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Solderblob instead of swivel joint equals 9 db gain? Huh.

T

Tom Wells

Laptop wireless card has a 3G antenna that sticks out at a 90 degree angle, then 3/4 inch of plastic, a double swivel joint,
then a 3 inch flexi-whip. Connections in this position have always been -109 db avg.

Swivel joint took a hit and to be repaired with a fine strand wiring overwound on the joint, and flowed with solder.
Everything came up 9 db avg. Even when new it never did this well.

Makes me wonder about a lot of modern RF design.
 
Connectors and adaptors (like the swivel joints) will attenuate the signal.
Even at 450 MHz, each connector or adaptor could give you as much as a 3dB signal loss.
There is more loss at higher frequencies.
Congratulations on your repair. The wireless card will perform better than ever.
 
SRP said:
Sounds to me like it was poor quality manufacturing, not bad RF design.
Click to expand...

But in this age of Edward Demming thinking, the Toyota methodology or whatever your favorite buzzword, GOOD DESIGN (RF, cars, toys, whatever) is a design that prevents the current standards of manufacturing quality from having that kind of effect. If 1,000 pieces out of 1,000 manufactured do not meet the standard, then the design coupled with the manufacturing process are both wrong.

Now, I shall climb down off my soapbox, step to the edge of the village green, and barf.

(written by a former member of a TQM / Lean Design / Process Improvement team.)
 
I don't think it was bad manufacturing.

The swivel joint was nice and tight until it got in an altercation with the edge of my briefcase.
A previous antenna worked without any degradation in 4 years before I turned it in to my employer at the end of that job.

I expect any non-solid mechanical joint to have loss.
At any RF frequency, discontinuity in transmission lines equals loss.
And the higher in frequency, the more likely a loss such connections present to RF.

I'm just wondering why a swivel joint was considered more valuable to the end design than the 9 db gain of a fixed whip,
( which still can rotate through about 200 degrees of a circle on the coaxial jack).

Before I made the repair I thought the discontinuity of the solder blob was going to result in a loss.
 
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