TV and Wi-Fi Antennas
I received my Winegard crank up TV antenna and have been checking it out. It seems simple enough. Just a worm gear to crank it up and a lazy susan type bearing so you can point it. It’s all manual which I like since there is little to break. Being a very standard off the shelf product it was not very expensive and replacement parts should be easy enough to find if necessary.
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/p...ntennas-winegard.htm
My plan is to add a small 16” omnidirectional (omni) Wi-Fi antenna with about 8 dBi of gain to the top of the TV antenna Mast. That should be enough to give me a strong connection at many locations like truck stops and public libraries. I also ordered another crank up TV antenna from Winegard that I will modify to hold a 14 dBi Yagi antenna that can pull in Wi-Fi from as far as a mile away. It is directional though, meaning it has to be pointed, which might not be so convenient, or even necessary with the 8 dBi omni available.
http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/p...-tv-antenna-5095.htm
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...s/2.4gig/8dbomni.php
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...2.4gig/14eleyagi.php
For those who don’t speak dB, 3 dB means double the power, so the difference between 8 dB and 14 dB is 6 dB, or 4 times the power. Using the Inverse Square Law (signal strength is reduced as the square of the distance) then twice the distance requires 4 times the power, which is exactly what the Yagi buys me over the omni. That’s on top of the 8 dBi of the omni which is 6.3 times the power, or a range increase of approximately 2.5 relative to a nominal, or isotropic antenna. All of this is a theoretical approximation as real life is almost always more complicated.
The “i” in dBi means relative to isotropic where the energy is radiated equally in all directions. The omni antenna radiates energy equally in all directions horizontally but is not isotropic because it mostly avoids sending energy straight up or straight down. The Yagi is more like a flashlight and focuses the energy to within about 15 degrees of where it is pointed. Antennas can also have more “gain” by simply being larger and gathering more energy. Unlike TV, Wi-fi is bidirectional, but the principles of antenna “gain” apply equally well in both directions.
I plan to use a splitter, which is also a combiner, to feed both the omni and the Yagi into my Wi-Fi adapter. In some cases the two signals can cancel each other out, but in my experience they more often add to give the benefits of both without having to switch between them. I currently use such a system at my house to pull in TV stations in San Jose and San Francisco (two different directions with two antennas) without having to adjust the antenna rotor all the time.
To keep all these antennas busy I ordered a Wave Magnum High Power USB Wi-Fi adapter for my PC. You might assume that I think Wi-Fi is pretty important. Next to my cell phone (which I don’t have yet) it will be my primary source of communication, possibly even primary if I can get something like Skype (voice over internet) up and running. It might also be my primary source of entertainment with so many movies and other content available via the internet.
Here are some, hopefully helpful, links to some other stuff I bought.
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...less/wave-magnum.php
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/cables/cable.php
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...sories/coax-seal.php
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...tning-protection.php
http://www.radiolabs.com/produ...s/2-way-splitter.php
In case you were wondering, I don’t plan to install a satellite dish. One of those dome units would be a dead giveaway that my moving truck is really an RV. I could install one of the fold down dishes offered by Winegard, but that’s not the real issue. Mainly I am unwilling to put up with the monthly expense. I don’t have satellite or cable at my house now, and don’t see the need for it. I figure between the internet and those old fashioned paper things called books I should have plenty of passive entertainment options. Better to get out of the truck and go do something once in a while.
You might assume that with all this emphasis on technology that I just love hi-tek gadgets, but I’m actually a bit of a luddite. As far as I am concerned, technology is just a tool that is sometimes useful and most often annoying. Heck, I don’t even own a cell phone, let alone a crack-berry (Blackberry). It’s cool to understand how things work, but more and more I find that technology is buried under layers and layers of complexity that leave you helpless when it doesn’t work for even the simplest but unknowable reason. Don’t even get me started on the subject of crappy user interfaces…
To be continued…