DIY Antenna Question!
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Posted by rockrabbit on March 23, 2008, 11:25 am
Please log in for more thread options First off, I want to thank everybody here for the wealth of information. I went from being a wireless novice to, well, less of a novice in no time reading the posts here! The question I bring to you today is this, I have seen quite a few ingenius solutions for USB wifi sticks being used with the notorius "Chinese parabolic cookware". This got me to thinking, I have the Edimax EW-7318USg which has a SMA connected Rubber Ducky. Does it make sense, (as in not cause a problem) to aquire a parabolic cookware item, drill a small hole in the center, thread the SMA through and then connect the Rubber Ducky? I am lucky enough to be in a area that offers free WiFi, but signal strenght is questionable at best, just thought this might be a neat idea to try, just the run the concept past the experts first! Many thanks! RR -- rockrabbit - Talk to my Machine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Jeff Liebermann on March 23, 2008, 12:14 pm
Please log in for more thread options Ahem... Salad bowl reflector. Very vegetarian: <http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas/Salad-Dish/index.html>
Just shove the USB stick into the plastic pipe. Slide it back and
forth for maximum signal. Flat bottom stainless salad bowls available from Ace Hardware. >This got me to thinking, I have the Edimax EW-7318USg which has a SMA
>connected Rubber Ducky. > >Does it make sense, (as in not cause a problem) to aquire a parabolic >cookware item, drill a small hole in the center, thread the SMA through >and then connect the Rubber Ducky? Difficult to tell. There are two types of rubber ducky antennas. The short 1/2 wave variety, and the same antenna with a 1/4 wave decoupling sleeve. The top part is a 1/4 wave driven element, with a 1/4 coaxial sleeve forming a "coaxial sleeve" antenna and are the same for both types. This is the short one: <http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/antennas/coaxial/slides/coax-ant.html>
The longer one has an additional brass sleeve at prevent the coax
cable from radiating. Sorry no photo, as I haven't destroyed one yet. The decoupling sleeve won't benifit much from an extra ground plane. The shorter one probably will. However, the effect won't be huge in terms of increasing the gain. All it does it prevent some of the signal from radiating in odd and unwanted directions. >I am lucky enough to be in a area that offers free WiFi, but signal
>strenght is questionable at best, just thought this might be a neat >idea to try, just the run the concept past the experts first! Methinks you would do better to abandon the rubber ducky, and build an antenna that has some gain, such as a patch, panel, biquad, dish, yagi, corner reflector, etc. I'm a big fan of the biquad mostly because they're very easy to build (if you can solder). My favorite instructions: <http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/>
<http://www.vallstedt-networks.de/?Fotogalerien/quad2> <http://pe2er.nl/biquad/index.htm> -- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by rockrabbit on March 23, 2008, 12:54 pm
Please log in for more thread options >>
>
> Methinks you would do better to abandon the rubber ducky, and build an > antenna that has some gain, such as a patch, panel, biquad, dish, > yagi, corner reflector, etc. I'm a big fan of the biquad mostly > because they're very easy to build (if you can solder). My favorite > instructions: > <http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/> > <http://www.vallstedt-networks.de/?Fotogalerien/quad2> > <http://pe2er.nl/biquad/index.htm> Methinks you are a genius! BiQuad here i come! Thanks! -- rockrabbit - Talk to my Machine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by seaweedsl on March 23, 2008, 8:23 pm
Please log in for more thread options Wouldn't a ez-12 or EZ-F work well too? No extra connectors to buy?
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html http://users.picknowl.com.au/~gloaming_agnet/ant2.html It would be interesting to see a comparision between the reflector and a bi-quad. Steve | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Jeff Liebermann on March 24, 2008, 7:19 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:23:45 -0700 (PDT), seaweedsl
>It would be interesting to see a comparision between the reflector and
>a bi-quad. About the same gain and beamwidth. Small diameter antennas (i.e. less than 2 wavelengths across) generally have the same capture area and therefore the same gain. It could be a corner reflector, dish, patch, biquad, or dipole array, it will have about 7-10dBi gain. The shapes have a much bigger effect on higher gain antennas. -- # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 # 831-336-2558 jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us # http://802.11junk.com jeffl@cruzio.com # http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
>ingenius solutions for USB wifi sticks being used with the notorius
>"Chinese parabolic cookware".