September 2003
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
8h 39m
English
Content preview from Wireless Hacks
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Pringles Can Waveguide
How to make the infamous Pringles cantenna.
At the Portland Summit in June 2001, Andrew Clapp presented a novel yagi antenna design (http://www.aeonic.com/~clapp/wireless/). It used a bolt, metal tubing, washers, and PVC tubing to make an inexpensive “shotgun” yagi, either 18” or 36” long. While his antenna shows between 12 and 15 dBi gain (which is impressive for such a simple design), it’s also quite large. When we returned from Portland, some members of our local group and I realized that, if we were careful, we could fit a full wavelength inside of a Pringles can (see Figure 5-4). This would show a reduced total gain, but would also make the entire antenna much more compact.
Figure 5-4. The complete Pringles can antenna.
This now infamous hack takes about an hour to construct. Table 5-1 shows a list of the parts you need to get started.
Table 5-1. Part list for a Pringles can waveguide
|
Part |
Approximate cost |
|---|---|
|
All-thread, 5 5/8” long, 1/8” OD |
$1.00 |
|
Two nylon lock nuts |
$0.10 |
|
Five 1” washers, 1/8” ID |
$0.10 |
|
6” aluminum tubing, 1/4” ID |
$0.75 |
|
A connector to match your radio pigtail (we used a female N connector) |
$3.00 |
|
One 1/2” piece of 12 gauge solid copper wire (we used ground wire from house electrical wiring) |
Negligible |
|
A tall Pringles can (any flavor, Ridges are optional) |
$1.50 |
|
Scrap plastic disc, 3” across (for example, another Pringles can ... |
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.