Can I remove the whip antenna of an XBee Pro S2B and attach an external antenna?

Question

My project needs a lot more range and I was wondering if I could desolder the whip antennas of the XBee and solder on UFL connectors. I'm aware that XBees do come out of the box with UFL connectors but sadly they aren't available where I'm from and my deadline won't allow me to order online.

I was wondering if I could switch out the whip antennas and attach UFL connectors to use these following antennas (XBee is 2.4 GHz):

1. Patch antenna - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11320

2. Duck antenna (with a UFL to RP-SMA converter of course) - https://www.sparkfun.com/products/558

Answer 1

The Patch antenna is unlikely to have higher gain than a monopole and although the rubber duck is about 2 dB more gain than a monopole (whip) the cable losses might make this venture pointless.

2 dB more antenna gain will give you theoretically about 26% more range i.e. it might extend the range from (say) 100 metres to 126 metres and this doesn't appear to tally with what your want: -

My project needs a lot more range

You can easily lose 2 dB in a few inches of coax at 2.45 GHz so bear this in mind.