[MLB-WIRELESS] Short lend of AP / Antenna?

[Mike Dickens]

Thanks for the reply Tyson. I've replied below.

On 5/24/07, Tyson Clugg <tclugg at umd.com.au> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 2007-05-24 at 18:16 +1000, Mike Dickens wrote:
> > Hey guys,
> > I'm kind've new to this, now pretty close to establishing a short (250
> > metre) link to a friend. I only have one AP (UltraWAP / Edimax) at the
> > moment, and we get a relatively stable connection (5.5 mbps, ~90% of
> > pings going through typically at < 10 ms) using a USB dongle held up
> > in the air with a saucepan behind it (seems to produce a slight boost,
> > and at the very least it filters out noise).
>
> Mounting your antenna to a solid mast on your roof should help things a
> good deal.  Did you do your testing from ground level?  If so, moving
> onto the roof should clear the fresnel zone of obstructions giving you a
> better link.  The MW wiki has some info on what a fresnel zone is under
> LineOfSight:
> http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?LineOfSight

I mounted it on top of my TV antenna, on the roof. The AP is also up there,
in a lunchbox for waterproofing. It's only temporary at the moment until I
setup PoE.
The antenna I'm currently using looks identical to this:
http://host219.ipowerweb.com/~freenet-/oscommerce-2.2ms2/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=217&osCsid=85cbf546f3ff81539a7afc12a830c6f1

However, I didn't get it from Freenet and I'm not sure if the lead is
1.5metres (pretty sure it's less).


> Anyway, before we commit to our second AP purchase, we'd love to test
> > with a second AP (preferably something running dd-wrt or another
> > UltraWAP / Edimax). If anyones willing to lend us one for a few days,
> > I'd be EXTREMELY grateful.
> >
> > We're down on the Mornington Peninsula, and I can pick up gear from
> > anywhere nearby (bonus if you live near a trainstation)
> >
> > Also, if anyone is willing to lend me a high gain antenna to see if
> > it'll help us at all (and also to scout around for other links, the
> > area is pretty dry node-wise but there's a couple across town I could
> > have some luck with).
>
> You're best sticking with a lower-gain directional for such a small link
> becase:
> - it's cheaper
> - it's smaller
> - the neighbors are less likely to complain
> - it's easier to aim
> - you won't need beefy/large/expensive/ugly mounting hardware
>
> A cantenna is something you can make yourself and should do an excellent
> job for such a short link.  Once again, see the MW wiki:
> http://www.melbournewireless.org.au/wiki/?Cantenna

I was planning to, hopefully the antenna I've got and another standard
rubber duckie will do once I've got the power boosted to 200 mW on both APs.
I was originally considering cantennas, only thing is I don't know where to
get the bits from (if you could let me know or possibly give me a hand,
that'd be great!)


> Oh, and finally - if anyone has any "free to good home" antennas
> > they're happy to part with, I'd really appreciate it (I'm not sure if
> > this ever actually happens, but at the moment I only have pretty
> > standard omnis.. like I said, new to this ;)).
>
> I'd nearly let you have a cantenna I have with mounting hardware, except
> I'm expecting to use it in the not too distant future.  Yes, this sort
> of thing happens - no, it's not too much to ask.  ;)


What sort of can did you use to make your cantenna and do they actually
perform well?
Cheers, thanks for the heads up and reply.

> Anyway, thanks in advance. I'm not sure on the ettiquette of all this,
> > so replies are appreciated! And also, thank you for all the great info
> > on your website/ in the mailing list, and from your members, you've
> > really helped me
> > -Mike
> > _______________________________________________
> > Melbwireless mailing list
> > Melbwireless at wireless.org.au
> > http://wireless.org.au/mailman/listinfo/melbwireless
>
> Cheers,
> Tyson.
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wireless.org.au/pipermail/melbwireless/attachments/20070524/bf01c49d/attachment.html>