Hi All,
I've been searching for high gain directional antennas for 2.4 GHz AREDN that are not sector antennas and so far all I have found are these parabolic dishes. On top of that it looks like these wont cover the frequency range we need (except for the last one.) Any recomendations for high gain directional antennas that won't break the bank?
http://flyteccomputers.com/product/572/L-Com-HG2424EG-NF-24-GHz-24-dBi-D...
https://www.balticnetworks.com/tp-link-2-4ghz-24dbi-parabolic-grid-anten...
https://www.balticnetworks.com/laird-24dbi-2-4ghz-wire-grid-nf-pigtail.html
https://www.balticnetworks.com/laird-hd-series-24-dbi-2-4ghz-wire-grid-n...
https://www.balticnetworks.com/laird-hd-series-24dbi-2-4ghz-die-cast-nf....
Thanks and 73,
Augustine
W8AWT
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Dish antennas will tend to perform better than grid antennas (better F/B isolation being a key factor) however they come at a cost of higher wind load. If you can spare the wind load go with a parabolic dish over a grid. Also I've never seen a MIMO grid.
Very few antennas for wifi gear are actually speced to below 2400mhz, however we are going only 10MHz down below, there is a chance that the antenna will not handle it if its some complex highly tuned design, but the more common parabolic shapes have a high likely hood of still being within an acceptable of 2:1 VSWR . Unfortunately very few hams (including myself) have the tools required to measure this for sure.
One of the most common used for long links is the RocketDish which is sold by Ubiquiti: RD-2G24 https://www.streakwave.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=RD%2D2G24&eq=&Tp=&o1=0 it is speced at 2.3GHz-2.7GHz so one doesn't even need to worry about it being out of spec. Its one of the most common used dishes for directional links.
Those parabolic dishes are about two feet by three feet, and the feedhorn and it's reflector should line up with the ribs in the dish. They were extensively used for WISP use in the 2000s, and the common reflector has been used on several other bands, effective or not. You can now buy them with 450 MHz and 915 MHz feedhorns. They are single polarization antennas, so if you have a Bullet or Picostation, they will work for the purpose. In 2000, we were using two of those dishes (sold at the time as 23 dBi dishes, but we suspected they were 22 and 21 dBi dishes only a year or two earlier) and 0.5 W amplifiers to shoot 2.4 GHz 21 miles at full rate for 802.11b.
If you're looking for good parabolic dishes for AREDN gear, you'll be pleased when the LHG-2 and LDF-2 series devices get the AREDN load figured out.
If you look at this post you'll notice they're all the same board that transmit at 28dBm and have a built-in 10dBi antenna in the board, which is meant to be aimed at a parabolic reflective dish:
https://www.arednmesh.org/content/mikrotik-xl-support
The LHG-2nD-XL has a large parabolic reflector which only adds 21dB gain, but that's good for 2.4GHz
However if you want to crank out some serious directionality you can get the LDF-2 and attach it appropriately to a 39inch offset dish (like those used for satellite TV) you can get 28dBi out of those.
So I can't wait until the LHG-2/LDF-2 series board gets finished. It's gonna be great for those applications that need PtP or PtMP links in 2.4GHz.
-Damon K9CQB