WhoHoo!!! NEW ANTENNAS INSTALLED!!

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 8:37 pm

Hi! I got my 3 antennas installed tonight! Here are a few pix. Sorry about the quality, but it's raining and dark put. Tomorrow I will see what happens on getting new pix. What do you think?

Antenna1: 802.11 WiFi
Antenna2: 800MHz Motorola Spectra
Antenna3: 450MHz Icom Dual Bander (Temp 800MHz Antenna on it though)
Antenna4: Tiny XMD antenna (cant really see)

[img]http://www.woollum.com/gallery/Brett's% ... 0_4258.JPG[/img]

UPDATED:
Click To See Pix

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 9:50 pm

ahhh, nothing like putting holes in steel for the old antenna farm.

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:00 am

Yeahh - I actually had a friend help me do this. He works for a company that is contracted to do the installs for MANY of the local agencies. So a little help by a pro with the right tools was great!

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:29 am

Well you only got three so far, you need at least a dozen up there.

Seriously though, the install does look nice.

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:33 am

Yeah - soooommmeeedaayyy I'll have to add some more when the need arises!

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:52 am

So when you posting pics of the new puter installed in there?

Would like to see how that all worked out for ya.

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:06 am

Good Idea - Gimme a second!

EDIT: COMPUTER PIX!!!

http://woollum.com/gallery/index.php?li ... r/Computer

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:05 pm

I noticed in the second picture that there is a half height plate behind the card. They are including the half height plate with that card now?

The last time i bought one it didnt come with the extra plate.

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:11 pm

Yeah - the other half height bracket came with the PCI card.

I'm really pretty excited now! It's up and running great - it turns on and off automatically with the ignition like it should, and sounds AWESOME!

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:14 pm

Your really making me want one! lol

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:17 pm

Yeah this might not help but you kinda have to see it to get the whole idea of it. I still haven't even copied my DVDs to the HD yet! LOL It's AWESOME! I haven't tested the distance of the Phantom antenna yet - maybe in a few. I don't have the best antenna inside, its an 8dB white onmi on a mag mount with 17' or so of coax going thru an adapter and onto the router. It will most likely work better when I make that better... -BW

E911EMT · Post by **E911EMT** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:42 pm

The antennas are not seperated enoght. but looks good

wa2zdy · Post by **wa2zdy** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:42 pm

E911EMT wrote:The antennas are not seperated enoght. but looks good

A quarter wavelength separation is considered the minimum to avoid having two antennas interact with each other. That would be on the lowest frequency used by any antenna of course. Thus a UHF and an 800MHz antenna need a minimum of six inches of separation - six inches being a quarter wave at the lowest frequency: UHF.

This is not to be confused with isolation such as is needed between the input and output of a repeater. This is merely the distance needed to avoid one antenna acting as if there is just another hunk of metal in its space.

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 10:08 pm

They look far enough part to me. I've seen professional installers put em so close that they slap each other when going over bumps.

Not that its ok to do that, but just that i have seen it before!

thebigphish · Post by **thebigphish** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 12:13 pm

Mrbmw99 wrote:I'm really pretty excited now! It's up and running great - it turns on and off automatically with the ignition like it should, and sounds AWESOME!

how exactly did you set up the powersupply for that? Do you have a logic delay of a couple of seconds to prevent the starter current from undervolting the unit? Is it truly ign sense? what about the shutdown procedure? is it safe-shutdown or is it just "pull the plug" style shutdown? what about ACC power? can you use it w/o the keys?
lots of questions, but i want to know what you did

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 12:18 pm

They make controllers, some call them power sequencers that is responsible for turning on and off the computer. It connects to the motherboard in place of the power switch, so it is a soft off via the power switch. Just like tapping the front panel power switch and then the computer shuts down on its own.

An example:

http://www.mp3car.com/store/index.php?c ... 76d5ee3113

thebigphish · Post by **thebigphish** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 8:24 pm

oh that's nice.

it's the PC friendly version of our sequencers. (guess i should have figured they would make somehting for PC carrying cars - DOH!)

that's really nice.

Hightower · Post by **Hightower** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:32 pm

Great job, and thanks for posting the photos

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 11:35 am

This is the unit I used to power the computer (survives engine cranking too so to PC doesnt reboot) and control it's on/off: http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_inf ... 76d5ee3113

The antennas are all 10 inches away from eachother. I very rarely transmit, so if there was to be a little signal loss that'd be ok with me.. The only one that transmits regularly is the 2.4GHz Phantom... -BW

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 5:59 pm

I drove around today with the new antenna system on the truck. I picked up a whole crapload of wireless access points! WOW! Look below for an cool mapping of this. -BW

EDIT: Guess which one is mine

. That's right! The BIGGEST one and the little one below it! (also open too

)

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sun Jan 30, 2005 7:19 pm

LOL, i should get gps for my laptop and drive around a nearby town. You would be shocked to see that map!

They have a internet provider that pushes wireless networking to laptop owners, and with it being a college town there is plenty of students with laptops.

Hence a lot of wireless router users. I even noticed one bank and one open access point in the hospital. Yikes!

Mrbmw99 · Post by **Mrbmw99** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 1:36 pm

Quite a few are open. I didn't try to connect to the green ones, although I'm sure I could have. -BW