by Thorn » Fri Aug 23, 2002 7:36 am
1.22" is a quarter of one wavelength at 2.4GHz, give or take a few hundreds of an inch.
I doubt just wrapping a 1-2' wire around would work very well. It could potentially cause damage due to a high SWR, although the these power levels are probably much too low to cause any real damage.
If you were to wrap a piece of coax around the strap and leave the quarter-wave at the end, it might work. The big problem then becomes choosing the right coax*. It has to be low loss stuff for microwaves**. Then you'll need a pigtail to adapt the coax to the card. If you going to go to the trouble of getting the proper coax and the pigtail, then you're three quarters of the way to an antenna setup anyway. At that point you might just as well order a small extender antenna that's designed to do what you want. There are small desktop extender antennae made which would fit in your laptop bag just fine.
Playing with antennae is fun, if you have the means and the interest - and you WILL have to get to know the math to do it right. If you're just looking for a cheap solution that works correctly, save the blood, sweat, tears and toil, and just spend the money for a rig. It will be much cheaper in the long run.
Good luck!
*Don't use TV coax, it's the wrong impedence.
**Times-Microwave LMR series or equiv.
Thorn
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