Wifi: Yagi antenna design

I am thinking to build two antennas (directional) for WiFi between two computers, but want to be really clear on some design and construction details before building.

I note that Wikipedia and a number of websites give similar general descriptions of Uda-Yagi antennas, but leave out some important details. Maybe someone here has some simple answers or links to where these things are clearly described:

1) Wiring up antenna... What should be considered here? A lot of people "slap" the wires on in what looks like a haphazard manner, but not much about exact spacing and why, etc, in relation to the boom and elements.

2) Some commercial antennas use plastic booms, others metal (aluminum or stainless steel), and I have seen one made from wood. I would think conductivity would be an important parameter, but these all (commercial and amateur homebrew) have claims of successful construction without any mention of this.

3) On multiple element designs (on a single boom), some use rods through the boom, others use rings, like washers. What is the difference?

4) In relation to above, should the elements have contact with the boom (some designs do not)?

Maybe I have more questions, but I'll stop here and see how this thread evolves.

Dominic

Reply to
Dominic-Luc Webb
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The material of the boom does not matter. There is no radio frequency need for a boom. You just have to have something to hold up the elements. If the boom is conductive, the element lengths have to be adjust for the diameter of the boom. Many of the beter designed antennas will have the elements insulated from the boom if it is conductive..

Reply to
Ralph Mowery

There are some pretty good links here:

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Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

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Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

The "ARRL Antenna Book" is good resource, try a public or tertiary institutions's library. what's in it may not be ideal for 2.4Ghz designs.

Ah! The mysteries of the gamma match ... the ARRL book may cover that too.

dipole or folded dipole?

FWIW

dish antennas work great at 2.4 GHZ. see if you can spource some old MDS equipment, or an aluminium wok, put a USB-driven wi-fi unit at the focus.

upto 12 dbi

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
Jasen Betts

Consider a corner reflector.

Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

maybe to big .. :-)

Consider a Danish Butter Cookies BiQuad /CookieBox=CB_biQuad/ 14dBi or BigTinCan_biQuad :-) schematic on this forum (sorry, it is in my native language & you won´t understand a bit, but see pics in the middle & further (also on the next site) :-) (I am planning to translate stuff to put in on my site some day in the future anyway) , stuff does not need an antenna "pigtail" preconnector there ...

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(att.may wrap) ... about radiating element, see other biQuad antenna topics/sites on the Net

-- Regards , SPAJKY ® mail addr. @ my site @

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4y - "Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"

Reply to
Spajky

You can't get much simpler than a corner reflector. Tin foil and piece of poster board, and hot glue to keep it aligned. No tuning necessary. Only about six inches on a side.

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Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

you are wright (I saw it already once but forgot!) at the time of my post I miss uderstood (thought about 3D corner_R. one) :-)

-- Regards , SPAJKY ® mail addr. @ my site @

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4y - "Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"

Reply to
Spajky

... but I do not understand, why the guy made 2 reflectors; Router uses only one antenna at the time (diversity! for shorter way or inside house links) & with that just one reflector would much increase the distance anyway & diversity wouldn´t matter much anyway than ... :-))

-- Regards , SPAJKY ® mail addr. @ my site @

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4y - "Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"

Reply to
Spajky

For a diversity antenna system to work, you want to match the antennas.

While diversity may not make much difference in the far field range, who know why he did it that way. Maybe it looks so cool.

Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

Thanks for this link guys. Quite simple! Why he two antennas could be that he wants them for same reason I do, a direct point-to-point link between two computers. Another possibility is that he has separate antennas for 2.4 (802.11b/g) and

5.1 GHz (802.11a/h/n), which is something I will be doing.

Dominic

Reply to
Dominic-Luc Webb

As I recall, he was using a Linksys WRT54G which is 2.4 GHz only. Now if he had pointed those two reflectors in different directions, that just won't work. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the left antenna looking at the Linksys from the front is a receive only antenna.

Reply to
DecaturTxCowboy

no, they are both Rx/Tx ones; IMHO with moded firmware can do also repetitor mode, but I am not sure (if ver.4.0 or less) ...

-- Regards , SPAJKY ® mail addr. @ my site @

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4y - "Tualatin OC-ed / BX-Slot1 / inaudible setup!"

Reply to
Spajky

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