High Gain WiFi Antenna
Martybugs.net
11dBi Biquad
Martin
of martybugs.net
has a great tutorial for building an 11dBi gain biquad WiFi
antenna. You can follow his instructions here.
Comparable gain antennas typically sell for around $100 U.S.
The cost of materials used for Martin's biquad should be around
$15 U.S. Not a bad deal considering that you can build one
in an afternoon.
I
have built a number of biquads based on his design and done
extensive practical testing. I'd like to share these insights
with you. Study Martin's tutorial and come back here for several
tips that will make the construction and use easier.
Connecting
the antenna to a computer
The
antenna is going to boost your signal a lot. I have logged
into a public hotspot from 23km (17m) using only the biquad
in a moving vehicle! To be fair, I was in a rural area on
a hill overlooking a small town. There was little in the way
of interference from other microwave sources. The connection
was not particularly good but 23km is unthinkable for stock
antennas that come with consumer networking equipment.
When
I first looked into the building one of these I didn't quite
understand how to connect the antenna to the computer. You
can tap straight into your network card or motherboard. This
is not for the faint of heart. You can cause permanent damage
by soldering pieces onto your motherboard. A far easier solution
in case of a laptop computer is to get a PCMCIA wireless card
with an external antenna connector. I have a Buffalo
card that works very well. Even without an external antenna
it's much more sensitive than my older Linksys cards.
To
properly connect the wireless card to the biquad you will
need a short adaptor cable called "pigtail." Ebay
is a great place for finding the right pigtail for your application.
The cable is not particularly expensive. When purchasing one
consider that that signal loss is proportional to the length
of the pigtail. Choose as short of a pigtail as practical.
1,
2,
next
|
