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If you are looking for an inexpensive way to increase the signal range of your home WiFi Router/Access point, The Register has written about a small UK company has put together a parabolic antenna kit for £10. "Enter the Flatenna, a DIY parabolic reflector which when punched out of its cardboard surround, assembled, mounted on your access point's external antenna and - crucially - turned to face your PC, will yield the boost to range or signal strength, its maker claims.
Indeed, add a second £10 Flatenna to your PC's aerial, and you could "achieve five times the [usual] range under the right conditions", Tritium says. Essentially, the foil-backed cardboard add-on acts as a parabolic reflector, allowing you to maximise the signal in your chosen direction."
Actually, I found 3 different sets of plans online for similar antennas and really the results weren't all that great. I am looking for the links so you can try this at home too. Whether the Flatenna is better or not is yet to be seen.
That's cool! I assume it kills signal in the other direction though? It would be very cool if I could boost signal greatly in one direction (The deck) But still not kill it too badly in any other directions.
That's neat though!
Hey, I'm happy to do it.
If you build one, just keep us posted on how well it works for you.
I built the parabolic antennas similar to the model you see below:
Depending on how you turned them they did seem to boost the signal a little bit, but it was more focused, so I would actually lose range if I moved from say the recliner to the couch. The recliner might be up by a notch, but the couch would be below average.
The plans for these can be found here If you build some, let us know what materials you use and the results you get!!!
Linear Mode
