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Wireless Hacks
book

Wireless Hacks

by Rob Flickenger
September 2003
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
304 pages
8h 39m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Wireless Hacks

Pigtails

Use a short length of feed line to connect your wireless device to an antenna.

While some wireless equipment has no external antenna connector available at all, many devices ship with a tiny, non-standard port to accommodate an external antenna. Most antennas use a standard microwave connector [Hack #63]. Typically, to connect one to the other, you need a short length of cable with one of each sort of connector. This connector is commonly referred to as a pigtail adapter. A pigtail in all its glory is depicted in Figure 4-29.

A Lucent pigtail with an N male end.

Figure 4-29. A Lucent pigtail with an N male end.

Pigtails are available from a number of sources. They typically sell for $10 to $20, depending on the length and type of cable, and what connectors you need on each end. Be sure that you know what sort of connector [Hack #65] you need on the card side as well as on the antenna side. Most 802.11 manufacturers will also sell you a pigtail adapter for a phenomenally inflated price ($80 to $100 or more, for virtually the same piece of cable).

Pigtails have extremely high loss compared to a larger cable (such as LMR400), and usually use a cable such as LMR100 or LMR195. It is generally a good idea to keep your pigtail lengths as short as possible, and run larger, lower-loss cable for the bulk of your antenna run. Be sure to observe the type of connector, as well as the gender (male or female) that you need ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596005598Catalog PageErrata