Science Fair Project with Antennas

thepcdude · #1 (**permalink**) 10-07-2007, 10:16 AM

I am doing a science fair project that I regret getting myself into. My purpose question is do different antennas affect signal strength. No duh. But I need help on making antennas and hooking them up to a wireless router. Most tuts out on the internet for making homebrew antennas always expect you to hook them up to the wireless NIC on your laptop, etc. But I want to hook up something like a cantenna to my router so the antenna can send the signals out! I dont know if thats even possible, so I'm really freaking out right now! Please help.

TheManBornWithin · #2 (**permalink**) 10-07-2007, 10:45 AM

Yes, you can hook up antennas to a router like you would a wireless card, as long as you have the right connectors. Here's an example of a cantenna that can be hooked up to a router:

http://wirelessgardenstore.com/detail.aspx?ID=314

Unfortunately, I know nothing about antennas, but someone else should be able to guide you in the right direction. Good luck.

k9rzz · #3 (**permalink**) 10-07-2007, 10:51 AM

I don't know much about wireless routers, but maybe I can help get your started.

If you're going to compare antenna A to antenna B in some way, you need a way to measure signal strength on the receiving end and you wouldn't want the signal meter to be pegged at max for both antennas, because then you don't know anything. So you need to make the signal sub-max in some way, either varying the transmit power, varying the receiver gain, or increase the distance between the two.

It looks like the routers use SMA connectors, so you can make your own jumpers to connect to your antennas. Just poking around with Google, I found this auction in eBay which might give you some ideas on how to run your experiment:

http://cgi.ebay.com/3in1-12dBi-WiFi-...46339513QQrdZ1

Maybe that will give you some ideas of your own.

thepcdude · #4 (**permalink**) 10-07-2007, 03:03 PM

Now I just need to find the right connectors for something like a homemade cantenna.

k9rzz · #5 (**permalink**) 10-08-2007, 08:46 AM

That should be the easy part of the project. Just match up pictures on the internet with what you've got on your equipment. You can by _anything_ online.