushing it in (although I have historically fixed 10 base 5 "thick" Ethernet that way, until it could be properly repaired).  With those tiny cables, it would be quite difficult.

[JohnAb]

I believe that each cable is a two core, probably one of those is a braided outer shield, but it should be possible to re-join, even it it need s a soldering iron to do it properly. Shouldn't be too hard to find a way, fingers crossed.  

[Saltgrass]

The bottom line is, I don't think a human could reconnect the wires in such a way to allow for maximum performance.  Without a good, solid connection, you take the chance of introducing noise into a high speed network, which would not be the best thing to do.

You can buy those external antennas on some online sites.