WiFi antenna recommendations?

Looking for outdoor omni "whip" antenna for 2.4 GHz.

Is there any reason to not go for the greatest gain antenna, given that cost is not too important (within reason)?

There are scads of these on the 'net. I'm looking for someone who has experience with one or more of them and can make a recommendation for one.

Thanks,

Reply to
DaveC
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Hi, not actually 2.4 Gig WiFi but cellular wireless modem card. I bought one of the small verticals with a magnet mount and cabling for about $15 ppd as I recall. My situation is that my house is built with concrete/rebar construction, metal 'persiana' windows and screens and its hard to get a signal out of here even on the various cellular bands. I think the highest band there is 1.8 GHz.

I didn't go for gain since the path to the site is only about 1.3 miles away so I opted for the little guy, about 7 inches tall, that just sits on the roof. On the other hand, a friend in a different location got himself into all sorts of problems with reflections and multiple tower sites and is now looking for a directional antenna to minimize the clutter.

Another consideration is the vertical angle between you and the site. The "high gain" verticals (I've seen ones claiming 14db) have a rather flattened omni pattern so that if you have to look upwards to your intended site you might find the gain to be considerably less, if any.

GL, Bill Vieques, PR

Reply to
exray

Whip antenna? What is this, for a vehicle? For a stationary location it seems like it'd be an extremely bad idea to use an antenna that 'whipped' around.

Alligator effect. Wide mouth receiving everything. If you don't need to pickup everything then why bother? It just makes it harder for your WiFi router to cut through all the noise of distant stations it doesn't communicate with. Get the right antenna suited for your installation, no more, no less.

Which leads to the constant request, when you ask a question POST WHAT GEAR YOU'RE USING.

In your case it would also help to define what sort of connection you're trying to make. Point to point, metropolitan, etc.

-Bill Kearney

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Short Pringle's can, 1/4 wave probe, 1/2 wave from closed end, soldered to female TNC.

Reply to
Dave

Since you have included the HAM radio newsgroups as your first choices, with the Internet Wireless as your last choice, then - as was mentioned above - what are you trying to accomplish with this 2.4Ghz outdoor antenna ??

Since you used the term "whip" it tends to imply some physical motion or vehicle, vs a "vertical" which implies a stationary location. And both imply a omni pattern - like a general Access Point -

Reply to
ps56k

=================================== Yes these cans work well ; the problem is the type and length of coax . A suitable arangement is a WiFi router near the antenna (if necessary in a wx proof box ) with an ethernet cat5 cable running to the equipment.

Another possibility is a USB WiFi adaptor in the focal point of a satellite dish with a USB to ethernet converter.

Frank KN6WH

Reply to
highlandham

I recently built a Franklin antenna for 2.4Ghz. I highly reccommend it. Google WiFi and franklin antenna.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

-=-=-=-

OK, time to clarify...

Wifi (2.4 GHz). outdoor omni vertical (not whip), permanent mount on pole, to be connected (very short pigtail) to pole-mounted wifi router in client mode. Max output: 250 mW.

Is it true that the higher the gain the flatter the "donut" shape of the sensitivity field?

(And yes, my terminology is rudimentary... please forgive.)

Thanks,

Reply to
DaveC

dropped the x-posting to the ham groups -

Reply to
ps56k

I'm the one who initially committed than terminological crime so forgive ME! Where is that big omni gain going to come from if not from the vertical beamwidth? Start with the isotropic model pictured as a spherical balloon. Squeeze it however you want to. Nothing about an antenna can add volume to the model, its just a matter of how you squeeze it.

-Bill

Reply to
exray

That is the only way to get actual gain from a (horizontally) omnidirectional antenna (excluding any MIMO designs).

Flattening the vertical radiation pastern may have severe drawbacks especially if the mast is swinging in the wind or some weak (e.g. indoors) users are close to the base of the mast.

Paul OH3LWR

Reply to
Paul Keinanen

I have this installed

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15dBi gain, very good too.

I have connected a plain old laptop sat on the passenger seat over 1 km away, and outside directional panels 5km away without any problem at all.

>
Reply to
TheDragon

You still don't describe what sort of connection you're trying to make.

Reply to
Bill Kearney

====================================================== If your WiFi device is near the microwave oven , you indeed have a problem. In my situation the oven is away (approx 7 - 8 metres) from the Wifi system ,both router and laptop ,and I no longer had interference when setting the WiFI System to the highest frequency (channel) with the microwave oven freq at about 2390MHz.

Frank KN6WH

Reply to
highlandham

Also look up AMOS antenna. They are easy to make and work well

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

- I have need of a directional antenna for a 30 foot path within the house. (the microwave oven wipes out the signal).

Do you have any better details on construction?

Reply to
Wayne

Guys! I've been selling these Biquads for a long time now and everyone absolutely loves them. Check em out here...

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30 just this month alone, and get emails all the time from clients on how good their performance is. If it doesn't work, you get your money back! (minus shipping of course)

Thanks for looking! Pete

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Reply to
Knight

Yikes! I have never seen that. I would be concerned about leakage. Sometimes I have torn into things and found stupid stuff like paint over grounding surfaces or rust in the compartment. There is a critical ground around the probe entrance.

My microwave oven is in the far corner of the house and I run 100 watts on VHF and 600 on HF at times and never had trouble. I never tried the laptop in the kitchen for fear of spillage. The Linksys is essentially on the floor to keep people in the park next door from ripping up my bandwidth. (although sometimes I would prefer geeks hanging out there to chase the rest out) No coverage problems at all. I do have an HT that gets "some" interference when I set it on top of the oven.

Reply to
JB

AMOS, Franklin, Sector, et al:

NEC2 model:

(not optimized yet)

AMOS design:

Inverted AMOS:

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

The laptop computer is downstairs about 10 feet from the microwave, and the wireless router is upstairs about 30 feet away with a desktop(and the path goes through three walls and the floor. The microwave doesn't wipe out the laptop, but slows things down a bit. A directional antenna would solve the problem. I'm not trying to increase range at all.

Reply to
Wayne

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