Easily add an external antenna for Wireless!
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 3:22 pm
Happy New Year!
So, this has come up several times on the forum and so it's time to share what I"ve learned. I bumped into this when I was looking for a PC Wireless card for an older ThinkPad (it has to be 16bit, not 32/Card Bus), and I was looking to buy a card that would work as a 32bit card I had worked on my son's 600E, but not my Japanese made 535E. So, I started searching and reading all I could. I noticed that there were some 16bit cards on eBay, but why were they so much more than the 32bit cards? At first I thought it was because of unavailability, then I found that many of these cards are bought because they are easy to modify and add an external antenna to. For example:
http://c0rtex.com/%7Ewill/antenna/
Anyway, some good and bad info on the particular card mentioned in the link above: That D-Link card has been upgraded to a "version 2" and is no longer available in the 16bit version. The new version looks slicker but is 32bit/CardBus. The good news is that if your computer could use this card, there is no need to do any soldering. If you carefully remove the antenna case, there is already a MMCX jack on the board! So, all have to do is cut a small opening in the antenna housing to get to it...then buy the correct shielded "pigtail" to go to your antenna. By the way, there are now several great antennas sold at CompUSA and other stores. I bought a Hawking Hi-Gain Antenna right before Christmas with a rebated price of about $20.00. If you look around on the web...eBay, you can find a coupler-connector to go from the end of this antenna's lead to fit just about any connection, including the MMCX connection found in the D-Link, above. Happy hunting...there are several PC cards out there that have the same, or similar set-up!
So, this has come up several times on the forum and so it's time to share what I"ve learned. I bumped into this when I was looking for a PC Wireless card for an older ThinkPad (it has to be 16bit, not 32/Card Bus), and I was looking to buy a card that would work as a 32bit card I had worked on my son's 600E, but not my Japanese made 535E. So, I started searching and reading all I could. I noticed that there were some 16bit cards on eBay, but why were they so much more than the 32bit cards? At first I thought it was because of unavailability, then I found that many of these cards are bought because they are easy to modify and add an external antenna to. For example:
http://c0rtex.com/%7Ewill/antenna/
Anyway, some good and bad info on the particular card mentioned in the link above: That D-Link card has been upgraded to a "version 2" and is no longer available in the 16bit version. The new version looks slicker but is 32bit/CardBus. The good news is that if your computer could use this card, there is no need to do any soldering. If you carefully remove the antenna case, there is already a MMCX jack on the board! So, all have to do is cut a small opening in the antenna housing to get to it...then buy the correct shielded "pigtail" to go to your antenna. By the way, there are now several great antennas sold at CompUSA and other stores. I bought a Hawking Hi-Gain Antenna right before Christmas with a rebated price of about $20.00. If you look around on the web...eBay, you can find a coupler-connector to go from the end of this antenna's lead to fit just about any connection, including the MMCX connection found in the D-Link, above. Happy hunting...there are several PC cards out there that have the same, or similar set-up!
