TSC_Busami

I installed my blade antenna but didnt notice any improvement in signal strength.

is there a feature you have to enable to get it to work?

Guest

there are no stupid questions, just a lot of inquisitive idiots.

Open the device manager, select the antenna category, right click on blade, select properties, and make sure it's enabled.

If that doesn't work, try reading the manual.

damage

call me an inquisitive idiot but I have a blade antenna for my Avaya card and found exactly the same results.... no improvement I could easily measure.

has anyone actually had a good result with one of these ?

TSC_Busami

uhm there is no manual and no antenna category.

dont know what youve been sniffing

Guest

Man - you actually looked?!?!


I don't sniff - I ... NetStumble!

rerunn

Arghhh... a while back somebody kindly posted a link that put TSC Busami on my ignore list This means an extra click to be entertained

"dont bite the hand that feeds you"

highfrequency

I've tried two different blade antennas and they are 'junk'.
Try a mini-patch, I find they are 'much' better.

TSC_Busami

well for starter I didnt look cause I am not stupid like others you seem to try and fool.

I guess an external antenna is more hype then not

fordem

My friend - why don't you take a look at the homebrew antenna thread - you'll find that there are a lot of people interested in building antennas.

A lot of people have also bought the Fab-corp "Stumbler Special", and I haven't heard anyone complain that it hasn't worked for them.

There's got to be a reason for this - quite simple an external antenna WILL improve your AP count for one of two reasons -

1) Using a laptop inside a car creates a scenario where the metal of the car body shields the integrated antenna of the wireless card

and -

2) The external antenna is more efficient than the integrated antenna of the wireless card

The simplest of antennas is probably a 1/2 wave dipole - 2 wire elements each 1/4 wave length long, placed end to end. Problem is that a 1/2 wave at 2.4GHz is almost 2.5" long - and it's not going to fit in the little bit of the card that sticks out of your laptop - so you can bet that whatever's under there, and it varies from one card to another, is a compromise, and probably not as effective as an external antenna.

I've tried stumbling with my laptop sitting on the parcel shelf of my car - I drive a hatchback - where it would be surrounded mostly by glass rather than the metal as if it were in the passenger seat - and I saw an improvement in my AP count, and also I tried a home-made version of the stumbler special - see pic in the home-brew antenna thread - and the results were nothing short of amazing. I was able to detect a particular AP from a much greater distance - close to a half mile further away.

Simply put - in my experience, external antennas work - I've built 3 so far, each from a different design, and ALL of them give me better results than the wireless card by itself. The cost of the materials used was minimal, the greatest expense has been the 60" pigtail I use to connect the antenna to the card, and I derived great satisfaction from seeing something that I created work beyond my expectation - and that I believe is what a hobby is all about.

BTW - I've started work on a 4th and 5th antenna - #4 is a bi-quad, and #5 will be multiple phased bi-quads

damage

I guess an external antenna is more hype then not [/b][/quote]

Absolutley Not... an external antenna is a MUST for good stumbling - however I have found through painfull experience that the BLADE antenna makes for a good shoe scrapper but that's about it !

I also have one of the Fab-Corp mag mounted omni's and it ROCKS.... last night a good example of the difference was 30 AP's without 121 with... u do the math

hratch

TSC_Busami

put your age in your profile.

if you are <15 i guess i could understand.

TSC_Busami

that must be your age

Novilio

I'm reasonably new here (less than a month) and haven't heard of this, and there's nothing I can find in FAB's site with the word "stumbler" in it. I have one of their blades and it works better in my 4Runner than the Orinoco Gold's naked bulge, but if there's something better for mobileering I'll get it.

I've considered a mag mount for the roof but I'm a little nervous about losing signal in the coax. I actually have some heliax in the garage--maybe it's time to cut off three feet and do something original.

--73--

--Novilio

Thunderforge

Novilio:

When you place an order with www.fab-corp.com put "Stumbler Discount" in the comment section. Borg Man has a special price for the 5dBi omni magmount with a pigtail. The antenna is awesome, and improves greatly over the card's antenna. I, like some others, wondered if a higher dBi would be better than the 5dBi, but I pick up some APs with the 5 dBi that I couldn't with a borrowed 10 dBi. The reason for this was while the 10 dBi was stronger it's coverage area was flater, and I couldn't pick up APs above the 1st or maybe 2nd floor of a building. With the 5 dBi I can hit an AP on the 3rd floor of my office building from across the street. (I informed the person who administrates it.)

For any other products FAB will give 7% off as a "Stumbler Discount".

Thanks Borg MAN

__________________
Back to the forge,
TF

Novilio

Many thanks!

I realized Borg Man was with FAB some time back...but had not heard of a discount for the stumbler crowd.

I will get that 5 dbi omni, though it's too late for my trip to COSprings.

FAB was marvelous handling my first order. Came like lightning in perfect shape. And y'know, the blade isn't all that bad...makes me wonder what I could snag with something better!

--73--

--Novilio