Outdoor WiFi Antenna

[Jetter2]

Hey all!

A buddy and I are going to setup a Hotspot here at my house comming off of my Wireless Router.

I wanna mount a strong external antenna atop my 2-story roof. I would like to get an antenna that has the capibility to service at least 500ft through walls. So that such as my neighbor across the street can get on my network with his computer sitting in his living room.

I can repeat the signal as nessscary with yagi's or with parabolic antennas.

Anyone have any expirence with this kinda setup?

[Chutsman]

While I don't have any experience with the yagi's or parabolic types, 500 feet should be doable. Try first with one yagi or parabolic at the router end. And if your buddy across the street cannot pick up the signal, he might also need some sort of external antenna.

I'm picking up a hotspot from my living room using a Hawking 15dBi Corner antenna attached to an Orinoco Proxim Gold pcmcia card. I estimate the distance to be about 200 feet. And I know that the hotspot isn't even using an external antenna like a yagi or parabolic.

[Jetter2]

Im kinda wanting to really supply service to the surrounding 6 houses around me or so. I have no real need to connect the independant hotspots, I can remote into any of my routers with ease. If nesscary, I can always use a parabolic antenna or yagi to backhaul in the network.

I kind of wanted to go with something like a 15-17dbi omni mounted atop my roof, I think that an antenna that size should suffice in xmitting power to reach users in the surrounding houses.

What kind of power will I need to pump into that antenna? I can't just run a coax cable from the router can I?? Do I need an amplifier by chance??

-Justin

[Chutsman]

For supplying the surrounding area, then yes, an omni will be needed. But before you spend money on an amplifier, I would connect the antenna using good quality low loss cable, and put the router as close to the antenna as possible (the shorter the cable, the less loss). Then if no one can receive the signal, add the amplifier.

Another option: before you add the amplifier, can you get the signal if a better antenna is at the receiving end. In other words, let the people who want to receive the signal stand the cost of getting their own antenna. Since I don't know your exact situation, this may or may not be viable.

[Jetter2]

Any reccomendations on cable type? Simple RG-6, would that suffice? Anyplaces you know that sells good quality connectors, crimpers and cable for this purpose??

[Chutsman]

I'm assuming you are in the USA, are you? Then try this place:

http://www.fab-corp.com/

Though I have not bought anything from them, their name comes up a lot in various forums that I read on wireless - probably even in this forum.

Here's another thread in this forum that may help:

http://forums.wi-fiplanet.com/showthread.php?t=4869

[Jetter2]

Yeah I'm in dallas. The cabeling part kind of still worries me. I am not sure what grade cable and connectors I will need.

[rigbyorange]

Hello,
You will want to use LMR-400 cable for long runs. The only problem with high gain 12-17dbi omni antenna is that the vertical beam width is usually very small. Try a lower gain antenna with an amp, maybe 200mW. If you use the higher gain antenna, look at the vertical beam and find one that has a downtilt so that users below the antenna can get a good signal. Hope this helps.

[Jetter2]

I am a techinician in the fixed wireless world, and out antennas, even at 380' only have 3* of downtilt on them. A high gain omni mounted on my roof shouldnt need more than 1* of downtilt, if any at all.