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walter3ca4
join:2002-10-28
Fountain Valley, CA

walter3ca4 to erkel

Member

to erkel

Found it!

I found a metal shingle at Home Depot for 59 cents. It measures 8" x 12".

engelbert
join:2002-09-04
Akron, OH

engelbert

Member

sweet! Hitting HD in the AM. Thanks!

ikarus1
Premium Member
join:2002-10-23
Urbanna, VA

ikarus1

Premium Member

A little ingenuity goes a very long way...

Just a $.99 cookie sheet is all you ever really needed, or an empty Foster's can and a pair of tin snips, or that pringles can the fellow above documents. Get any of those at any corner store and save yourself the drive, or use a nickel's worth of tin foil that was the point, wasn't it? Some people can do something with nothing, other's need consultants (award winning consultants, to boot).

-m-
»osiris.urbanna.net/anten ··· template

[text was edited by author 2002-10-28 21:48:31]

[text was edited by author 2002-10-28 21:50:53]
wildwolf
join:2001-03-04
Bunker Hill, WV

wildwolf

Member

Anybody know if there's a program like the one in that link for the D-Link DWL-650 wireless pc card? Looks like a cool utility, so I'd like to see what all one can do.

ikarus1
Premium Member
join:2002-10-23
Urbanna, VA

ikarus1

Premium Member

said by wildwolf:
Anybody know if there's a program like the one in that link for the D-Link DWL-650 wireless pc card? Looks like a cool utility, so I'd like to see what all one can do.
The program used to model that reflector was 4Nec2. It can be found here:

»www.qsl.net/wb6tpu/swindex.html

The DWL-650 does not have a means to attach an external antenna, so there is very little you might do to improve it's antenna except to modify the card to accept an external antenna. Here is a link on how to do that:

»c0rtex.com/~will/antenna/

Finally here is another hack of the DWL-650 that worked quite well for me:

»osiris.urbanna.net/anten ··· rt_dish/

To be quite honest though, I really like the "Kipper Tin" biquad design or a discone design for laptop use. Look at these:

Biquad
»manuka.orcon.net.nz/wififi.jpg
»manuka.orcon.net.nz/wifibowt.gif
»manuka.orcon.net.nz/wifibiqd.gif

Discone:
Well... I see the only page I knew of that shows how to make one is gone, so I guess that will be then next thing I do on the web site.

-m-

drjim
MVM
join:2000-06-13
Long Beach, CA

drjim

MVM

Just a comment on Discone antennas....They're really bad! ZERO gain, vertical polarization, and usually multi-octave bandwidth. Good for scanners, and Amateur Radio VHF/UHF when it's all you can put up, but that's about it.
drjim

ikarus1
Premium Member
join:2002-10-23
Urbanna, VA

ikarus1

Premium Member

said by drjim:
Just a comment on Discone antennas....They're really bad! ZERO gain, vertical polarization, and usually multi-octave bandwidth. Good for scanners, and Amateur Radio VHF/UHF when it's all you can put up, but that's about it.
drjim

Yes these things are true. I do believe there is a bit of gain over a dipole but not more than 3 dB. Still running sims.

The nicest thing about this antenna (discone) is the fact that you get out pretty nearly what you put in. It is extremly efficient and exhibits a *VERY* low SWR across a 10:1 frequency range. That means one designed for 2.4 GHz will work *EQUALLY* well on 5.8.

This antenna is not a good design for PtP work. It is a darn fine design for *REPEATERS* and *INTERCEPT* work, and that means it is an excellent design for a laptop clip on antenna. There is a second design which is good for a clip on but it will not work *BOTH* bands. I will make one of those when time permits...

I just built another one today and took pictures. I did the template and will put together a web page on it before next Monday, Ryan... "Check is in the mail."

-m-
[text was edited by author 2002-10-30 00:03:11]
ikarus1

ikarus1 to walter3ca4

Premium Member

to walter3ca4
said by walter3ca4:
I found a metal shingle at Home Depot for 59 cents. It measures 8" x 12".
Did you make one? How did it work?

-m-
ikarus1

ikarus1

Premium Member

said by ikarus1:
said by drjim:
Just a comment on Discone antennas....They're really bad! ZERO gain, vertical polarization, and usually multi-octave bandwidth. Good for scanners, and Amateur Radio VHF/UHF when it's all you can put up, but that's about it.
drjim

Yes these things are true. I do believe there is a bit of gain over a dipole but not more than 3 dB. Still running sims.

The nicest thing about this antenna (discone) is the fact that you get out pretty nearly what you put in. It is extremly efficient and exhibits a *VERY* low SWR across a 10:1 frequency range. That means one designed for 2.4 GHz will work *EQUALLY* well on 5.8.

This antenna is not a good design for PtP work. It is a darn fine design for *REPEATERS* and *INTERCEPT* work, and that means it is an excellent design for a laptop clip on antenna. There is a second design which is good for a clip on but it will not work *BOTH* bands. I will make one of those when time permits...

I just built another one today and took pictures. I did the template and will put together a web page on it before next Monday, Ryan... "Check is in the mail."

-m-
[text was edited by author 2002-10-30 00:03:11]

Well I was wrong ang Jim was right. The gain on a discone is somewhere about 1 dBi. The radiation pattern looks a whole lot like an apple. Great match, meaning very low SWR but other than that, I have removed the model from the site as I have come to agree with Jim. It's a bad antenna for wireless data purposes.

-m-
binman7
join:2003-01-13

binman7 to drjim

Member

to drjim

Look at these puppies

Click for full size
Click for full size
Click for full size
check these out..... got a 25% increase of signal strength at 100M...camera can be found at »www.panasonic.com/consum ··· eras.asp