Andrew I just wanted to tell you thanks for your review on this antenna. From my own personal experience testing many different types of wifi antennas this alfa is probably one of the best all round performers.
Just looked at your home page this afternoon to see what you were up too in case I've missed somthing. Bam and here you are, cool. Probably better off to have the tuned spike a little wider.
Welcome back Andy, what a nice review on this lockdown. Thanks a lot and Well done. I hope we see some nice little videos for diy freeview antennas hence the boring long holiday, I have seen some Russians do simple wire antennas with balun that’s seems to work well, I am sure you will do better job!
At first Andrew welcome back I missed you!!. It's been a long time ago that I saw a upload from you. I am very happy and I hope we see more of you in the next days, weeks, months and you tell us more how to create new antennas. As I mentioned before I am looking for a panel antenna for the 5.8ghz and perhaps a new antenna for the 2.4ghz as I want to get more range out of my RC gear. BTW I am from the Netherlands just a few kilometers from the UK. :-)
Great info for us drones who are always researching this technology for our 5.8 &2.4 switching controller to have that extra distance. Thankyou very much for your expertise....
It is because I was asked a question about this antenna and using it for 5.8. I did not think it would be a good idea but as you can see it works very well.
I just bought the 36ach and was looking at your old video's to decide on making one of yours or buying one and then out comes this video :) I was going to get the Alfa DualBand 2X2 MIMO Panel 9/12dB but the M25 performs almost as good at 1/3 the price. Does MIMO increase speeds much over the M25?............ Really glad to see you still making videos on a fascinating subject.
14:32 I'm using channel 100 (DFS) for my 5 GHz Wi-Fi, which is 5.5 GHz. Would this antenna perform well in that frequency, given that it seems to be optimized for operation at around 5.0 and 5.8 GHz as shown in your graph? Great video, thank you!
Wow that is an interesting antenna! I'm an electronics professional, a ham and formerly into flying quadcopters. Replacing the stock antenna with an SMA or RPSMA for externals was par for the course when I was active. (Mixed my metaphors there, sorry) I've always enjoyed hardware mods and antennas are most rewarding. This one is nice because you can buy one antenna to use for everything control, video what have you in flying. I really appreciate your in-depth analysis. 73 de N2NLQ!
Great to have you back! I'm thinking a comparative range test of this antenna and some of your better designs would be fun. Also, how directional is this little guy?
This applies even to the standard 5db 'rod.' The only way you can test this accurately is to hook up to distant router whose code you know, and do a speed test with and without.
Hi andrew, That antenna seems to be very good one. Maybe a should change the stock antennas on my Asus RT-AC68u router xD Right now it is on channel 13 2.4 Ghz and channel 36 on 5 ghz and power is 400mw. Works very well and good range. I did buy one of the Cantennas last year and used on the vacation in our caravan together with GL.iNet GL-AR150 (150M Smart Router)
Hi Andrew, any ideas why the change out of the reflector do not work as well as the original design? Could it be maybe the type of material or the thickness of the metal used? Love your videos Richard, Iowa USA
thats what i wanna know, my alfa was fake, although i paid for what i thought was origanal. it had hologram and everything looked good, untill i opened it up and pcb was terrible and wasnt the color that origonal boards should be. so i dont wanna buy another fake, mind you there are some good fakes apparantly. no matter how much i researched what is origanal it was very hard to see any differances
Maybe a stupid question, but if you orient one of these antennas so it's perpendicular to the line of sight of an adjacent antenna (either another directional Alfa or a regular omnidirectional antenna), will the latter's signal get blocked by the aluminum shielding of the Alfa?
Wow Great video brother. I took one of these and replaced the basic antenna that came with my alfa wifi adapter that's only 2ghz. Wondering if this alfa panel would enhance my actual Alfa plug in. Let alone if it would allow me to get 5ghz signal. this panel screwed onto an Alfa 2ghz wifi adapter
According to Alfa.tw here are the specs on that Antenna Frequency 2.4 ~ 2.5GHz 5.150 ~ 5.875GHz V.S.W.R 2.0:1 Max Antenna Type Patch Directional Gain 8 dBi @ 2.4GHz-10dBi @ 5GHz Polarization Linear, Vertical Vertical Beam-with 16 degree Horizontal Beam-with 66 degree Connector RP-SMA Plug (Male) Dimension 167.3 x 66 x 18 mm Weight 72 g
these keep coming loose the threads that is on router so end up rolling sideways down , i read thread locker is not conductive so thats a no go , is there anything that i cud put on the router nibs that wud glue them on after screwing on and dry solid ish , so they dont come loose , "Without affecting any gains" or signal in general , thx
will the windsurfer be just as good as this alfa? i use a tp link 7222n(version 1 which everyone wants) with a windsurfer, i printed template and cut it out on card and covered it in tin foil. Its worked well for me,
Oh, Thank you so much for this NICE explanation. Supernice, to be honest. I just tried to understand the meaning of a dual band antenna.....You succeeded in ! Very well.
Question: I bought this Antenna today and put it on my dual-antenna ASUS USB WiFi adapter, the other antenna is 5dBi, so does it actually work, or I need to change both of them? Because there is not a significant improvement in signal, that's why I'm wondering.... Thanks.
Kind of late but for anyone else wondering this yes you should change both. One will be for transmitting and the other for receiving. Pointless to have one without the other.
Good day sir im in philipines what can you recommend for my prepaid wifi router to boost speed..i hope diy poject to recommend me..i hope you read this comment..tnx and more power to your channel..
Has anyone installed just the board of this unit behind the facia of a ACER TC220 personal computer and a similar board on the back running the cables back to the WIFI module installed in the socket on the DAA78L Motherboard.
The 5 GHz graph is quite disappointing actually. It performs really well right at 5 GHz, but there's nothing there. The only DFS-free 5 GHz 80 MHz channel is centered at 5.2 GHz and the curve is far from its optimal power level there. And then the really good interference-free DFS channels with the higher legal power limits start at 5.5 GHz and run to about 5.7 GHz, again the antenna isn't at its best there. And then it's really good at 5.8 GHz - those channels are rarely available on routers, it's usually low-power devices only, and in the US I think they just made them legal, but you'll almost never see them offered. Kind of disappointing really to see it's not optimized for the best 5 GHz channels. I got it and it only boosted my reception to my mesh node by about 3 dbm compared to my router's stock antenna which is only 2 dbi. I'm guessing this is the explanation, because I use channel 100 (5.5 GHz). And the difference in power output on that graph is huge, it goes from 33 dbm to 19 dbm within less than 100 MHz.
are alfa's still copied badly. i bought a alfa for cracking years ago and was dissapointed to find it was fake. really poor quality soldering,a cracked coil...etc...signal was high but dropped out all the time.
After three years of experiments, I have designed a simple dipole/reflector aerial whose performance matches the turbotenna yagi. But add just one director and it is awful.
I guess yo fail a bit with measurements of back plate, then the "elements goes more close than espect for this design. hum... try to do this, put the "new back plate" out side the antena box, but still in the back antena position. Also, you must to be sure, about the "face" of antena. Cause this antena you can see, have a negative polarization. So... it, is very important. Is the first reason for the back plate reflector is "undergraunded" Is just a reflector and non polarization except for the capacitive polarization. If you change the matials componing a capacitor? what it gonna change? well... my friend, it change everything! try to read some information about "conductive capacity" and "energy capacity"· cause is very important to design this antennas, in special. Im not try to do a critic, is an advice. I guess is a good advice bro... I do my best on it You know... instruments are "fundamental" to know the information and test antennas when working . "But nothing replace the knowledge" Except the money .. of course XD ha ha
I'd been looking at dozens of panel antennas. Your SWR sweep helped me decide on this one. Thanks.
Andrew I just wanted to tell you thanks for your review on this antenna. From my own personal experience testing many different types of wifi antennas this alfa is probably one of the best all round performers.
You are an absolute genius...I have learnt so much from your vids...just made my 1st cantenna thanks to your vids
Glad you find the useful Neil
Welcome back! Always look forward to your videos...
Thanks Chris
nice to see you back
Solid review. No BS, you know your stuff.
Just looked at your home page this afternoon to see what you were up too in case I've missed somthing. Bam and here you are, cool.
Probably better off to have the tuned spike a little wider.
Nice to see you back Andrew! Great video.
Welcome back Andy, what a nice review on this lockdown. Thanks a lot and Well done. I hope we see some nice little videos for diy freeview antennas hence the boring long holiday, I have seen some Russians do simple wire antennas with balun that’s seems to work well, I am sure you will do better job!
At first Andrew welcome back I missed you!!. It's been a long time ago that I saw a upload from you. I am very happy and I hope we see more of you in the next days, weeks, months and you tell us more how to create new antennas. As I mentioned before I am looking for a panel antenna for the 5.8ghz and perhaps a new antenna for the 2.4ghz as I want to get more range out of my RC gear. BTW I am from the Netherlands just a few kilometers from the UK. :-)
Good to have you back 👍🙂
its GREAT your back... i've learn alot from your videos ... welcome back SIR...
ohh boy, glad to see a new Video from you sir in this difficult times.
I love hearing when you say ," Bang on .... Ghz"
I really like your detail
Welcome back Sir. great work again and i missed you lot. I have learned a lot from you .
Welcome back! Great video by the way. Do you happen to have the type number of the Alfa antenna?
I have found if you add a reflector to ANY factory designed aerial, performance tumbles, presumably due to swr.
Great info for us drones who are always researching this technology for our 5.8 &2.4 switching controller to have that extra distance. Thankyou very much for your expertise....
It is because I was asked a question about this antenna and using it for 5.8. I did not think it would be a good idea but as you can see it works very well.
Nice antenna. How much space is there between the antenna and the reflector?
I just bought the 36ach and was looking at your old video's to decide on making one of yours or buying one and then out comes this video :) I was going to get the Alfa DualBand 2X2 MIMO Panel 9/12dB but the M25 performs almost as good at 1/3 the price. Does MIMO increase speeds much over the M25?............ Really glad to see you still making videos on a fascinating subject.
14:32 I'm using channel 100 (DFS) for my 5 GHz Wi-Fi, which is 5.5 GHz. Would this antenna perform well in that frequency, given that it seems to be optimized for operation at around 5.0 and 5.8 GHz as shown in your graph? Great video, thank you!
Wow that is an interesting antenna!
I'm an electronics professional, a ham and formerly into flying quadcopters. Replacing the stock antenna with an SMA or RPSMA for externals was par for the course when I was active. (Mixed my metaphors there, sorry)
I've always enjoyed hardware mods and antennas are most rewarding.
This one is nice because you can buy one antenna to use for everything control, video what have you in flying.
I really appreciate your in-depth analysis.
73 de N2NLQ!
Can you make a pattern for this ? And i will copy it on a pcb thanks
What was the response like at 5.8 with the modified reflector? why go to the trouble of setting everything up and not taking a look?
Great to have you back! I'm thinking a comparative range test of this antenna and some of your better designs would be fun. Also, how directional is this little guy?
From alfa's website "Gain: 8 dBi @ 2.4GHz / 10dBi @ 5GHz"
Very good and informative video as always, keep up the good work👍
Thanks George
This applies even to the standard 5db 'rod.' The only way you can test this accurately is to hook up to distant router whose code you know, and do a speed test with and without.
Hi andrew, That antenna seems to be very good one. Maybe a should change the stock antennas on my Asus RT-AC68u router xD Right now it is on channel 13 2.4 Ghz and channel 36 on 5 ghz and power is 400mw. Works very well and good range. I did buy one of the Cantennas last year and used on the vacation in our caravan together with GL.iNet GL-AR150 (150M Smart Router)
Hi Andrew, any ideas why the change out of the reflector do not work as well as the original design? Could it be maybe the type of material or the thickness of the metal used?
Love your videos
Richard, Iowa USA
been waiting for you...
Are Alfa wireless adapters still the one to buy? I have a AWUS036H that could do with upgrading.
thats what i wanna know, my alfa was fake, although i paid for what i thought was origanal. it had hologram and everything looked good, untill i opened it up and pcb was terrible and wasnt the color that origonal boards should be.
so i dont wanna buy another fake, mind you there are some good fakes apparantly.
no matter how much i researched what is origanal it was very hard to see any differances
anyone have any info?? Andrew???
what if yougrounded brass? would it have more gain?
Your back dude! Sick
Maybe a stupid question, but if you orient one of these antennas so it's perpendicular to the line of sight of an adjacent antenna (either another directional Alfa or a regular omnidirectional antenna), will the latter's signal get blocked by the aluminum shielding of the Alfa?
If you could move the "new" reflector back a few mm from the pcb it would be interesting to see what that does.
Wow Great video brother. I took one of these and replaced the basic antenna that came with my alfa wifi adapter that's only 2ghz. Wondering if this alfa panel would enhance my actual Alfa plug in. Let alone if it would allow me to get 5ghz signal. this panel screwed onto an Alfa 2ghz wifi adapter
Can you try to tear down the ubiquiti UMA-D or any ubiquiti antenna?
According to Alfa.tw here are the specs on that Antenna
Frequency 2.4 ~ 2.5GHz 5.150 ~ 5.875GHz
V.S.W.R 2.0:1 Max
Antenna Type Patch Directional
Gain 8 dBi @ 2.4GHz-10dBi @ 5GHz
Polarization Linear, Vertical
Vertical Beam-with 16 degree
Horizontal Beam-with 66 degree
Connector RP-SMA Plug (Male)
Dimension 167.3 x 66 x 18 mm
Weight 72 g
Will you be making a 5Ghz antenna/cantenna available to buy on your ebay?
these keep coming loose the threads that is on router so end up rolling sideways down , i read thread locker is not conductive so thats a no go , is there anything that i cud put on the router nibs that wud glue them on after screwing on and dry solid ish , so they dont come loose , "Without affecting any gains" or signal in general , thx
Can you make an Accurate precise linework of this for recreating in to another pcb thank you verymuch
will the windsurfer be just as good as this alfa? i use a tp link 7222n(version 1 which everyone wants) with a windsurfer, i printed template and cut it out on card and covered it in tin foil. Its worked well for me,
Oh, Thank you so much for this NICE explanation. Supernice, to be honest. I just tried to understand the meaning of a dual band antenna.....You succeeded in ! Very well.
Good job sir ....
Question: I bought this Antenna today and put it on my dual-antenna ASUS USB WiFi adapter, the other antenna is 5dBi, so does it actually work, or I need to change both of them? Because there is not a significant improvement in signal, that's why I'm wondering....
Thanks.
Kind of late but for anyone else wondering this yes you should change both. One will be for transmitting and the other for receiving. Pointless to have one without the other.
I had to do a double take!
Good day sir im in philipines what can you recommend for my prepaid wifi router to boost speed..i hope diy poject to recommend me..i hope you read this comment..tnx and more power to your channel..
If it is no good on 5.8 then it's useless for half the wifi band so I would hope anything sold for wifi would have had excellent performance on 5.8.
Top
You saved my day Andy! You're back:)
P.S.
I also am interested in Sat Comm.
Rick
Has anyone installed just the board of this unit behind the facia of a ACER TC220 personal computer and a similar board on the back running the cables back to the WIFI module installed in the socket on the DAA78L Motherboard.
it can extend Mavic Mini Drone range from 500 meters ( original antena) up to 4.57 KM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great vid 👌👍
Thanx Andrew
SUPER
The 5 GHz graph is quite disappointing actually. It performs really well right at 5 GHz, but there's nothing there. The only DFS-free 5 GHz 80 MHz channel is centered at 5.2 GHz and the curve is far from its optimal power level there. And then the really good interference-free DFS channels with the higher legal power limits start at 5.5 GHz and run to about 5.7 GHz, again the antenna isn't at its best there. And then it's really good at 5.8 GHz - those channels are rarely available on routers, it's usually low-power devices only, and in the US I think they just made them legal, but you'll almost never see them offered. Kind of disappointing really to see it's not optimized for the best 5 GHz channels. I got it and it only boosted my reception to my mesh node by about 3 dbm compared to my router's stock antenna which is only 2 dbi. I'm guessing this is the explanation, because I use channel 100 (5.5 GHz). And the difference in power output on that graph is huge, it goes from 33 dbm to 19 dbm within less than 100 MHz.
are alfa's still copied badly. i bought a alfa for cracking years ago and was dissapointed to find it was fake. really poor quality soldering,a cracked coil...etc...signal was high but dropped out all the time.
sadly they are
After three years of experiments, I have designed a simple dipole/reflector aerial whose performance matches the turbotenna yagi. But add just one director and it is awful.
if you add a reflector to any professionally designed dipole, performance plummets, presumably due to swr
I guess yo fail a bit with measurements of back plate, then the "elements goes more close than espect for this design. hum... try to do this, put the "new back plate" out side the antena box, but still in the back antena position. Also, you must to be sure, about the "face" of antena. Cause this antena you can see, have a negative polarization. So... it, is very important. Is the first reason for the back plate reflector is "undergraunded" Is just a reflector and non polarization except for the capacitive polarization. If you change the matials componing a capacitor? what it gonna change? well... my friend, it change everything!
try to read some information about "conductive capacity" and "energy capacity"· cause is very important to design this antennas, in special.
Im not try to do a critic, is an advice. I guess is a good advice bro... I do my best on it
You know... instruments are "fundamental" to know the information and test antennas when working . "But nothing replace the knowledge"
Except the money .. of course XD ha ha
Can you make a pattern for this ? And i will copy it on a pcb thanks