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I recently received my RF HACKING FIELD KIT and I'm using the ANT500 with the HackRF. The antenna screws onto the HackRF and the screw connection is snug but the antenna point of connection is loose. The antenna swivels and falls to the table and I'm not sure how to tighten it to keep it standing up. This is not the screw or attachment point with the philips screw, this is something under the black cone. Has anyone else had this problem and is there a solution? If not I might have to keep a couple of LEGO pieces in my field kit to create a little stand to keep the antenna upright.

Hi, i have been looking for the WHOLE internet and it seems that nobody want to do this, my idea is to use a wireless adapter aircrack-ng/monitor mode compatible, and take off its own antenna and instead of it to use a long range antenna like the ubiquiti nano station antena, so it catches the wifi signals up to 5 miles away and i can use them with the aircrack-ng suite, i really don´t know if i´m been enough clear, however, i want to know if this can be done. thanks you guys for any help on this one.

Well I been getting the parts I got the coax cabling and my software radio is programmed and I got orbitron I just need to know what is the simplest antenna to make and if there are any decent tutorials with pictures now I don't got anything to really solder with so the simpler the design the better. If any one has had practice doing this with SDR let me know what you prefer to do. Also I plan to use my usb rubber ducky or my digispark to pull up the programs and set everything up for recording and automatically stop recording when pass is done. Also if it isn't much and the design is simple I might make a video on making it on my YouTube. Everythingdigital1

So this nano boost is nice, but where does the bigger antenna plug into? It has it's own usb type connection with its own mac address. the order was a nano X 1. why does an antenna need a mac address? thanks

I don't understand how the RF portion works...4 antennas, does that equate to 4 receivers? If I want to use a directional antenna, do I need to have one on each antenna port? Just need a bit of basic info. I plan on using Kali on a Raspberry Pi to interface, then SSH into either the Pi or the Pineapple (I'm a neophyte so not a guru on SSH). Thanks for all comments.

My last question was answered so well I thought I throw another one at you guys. Has anyone used a balloon for receiving radio signals? (4g, wifi, tv or whatever else) i moved and now live behind a ridge, the AT&T tower is a stubby piece of crap like maybe 40 ft tall and can't go beyond the ridge. i bought a 4g booster/repeater and I figured the best way I could test it would be a balloon, before I put up a tower. if anyone has tried this with something similar I would be very interested to hear what type of balloon and any tricks you have. thank you

I brought my Tetra to Europe and I lost 1 antenna. Do you guys have a replacement set I can buy or a link to the correct SMA antenna? I am having a hard time finding them on the interwebz. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers!

I found out that if you make simple chains out of soda tabs its the perfect material to make a super bendable antenna that is super easy to store and when it done you can hook some non metal clips to the end to attach it too what ever you want. Now heres the best part if you don't got a soldering tool but hot glue this actually still works really well. Step 1. Strip some 50 ohm to 75 ohm coax cable and separate the shielding from the main cable and then when you done doing that put the cable off to the side and work on the chain. Step 2. Get soda tabs a lot of them and cut the ends of the tabs so that you can bend them apart and hook them together for best results use 5 tabs per-chain although you might get away with 4 per-chain if you need help making the soda tab chain just google it although I will eventually make a video on it and all the steps to put this together. Step 3. After you built 2 chains preferably about 20 to 21 inchs long so that you can use this later to pick up weather satellites cause that will be the right frequency of length just solder them too the the shielding of the coax and the main cable although if you can't solder hot glue will work just be sure to lay it on thick and cover at least the first soda tab chain. As a bonus add heat shrink to make it all blend to the cable. I was having issues posting the images of the one I made but if you make one too feel free to reply and send a picture. :D Image 1 Image 2 Image 3

I have been looking at the ANTENNA ARSENAL FOR WIFI PINEAPPLE NANO from the HakShop, but I am not sure if any of the included antenna support the 5GHz frequency. Does anyone know if they do?

I thought this was cool I tried a few designs ended up botching them up but I found out just some simple rabbit ears extended to the right length plugged in via coax to my SDR was just enough to make this work even if for a little. I still got to remove the rabbit ears from tv antenna there used for to help increase the image quality then solder them to some coax but even when it was storming and I lost power I still got a image barely so this is a good start can't wait to make a video on it when I get it all clear and automated. Recent attempt turned out a little better managed to get it in false color as well as all the other channels when I get good with Noaa satellites i'm gonna try Meteor satellites.

I want to build a yagi antenna but I'm confused with the elements. Please tell me what kind of metals to use... Thanks in advance

Hi, So I am testing out how to maximize the power and range of the tetra. I bought 4 wireless power boosters from the hakshop and tried them on all 4 antennas , for some reason, epic failure because I did not notice that the tetra antennas inputs are female and so are the power boosters.... :facepalm: so that does not work. I got 9dbi antennas from atheros .... another epic fail, its as if there are no antennas.. soooooooooo my question is, how to maximize the power on this beast.

The antenna ports on one side of my Tetra were starting to get loose today, so I decided to investigate. Turns out there is a lock washer that is supposed to be gripping the nut. That washer was turned around so that the teeth were facing the plastic as shown here. All that needed to happen was to turn the washer around so that the teeth face the nut. The problem was just on 1 side of the Tetra. I tested it and it looks like the new configuration held better. Also, you don't need to take the housing off the Tetra to do this as there are support posts for the nut on the opposite side (which is a fantastic design thought). However while I had it open, I found out why it's not called the Mark VI

Hi all, So my latest endeavour, in preparation for doing the CEH course in the near future, and because I'm a curious nerd, was to pen test my own Wi-Fi. However, I'm having major issues with how difficult it is to pick my Wi-Fi up from any reasonable distance. Initially, my goal was to drive to a couple of nearby locations and see how easy it was to locate my Wi-Fi from 50m, 100m, 150m, etc. I haven't even got as far as pen testing it, just wanted to test viable locations for doing so and to give myself a good idea of the distance at which someone could connect. I am using an RPi3, an Alfa AWUS036H, and I tried both a Yagi and a 7dBi Alfa Panel Antenna. My issue is with picking up the Wi-Fi from even a small distance. I currently have a couple of Wi-Fi hubs in my home, and I chose to pen test a BT Hub 6, which has very good signal strength itself. One of the best, apparently. However, I was only able to pick up a signal from 50m. 100m and I couldn't even find my Wi-Fi! As a prime example, there is a road lay-by 150m from my home, so I thought this would be a perfect spot to pull over and test the signal strength. I assumed I would defiantly get a signal from 150m away using the above hardware, but I didn't. Not even a sign of it! The path to the house from here is not line-of-sight. It is blocked by around 2 houses and a bunch of shrubbery/small gardens. I understand the implications of this on signal strength, but to be honest, I was not expecting a complete signal loss at only 150m, blocked or not! I'm shocked that this hardware can't manage to pick up a Wi-Fi hub at more than 100m! Any ideas? Thoughts?

Hey guys, for some reason when put the antennas on the device, they are loose, have already adjusted to the maximum possible and they are still loose, How I do to make them straight? Perhaps this pair is defective? I ordered the nano tactical elite that comes with the upgraded antenna, that's the one with the issue.

Hi all I have bought a Yagi antenna from Hak5, a plneapple V and a alfa awuso36nha. I also went to Fry's ( chicago) only place I know for RP connectors and this is all they had. I bought : 1 a SMA female to SMA female barrel connector 2 a Reverse Polarity SMA Crimp Male (Plug) Connector With Female Pin product code RPA 2452p 3 Reverse Polarity SMA Plug R/A (female pin) product code RPA-2453P ready to be crimped. 4 extention cable 50ohm ( 7 feet) with rp-sma female and RP-sma male. 5 6 feet of rg58 53.5 ohm cable no connectors I was hoping that it would all fit together BUT here are the RP endings for the equipment. Pineapple V SMA female Yagi SMA male Alpha RP-sma female SO the Pineapple V connects to the YAGI perfectly ( as expected) BUT I only got about 3 feet of cable. SO I went out and bought ( without thinking) the extension cable (4) which doesn't help me. I can use connector 1 to hook the Yagi to the rp-sma MALE end of the extension cable but that does NOT fit the Pine V ( sma female) or the Alpha (RP sma FEMALE). NOW I could crimp 2 and 3 to 4 and extend the YAGI from the PineV but that would get me 13 feet of 50ohm cable and 3 adapter connections. I have no idea what that would do to the signal strength. Could someone please help me out and tell me if the extention cable is too long if I connect them together. ALSO is putting the YAGI onto the Alfa REALLY going to buy me anything? I live in Chicago and right now the Alpha is not doing well. I was hoping to improve it using the Yagi in a directional manner. ANY help would be appreciated.

What is the best method to access wireless networks that are several hundred meters away? My impression is that it's no good accessing the router from far away if that router does not have the technical ability to reply to you (since it's just a normal home router)? Is that correct? I ask because the "Tom's Hardware Forum" posters suggest that not only should you be able to connect to the router but that it should have the technical capability to respond to you (when you are hundreds of meters away). I have read about Yagi antennas but do they work when you are trying to connect to a conventional 802.11 home router? If, for example, there was an unencrypted network 500 meters away would it be possible to play with the network e.g. via SSLStrip assuming that one could connect to the network? Thanks!

Just picked up my nano from you guys at defcon (great to see you all there!) and was curious which antenna is tied to which radio interface? Looking to do something similar to your point to point to multipoint and figured I'd ask before going the trial and error method. Also thanks for this awesome piece of hardware!

Hi everyone! I have a ALFA AWUS036NHA with the AR9271 chipset and a 13 dBi antenna. I'm trying to run the antenna outside my RV to reduce signal interference. I bought and extension cable on eBay like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271723497124?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT howerver, for some reason, I'm getting a worse signal than when I have the antenna inside! I did some testing and it seems that the signal is not passing through the cable.Can anyone suggest a good extension cable or some kind of small signal booster? Thanks! zog

Hi all, i was given a 'Long Range WiFi Holiday Bundle' for Christmas by a relative, from the Hak5 shop. I was mostly just after a new adapter with the Ralink chipset, but since this bundle came with the Yagi antenna, i'm keen to try it out. However, the bundle didn't appear to come with an adapter that will allow me to connect the antenna to the wireless adapter, as both ends are male, and the single adapter that came with the bundle also has both ends male.. Was this adapter supposed to be female on both ends? Because that is the only way that i can see it allowing me to connect the Yagi, and currently it seems like the adapter with both it's male ends doesn't allow me to connect anything in the bundle that doesn't already connect with it's own connection, so i'm not sure what i would actually use this adapter for... Thanks for any help you guys can give me

I've been playing with my pineapple for a little while now. I'm mainly a hardware guy,but after much fiddling I've got kismet running on both radios via a boot mode dip-switch,and all seems to be mostly working okay..mostly. #1 Recon mode seems to randomly break.(firmware 2.3.0) "AP scan" usually always works fine,but "AP+Client scan" will appear to start scanning,but the pineapple icon never stops spinning,and nothing ever appears in the list. It will sit like that for hours,if you let it. Reflashing the firmware (2.3.0),and starting over from scratch seems to be the only fix I've found,for this. I'm not sure what causes it yet. (in one case I even had to downgrade back to 2.2.0,and re-upgrade to 2.3.0 to fix it. See- https://forums.hak5.org/index.php?/topic/35131-recon-mode-ap-client/ ) #2 The SMA to RP-SMA adapters I got from the hakshop didn't quite seat on the connectors all the way,as the pineapple case is a bit too thick. So the center-pin never really makes contact. Luckily I discovered this issue before I used the pineapple to transmit anything,since that may have damaged the transmitter(s). The fix for this was to take the pineapple apart,and drill out the antenna port holes in the case with a uni-bit (love those). Now everything seats tightly,and all is well. Which reminds me of a question I have. Why SMA? Darren has mentioned in a couple of videos that it's because they would 'rather have a cheap antenna break,over the expensive pineapple' But I don't get it. The connectors are pretty much identical,apart from having a little dimple in the center versus a little nipple. Seems like (most) everything else I have is RP-SMA,so the adapters are needed to use the pile of stuff in the junk box. Not a big deal,I'm just not following the reasoning. #3 Power. I've run my pineapple on the original 9V power supply,a 3S Li-ion pack(~11-12V range),and a 13.25V bench supply. All work fine. I have seen some reports of pineapples frying while being used in a car,so I'm curious to investigate that. Since I had my pineapple apart to drill out the antenna port holes,I decided to pop the shield off of the PSU section,and take a peek. I'm mostly interested in knowing what the main controller chip for the SMPS supply is. Looking at some naked pineapple pictures,I was able to glean the part numbers of the two sub-supplies for the 1.8V and 3.3V rails,but not the main controller for the 5V rail,until now. (I'm not sure how Darren and crew feel about someone posting the IC part numbers,etc. for their product/IP,so I will refrain from that,for now. Unless I hear differently,from them.) It _should_ be okay up to 15-16V input voltage. The chip is rated for much higher,depending on application,but I'm not sure what the other components (capacitors,mainly) are rated for. I will _assume_ 16V rated capacitors on the input,so that's probably the limit. Heck,I've got a variable bench supply right here,BRB. /says a quick piece to the Gods Of The Magic Smoke./ Yep,working great at 15.5V. This is a clean,regulated,bench power supply though. An automobile is an electrically noisy,nightmareish,situation with lots of voltage spikes,and brown-outs,so that might cause issues. At the least,some noise filtering would be good. Better yet might be a 9V adapter for an old cellphone/radar detector/CD player/etc. Voltage regulation is a good thing. Smoked pineapples are a bad thing. Current draw when the pineapple is idle,no clients connected,and a 12.0V input,is around 150-175ma,or so. . When running kismet on both radios,and logging to the SD card,it's a bit higher,around 270ma,or so. Of course,if you have clients connected,data flowing,and are transmitting at higher power,etc. current draw will be higher. I've seen 400ma drain on several occasions. With my approx 3.0AH Li-Ion battery pack,I have powered the pineapple,running kismet,for 6-8 hours on a full charge. It could probably even go a bit longer. This might be handy info,for someone trying to calculate a rough run-time,when running from battery power. I was doing really well at fighting my technolust,and not taking my pineapple apart...until the antenna port issue. It was bound to happen,eventually. Curiosity,something,something,cat. At least I learned what I wanted to know about the SMPS controllers used in the pineapple,so I'm happy. Next up is to get a GPS dongle,and do some good old war-walking,for fun. Hopefully I can get that working,and maybe pulling the time from GPS. Though,I do have a DS3231 RTC module I could try to hook up. Fun stuff! Ohh,I'll throw this in here too,one of my favorite dip switch settings is something I have dubbed 'silent mode' or 'stealth mode'. Really simple,It takes down all the radio interfaces/AP's,etc.so nothing is transmitting. Handy for staying hidden,while doing config/setup stuffs on the pineapple,until you're ready to be seen! It does require a physical connection to the ethernet jack on the pineapple though,since,obviously,the managment AP is down too. ifconfig wlan0 down && ifconfig wlan1 down && ifconfig wlan0-1 down I think that's it,for now. I might post some more thoughts/rambles later. Happy Pineapple-ing!

Hi all, I want to make it clear that I am completely uneducated in this matter. I was wondering if it is possible to triangulate a cell phone without being the government, and if so how. I have gathered that you would need some way of measuring the signal strength of a cell phone. How to do this, I do not know. I thought the hak5 would be the right place to ask about this. Thanks for any help! P.S. I also want to make it clear that there is genuinely no nefarious purpose for this project. It seems like a fun weekend project.

Hi, in order to resolve the slooooow hardware issue using karma and sslstrip, I ordered and already received the USB ALFA which works very well (Thanks Darren). How ever - when using the box for that scenario, there is no need to have both hardware antennas of wlan0 and wlan1 attached to the MARK V. It may sound stupid, but ... is the antenna near the sd card slot wlan0 oder wlan1 - I don't see any identification??? Cheers, Toby

So I was trying to find a good place to put my stock antenna that came with my R820T SDR dongle, and the only place I found at my kitchen table was on my ceiling light above the table. I have a feeling that the way I have set it up it is quite close to being a reverse j-pole as my lamp is all metal and is grounded to my electrical panel. This said, with this configuration I am getting ADS-B signals up to 200km away and I am about 30 meters above sea level. Can anyone else confirm if this could be the cause or am I just lucky?

Hi! This will be my first post here! When i try to use two other antenna (9dBi Rubberduck) then the originals i got a unstable connection and the pineapple can't find other then a few accesspoints round. I got the same error when i use them on my other router but when i change to 100mW in dd-wrt on the router all works perfect. I try to find this settings on my Pineapple Mark V but i can't find that settings and have try to change txpower with no luck. The spec. on the antenna is Frequency Range: 2400 - 2500 MHz Amplification: 9 dBi Max power: 100 w Connection: RP-SMA And if u want to check more about the antenna you can go to https://translate.google.se/translate?sl=sv&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.davido.se%2Fshop%2Fproduct_info.php%3FcPath%3D26_34%26products_id%3D121&edit-text=&act=url (is a google translation from swedish to english) What can i do to fix this?