Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 2:57 Post subject: Cantenna is rather omnidirectional?
I live across the street from campus, so I built a cantenna to get on the school wifi. It is an aluminum tube 3.25" ID, 1/8" wall, and 18" long. It has an aluminum end plate welded on it. The element is 1/8" copper, which is turned down on the bottom to fit the N-type chassis connector. I have a pigtail going to this wifi receiver:
The thing is that inside my house on my own wifi, I get the same signal strength regardless of whether it is pointing at the router or not. It also appears the be the same speed as the wifi antenna in my laptop (3.8 Mbps). I can go about 300' before I can't connect, although it keeps the same signal strength almost that far. At 500' I lose the network completely. Once I am that far away, the direction matters, but up until that point I can point is wherever and it does not appear to make a difference.
Can anyone here see anything wrong? I was told that increasing the length of the can would increase signal strength and directionality, but mine seems to not obey this rule. Any input is appreciated!