humanshield

Ok I have been lurking these forums for several weeks and googled till my fingers are aching. I have read about many different setups people have done and many ideas and great designs. But now I have decided to post and ask a few questions. First I’ll give you a rundown of what my setup is like and what I need/want.

I have a friend who lives about a half mile away, We do have line of sight just barely at one portion of our houses. Most of the view is blocked from 1 house and several trees. Most of which are on my property or his and can/will be trimmed to accommodate. Although this time of year no leaves so it shouldn’t be much of an issue “I don’t think” What we would like to ultimately do is be able to connect him to my home network. We would like to be able to share files and of course game. I have learned a lot from these forums and have made a few of my own antennas and have had some success and now would like to get some input from other people.

So here is what I got:

On my end:

I have a WRT54G access point running Sveasoft firmware “Alchemy 6rc5a” Which allows me to boost signal output from default 28 mw to 251mw.

On his end:

We have designed 2 antennas the first of which is a wok with a USB wfi adapter at the focal point. Netstumbler reports signal strength to my AP at about -75 ~ -80 with this design. Which seems stable most of the time but does get dodgy now and again.

Also we have made an antenna out of a retired dish network antenna. Same design with the USB wifi adapter at the focal point (I think). The dish is not round it is elliptical. I used the shorter of the 2 diameters in my calculations. Although as of yet we seem to get better results with the wok (go figure). Now there is no feed horn or anything on either one. Would something like this be beneficial? To what degree?

I will get some pics of these antennas up soon.

Also I would like to try these antennas with another USB wifi adapter I have. It is a “Gigafast WF741-UIC” Unlike the USB adapter we ave used on the other antennas this adapter seems to have what I read to be called a “Ceramic Antenna” Which from what I know of electronics and radio signals I don’t understand. But it obviously works .

Below are some pics to the gigafast adapter and what I believe to be the antenna andyone who knows more on the subject please enlighten me to weather that is the antenna or not. Thanks!!



http://www.netstumbler.org/attachmen...tid=2883&stc=1

Now Q & A time
1) Would another directional antenna on my end be very beneficial? If yes to what degree?
2) Also, if yes: Would it be better to design another antenna using a USB wifi adapter? Or a pigtail that can connect to my access point?
3) Does anyone know the proper way to calculate the focal point of the elliptical dishnetwork dishes?
4) Should I expect better results with my Dish network antenna than my Wok and there for have a flaw in my dishnetwork antenna design?


Thank you for all your help in advance and helpful criticism!! And remember I’m just a n00b!!

Attached Images

Gigafast.JPG (47.9 KB, 94 views)

wrzwaldo

Visual or RF LOS? It's all about RF...

Barely leads me to think you are talking visual which would tell me no on RF LOS.

humanshield

I can from on window of my house usa a pair of binocs just see between 2 buildings his house. Mounting an antenna in the 2 locations that can see eachother is not a pronblem. So visually I can see his place.

And we do have a link up now. Weak tho it is. like 2Megabit is maximium it ever connect at.

So what do you mean by RF LOS? I take that to mean get a signal back and fourth??

wrzwaldo

http://www.google.com Results 1 - 10 of about 1,570,000 for RF LOS. (0.32 seconds)

Forum search returns 39 results on "RF LOS"

humanshield

LOL, OK good point. Shoulda saw that comin. How about the ceramic antenna? Or other questions? Anyone?

wrzwaldo

Does that thing have an FCC ID#?

humanshield

Well it did. But the writing is worn off


upon opening i thought it would be noteworthy to mention that it has the

Zydas ARM
ZD1201 Chip on it

beakmyn

Here's what I found by searching Google for the chipset.
directions on external antenna
may not be your usb device

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Dutch

It's an OEM/ODM version of the ZyXEL B-220 USB adapter. Looks like the reference design, which among others Global Sun Tech uses for their ZyDAS based USB adapters.

So the FCC specs for the ZyXEL B-220 USB adapter should be close enough.

Dutch

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humanshield

Yes that site is were I got a lot of my info. Very informative the (poor mans wifi)

Basically what I am trying to do. So alot of the info did in fact apply. So am I correct in assuming that a directional wifi antenna on my end as well would increase signal connectivity?

And does anyone know which would be a more feasible option? Making one with a dishnetwork dish and a USB adaptor. Or a dishnetwork dish and a pigtail for my router?