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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

Pirouette Can Waveguide

Build a simpler, higher-gain antenna-in-a-can.

Since the Pringles can story was published, I have received a phenomenal amount of email from people who have tried it for themselves. While some people simply enjoyed making a recycled antenna out of a piece of trash, many people told me “you know, that’s not a bad design, but some friends and I found a better way to do it...”. One such person was Gregory Rehm. He took my Pringles can design, and another coffee can design that I was working on, and pitted them against his own designs (including a 40 oz stew can) in a Wireless Shoot-Out Battle Royale. His experimentation and excellent analysis is documented on his web site at http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html. It is very entertaining to read (and in case you’re too filled with suspense to wait until you can check his site, his stew can won by a mile).

As it turns out, it is much simpler to make a tin can waveguide antenna than to bother with cutting pipe and spacing washers apart on all-thread. He has an excellent how-to posted online at http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html, complete with photos, diagrams, and formulae.

Another common can that approaches the ideal diameter for 2.4 GHz is the Pepperidge Farm Pirouette can (see Figure 5-5). It makes a much simpler, sturdier, and more efficient antenna than a Pringles antenna, and the best part is, you get to eat the cookies!

Figure 5-5. The Pirouette “cantenna.”

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596005598Catalog PageErrata