SgtPineapple Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 When i got my pineapple and got ICS working, i went for a drive and some devices were connecting to pineapple. I immediately started looking for bigger antennas for my pineapple so that i could get better results. I bought a 8dbi TP-LINK antenna and i didn't really see any improvements, far from it. I also bought a bigger 3com 8dbi omni antenna for under 50 euros which FOR SURE would get me more connects, but NO The stock antenna on the pineapple will give me twice the range that the longer 8dbi "ducky" omni and the 8dbi 3com antenna will... What's happening here guys??? :D I can walk some 100 feet from my house and i still get a connection with the stock antenna, the range drops in half when one of the other antennas are connected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 There are lots of factors as to why it isn't working the way you think it should. In a perfect world, with no air, obstructions, and perfect antenna, an omni directional antenna's radiation pattern will look like a doughnut with the antenna going through the hole. The higher the db the flatter that doughnut will get, but the farther it will reach horizontally. Since we don't live in a perfect world, and there's shit all around our antennas, the doughnut will look more like something a kinder-gardener would make. It's going to have bumps and odd lumps around the pattern. It could also be tilted one way or another, so when you think it should be straight, after all the antenna is pointing straight up, it's tilted. I've seen antennas so screwed up that if you walk out past 20 feet or so your signal will drop almost in half, but only if you walk one direction, go the other way and it stays fine. It also depends on how the antenna is attached to the radio. Is it directly connected or is it using a cable? If it's a cable, what's the loss of the cable? Are there any kinks in the cable, cause that will cause additional signal loss over the normal signal loss of the cable. Was the little Malaysian kid that made the cable having a bad day? Maybe he didn't get the connector crimped quite right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SgtPineapple Posted March 25, 2012 Author Share Posted March 25, 2012 There are lots of factors as to why it isn't working the way you think it should. In a perfect world, with no air, obstructions, and perfect antenna, an omni directional antenna's radiation pattern will look like a doughnut with the antenna going through the hole. The higher the db the flatter that doughnut will get, but the farther it will reach horizontally. Since we don't live in a perfect world, and there's shit all around our antennas, the doughnut will look more like something a kinder-gardener would make. It's going to have bumps and odd lumps around the pattern. It could also be tilted one way or another, so when you think it should be straight, after all the antenna is pointing straight up, it's tilted. I've seen antennas so screwed up that if you walk out past 20 feet or so your signal will drop almost in half, but only if you walk one direction, go the other way and it stays fine. It also depends on how the antenna is attached to the radio. Is it directly connected or is it using a cable? If it's a cable, what's the loss of the cable? Are there any kinks in the cable, cause that will cause additional signal loss over the normal signal loss of the cable. Was the little Malaysian kid that made the cable having a bad day? Maybe he didn't get the connector crimped quite right. Attached with a very short cable so there should not be that much loss there. Have to do some tests with my alfa card with the same antennas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killuminati Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 Attached with a very short cable so there should not be that much loss there. Have to do some tests with my alfa card with the same antennas. Lol ive heard malaysian kids running sweat shops but making antenna's and cables is something new to me especially being from that country. Think I need to grab a flight home and have a word with these guys... hahaha Just bought a yogi antenna and been having the same kind of issue. To be fair havent played around with that much yet. But first plug in a picked up an extra 10 or so networks pointing it at a building and then actually less then what the stock mark IV antenna gives. Should be fun and many hours spent in the sun directing it.. =D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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