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More info?)
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Frank Dowling wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Rôgêr ,
<p> points well taken.
<br> just that I've got a handy Dish sitting
on a tripod.
<br> what commercial antenna do you recommend
?</blockquote>
<p><br>There are a whole slew of different antenna types which are available,
depending upon your needs. Directional types are good for higher
gain needs, but have the disadvantage of needing precise aiming.
Omnis are good for wide-area coverage. Flat panels are fairly directional,
but have wider propagation characteristics.
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<br> also some "experts" contend that a home
made antenna often will
<br>have better recepton than a commercial product.
<br> also what type of access point are you
receiving ?</blockquote>
<p><br>802.11b *cards* should connect with any brand of AP/router/etc.
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>how much
<br>strength is it putting out- i.e a commercial unit or just run of the
<br>mill wireless router .</blockquote>
Here are a couple of rinky-dink "dish-conversion" links, by people who
didn't know better:
<p><A HREF="http://www5.cs.cornell.edu/~eckstrom/802.11a/primestar/">http://www5.cs.cornell.edu/~eckstrom/802.11a/primestar/</A>
<br><A HREF="http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html">http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html</A>
<p>Here's a good shot from a page of a guy who knows what he's doing:
<br><img SRC="http://www.trevormarshall.com/bq-soldering.jpg" NOSAVE height=240 width=360>
<br>from this good "BiQuad" conversion page: <A HREF="http://www.trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm">http://www.trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm</A>
<p>And here's another shot from another European dish conversion page: <img SRC="http://www.weijand.nl/wifi/index_files/image008.jpg" NOSAVE height=432 width=576>
<br>from here: <A HREF="http://www.weijand.nl/wifi/">http://www.weijand.nl/wifi/</A>
<p>Here's the commercial Cantenna from this page: <A HREF="http://www.cantenna.com">http://www.cantenna.com</A>
<br><img SRC="http://www.cantenna.com/cantenna_images/canandpigtail03.jpg" NOSAVE height=250 width=380>
<p>I'm partial to the Semi-Parabolic grid antennas, partially because of
their extremely high gain characteristics, like this one:
<br><img SRC="http://www.wirelessinteractive.com/images/Downloaded/WIDC24default_main.jpg" NOSAVE height=181 width=125>
from this website: <A HREF="http://www.wirelessinteractive.com">http://www.wirelessinteractive.com</A>
<p>I can connect to many wifi spots from my home with one of these, and
some of those are miles away. I connect to a wide variety of
brands with one of these!
<p>And you're right......Many homemade antennas CAN often be very much
better than commercial antennas, but invariably, these homemade jobs are
constructed and designed by RF engineers, and they put a LOT of time and
effort into them. Don't be fooled!
<br>
<p>Regards,
<p>vg
<br>
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