X-10 Antenna Interference...

Hi again!

I have a question that isn't really so much about Home Automation as it is about radio waves and antennae:

Right now, I have two transceivers plugged into the same socket. I actually extended each antennae so that they look like bunny ears.

From a physics point of view, do multiple antennae interfere with one

another? Does an antenna "absorb" the signal, thus weakening it for the other device?

I do not know much about this stuff, but intuitively, I would say they would not interfere with each other.

If I had ten FM radios on a table, would the signal get progressively worse for each radio as each antenna was extended??

Or taken a step further... if everyone in a city tuned into the same radio station, would that affect the station's signal?

I have so far experienced no problems (I think).

I have two transceivers piggybacked in one outlet, and in another outlet, I have a third transceiver. My remotes and sensors seem to work 98% of the time.

I would love to take all three transceivers, and plug them in a power bar, side-by-side. I can then add a fourth as well, and hide it.

Do you think that is a good thing, or a bad thing?

I'm sorry if this is a basic radio/physics question, but I don't think the answer is so obvious...!

Thanks!

Mike

Reply to
Michael G.
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Maybe someone else can post about the exact question you have.

But the best ant. on the market is made by WGL for X10 signals.

Reply to
Brian

No, antennas do not absorb the signal and thereby weaken it for others. If that were the case, the more people who put up radio and TV antennas, the worse everyone's reception would be and the radio and TV stations would have to continually increase the strength of their signals to compensate until they and their audience were cooked by the radiation. For that matter, any metal will act as an antenna whether coupled to a receiver or not.

There can be subtle interactions between antennas but they are too complex to analyze easily. The effects can be both positive and negative.

However, the RF receivers that X-10 uses in their transceivers (except for the CM15A) are of a type called "superregenerative receivers" and they can interfere with each other if they are too close because they also radiate energy. This is likely to have a much bigger effect than any antenna interactions.

The simple answer is that if your setup works for your purposes, go for it.

"Michael G." wrote:

Reply to
Dave Houston

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