Antennas: one-way or two-way?

Ok, I am testing out various WAPs and when I asked Proxim tech support
about adding an external antenna to the AP-2000 I am testing, I was
told the following:

"Adding an antenna to increase signal range won't help because you are
using laptops, and unless you have equally strong booster antennas
attached to the laptops, they will be able to 'hear' the WAP but the
WAP won't be able to 'hear' the laptops b/c their signal won't be
strong enough to make it back to the WAP."

In diagram mode, he was saying this:

Laptop -------->
signal <-------------------WAP signal
w/ antenna

This sounds nuts to me-- is it in fact correct? Is an external
antenna for a WAP a send-only booster and not a send AND receive
booster?

Many thx,


Charlie

Charlie <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Ok, I am testing out various WAPs and when I asked Proxim tech support
> about adding an external antenna to the AP-2000 I am testing, I was
> told the following:
>
> "Adding an antenna to increase signal range won't help because you are
> using laptops, and unless you have equally strong booster antennas
> attached to the laptops, they will be able to 'hear' the WAP but the
> WAP won't be able to 'hear' the laptops b/c their signal won't be
> strong enough to make it back to the WAP."
>
Entirely bogus.
Antennas are symmetrical.
They aid reception as much as transmission (in any given direction).
This comment is valid for devices that boost power (or have high power)
without boosting sensitivity.

Charlie wrote:

> "Adding an antenna to increase signal range won't help because you are
> using laptops, and unless you have equally strong booster antennas
> attached to the laptops, they will be able to 'hear' the WAP but the
> WAP won't be able to 'hear' the laptops b/c their signal won't be
> strong enough to make it back to the WAP."
>

That guy's full of it. The vast majority of antennas work equally well in
both directions.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Charlie wrote:
> "Adding an antenna to increase signal range won't help because you are
> using laptops, and unless you have equally strong booster antennas
> attached to the laptops, they will be able to 'hear' the WAP but the
> WAP won't be able to 'hear' the laptops b/c their signal won't be
> strong enough to make it back to the WAP."

There's been a mistunderstanding. Transmission/reception effects from
antennas are basically reciprocal, although (yes, folks, this *is* an
oversimplification) there are circumstances under which a shortened antenna
will transmit better than it receives, so in a sense, what you were told
was the reverse of the truth.
--
John Miller, N4VU

Who will take care of the world after you're gone?

John Miller wrote:

> there are circumstances under which a shortened antenna
> will transmit better than it receives,

There are also some antennas that are fine for receive, but not transmit.
However they're not common.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

James Knott <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<qcZLb.84464$(E-Mail Removed) t.cable.rogers.com>...
> John Miller wrote:
>
> > there are circumstances under which a shortened antenna
> > will transmit better than it receives,
>
> There are also some antennas that are fine for receive, but not transmit.
> However they're not common.

Many thx to all of you for confirming that this was a fundamentally flawed answer.


Charlie

Charlie wrote:

> Many thx to all of you for confirming that this was a fundamentally flawed
> answer.
>

Not to mention a fundamentally flawed "tech".

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Charlie wrote:

> Many thx to all of you for confirming that this was
> a fundamentally flawed answer.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Nice euphemism for "bullshit." :-)

--
John Miller
My email address: domain, n4vu.com; username, jsm

Humor in the Court:
Q. And who is this person you are speaking of?
A. My ex-widow said it.

James Knott wrote:
>
> John Miller wrote:
>
> > there are circumstances under which a shortened antenna
> > will transmit better than it receives,
>
> There are also some antennas that are fine for receive, but not transmit.
> However they're not common.

Generally that is when they rely on some external phenomena for
performance enhancement, such as ground scatter, ie Fishbones,
Beveridges...

Ken Kirkby