Best Omni antenna

Just purchased a new 6db omni to boost the signal to my outdoor deck on one side of my house and to the garage on the other side.Set it up and didn't see any improvement over the stock 3db. Went to google to look for a better antenna and found this comment on another thread, tried it, and it made all the difference in the world.

Orient the antenna so that the radiation pattern is along the long axis of your house... In your case that means the antenna would point across to the shortest side of the house... You should be able to get link anywhere in the house...

Reply to
P. Totaro
Loading thread data ...

Sigh. The stock antenna is probably a 2dBi antenna. The replacement "6dBi" vertical colinear antennas are more like 5dBi gain. The 3dB difference in gain will yield about a 40% increase in range or twice the coverage area. (assuming line of sight, no obstructions, no reflections, etc). Range doubles for every 6dB increase in gain. Gain Range Coverage dB increase increase 6 2x 4x 12 4x 16x 18 8x 64x 24 16x 256x Note that the coverage increase only applies to omnidirectional antennas.

I don't understand what you're saying. The radiation pattern is essentially a flat torus and cannot really be "pointed" at anything. Was this in reference to going between floors in the house, where the antenna would need to be positioned horizontally so that the radiation pattern is mostly up and down?

If the omni is positioned vertically and located along the long side of the house, it has fewer walls and internal obstructions to penetrate before arriving at the wireless client. Houses also tend to have more glass on the long sides, which is transparent to RF, while walls are not. I think this advice really reduces to "avoid going through obstructions". Is this antenna inside the house or outside?

If you're trying to "illuminate" a building from the outside, it is best to use a directional antenna with a beamwidth matched to the area you're trying to illuminate. For example, if the building is 100ft long, and you're 100ft away from the building, the angle is: angle = 2 * arctan (50/100) = 53 degrees. That's roughly what you would get with an 10dBi biquad or 8dBi coffee can antenna.

You can also use refector type antennas to redirect the signal:

formatting link
Genric rant: 1. What are you trying to accompolish? 2. What do you have to work with? Kinda vague on both points.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Agreed. I'm just asking for clarification. I couldn't figure out what to do with the omni antenna in accordance to: "Orient the antenna so that the radiation pattern is along the long axis of your house... In your case that means the antenna would point across to the shortest side of the house... You should be able to get link anywhere in the house..." Specifically, how does one "point" an omnidirectional antenna?

Yep. I didn't understand what problem he was trying to solve and what he had to work with (equipment, antenna types, topology, size of house, type of construction, etc). Such solutions such as to "point" an omnidirectional antenna do not work with all configuration and topology. Similarly, the solution was quite vague.

Re-orienting, pointing, aiming, or whatever.... how does one do that with an omni antenna? Does one point the tip of the antenna, or the donut pattern?

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I was going to suggest that, but:

I don't think this was a question, but a solution. The poster indicated that the had a problem, and had solved it by re-orienting the antenna, and wanted to share that tidbit.

Re-orienting is a good trick, and since he still has an omni antenna, a reflector from freeantennas.com would still be a good addition.

Reply to
dold

Sounded to me like he set up his AP in about the middle (length wise) of his house but closer to one of the walls on the long side (my house as an example is more of a rectangle then a square - more frontage then depth, I'm guessing his is too). What he is trying to do is light a room on one end of the house and his deck which is on the opposite end of the house. Again picture a rectangle not a square. The orientation I suspect at least this is what it soumds like to me regarding the antenna when he says point it. Most omnis that come out of the box with APs are 'sticks' you can point them up, vertically or point them in some direction, horizontally with the end (away from the back of the AP where it attaches) in whatever direction the user desires.

Please note here I am not saying this is a good idea, a bad idea or anything else icluding that it would have some big impact on radiation pattern. I am simply trying to help you understand what I suspect he is saying. Personally I don't see how orinetung the antenna horizontally would help in this situation, but in his case, it worked. I imagine it worked because frequnetly simply moving the antenna a few inches can often have profound effects on the signal going where you want in a house full of walls, windows, and metal appliances. I moved the antenna and AP itself on my little linksys (G) an inch to the left as I was looking at it the other day and my signal level on my laptop in another room according to the little Windows display added two bars. Best guess on my part I moved out of line with some wiring or conduit in one of the intervening walls. Who knows, but the results are clear to see (until the next time someone dusts the table the AP is on )

Again alter the antenna from vertical to horizontal is what I'm betting he meant. Not saying this is a good idea, just sharing my 'translation'.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Reply to
Rico

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.