4 ms·

I think the biggest take-away, that especially Hollywood needs to take note of, is what everyone gets wrong -- you don't point a whip antenna at something to ge

I think the biggest take-away, that especially Hollywood needs to take note of, is what everyone gets wrong -- you don't point a whip antenna at something to get the highest gain, you want to be at a right angle to the source. Remote controls often have the antenna oriented the wrong way for distance/gain, and I've seen people orient wifi router antennas to "point" to usage areas, etc.

nerdbaggy 7y ago
It all depends what the polar patterns look like for the access point. In a omni directional antenna being 90 degrees is generally the best because it puts out a donut shaped pattern. But with a directional antenna you want to be inline with it, or whatever the direction is pointing.
katmannthree 7y ago
If by remote control you mean TV remotes, those usually work via an IR LED. The radiation pattern is pretty much what you'd get with visible light, i.e. the highest intensity zone is directly in front of the LED.
- chrisseaton 7y ago
  > If by remote control you mean TV remotes... They don’t mean that.
  - katmannthree 7y ago
    Do you know what they meant? Absent any context I don't think ``remote control'' has another well known device. I'm assuming that the person I responded to doesn't have a background in this stuff as this is was their first introduction to antenna radiation patterns.
    - chrisseaton 7y ago
      Not sure if you’re joking or trolling, but for example ‘remote control car’, ‘remote control helicopter’, ‘remote control boat’, ‘remote control bomb disposal robot.’ The handset you use to control them is itself called the ‘remote control.’ That's what they mean.
      - katmannthree 7y ago
        No, I'm serious. Thank you for explaining. I've heard people talk about tv remotes as ``remote controls'' several orders of magnitude more times than RC gear. I've never seen someone have to reorient their RC transmitter to get a better signal. Modern RC airplane/car/helicopter/boat transmitters have multiple fixed antennas (as do the receivers) and have for many years (since people switched from 50MHz radios to 2.4GHz spread spectrum radios). The range is long enough that it you'll generally lose sight of your vehicle before you lose the radio connection.
jacquesm 7y ago
Depends on the polarization. You want the antenna at 90 degrees to the direction of the field. A vertical whip radiates horizontally, a horizontal whip radiates vertically! The reason you usually put them vertical is so that you can use the Earth as a ground plane, leading to less wasted power. A horizontally positioned whip antenna will lose a fair bit of power to the ground.

nerdbaggy 7y ago

It all depends what the polar patterns look like for the access point. In a omni directional antenna being 90 degrees is generally the best because it puts out a donut shaped pattern. But with a directional antenna you want to be inline with it, or whatever the direction is pointing.

katmannthree 7y ago

If by remote control you mean TV remotes, those usually work via an IR LED. The radiation pattern is pretty much what you'd get with visible light, i.e. the highest intensity zone is directly in front of the LED.

chrisseaton 7y ago
> If by remote control you mean TV remotes... They don’t mean that.
- katmannthree 7y ago
  Do you know what they meant? Absent any context I don't think ``remote control'' has another well known device. I'm assuming that the person I responded to doesn't have a background in this stuff as this is was their first introduction to antenna radiation patterns.
  - chrisseaton 7y ago
    Not sure if you’re joking or trolling, but for example ‘remote control car’, ‘remote control helicopter’, ‘remote control boat’, ‘remote control bomb disposal robot.’ The handset you use to control them is itself called the ‘remote control.’ That's what they mean.
    - katmannthree 7y ago
      No, I'm serious. Thank you for explaining. I've heard people talk about tv remotes as ``remote controls'' several orders of magnitude more times than RC gear. I've never seen someone have to reorient their RC transmitter to get a better signal. Modern RC airplane/car/helicopter/boat transmitters have multiple fixed antennas (as do the receivers) and have for many years (since people switched from 50MHz radios to 2.4GHz spread spectrum radios). The range is long enough that it you'll generally lose sight of your vehicle before you lose the radio connection.

jacquesm 7y ago

Depends on the polarization. You want the antenna at 90 degrees to the direction of the field. A vertical whip radiates horizontally, a horizontal whip radiates vertically! The reason you usually put them vertical is so that you can use the Earth as a ground plane, leading to less wasted power. A horizontally positioned whip antenna will lose a fair bit of power to the ground.