Drastic range increase. Temperature related?
Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:47 pm
I decided to raise my antenna by 3 meters to get the J-leg section above the rooftop on my metal garage to see if I could increase my range. I was thinking the metal roof could be deflecting the signal into outer space.
After raising the antenna I went on a test and the signal went dead about 1.6 to 3.2 km (1 to 2 miles) from my antenna which is usually where it went dead before. So at first I thought raising the antenna was a waste of time.
But to my amazement today on the way to work this morning the signal did not completely die until I hit 9 to 10 km (around 6 miles)! This is not a straight line, just an estimation because my job is 8 miles from my house.
So what has changed to drastically increase the range?
The software usually says the temperature of the card is around 48C when it’s around 21C in my garage. This morning it was quite cool for April and the garage temperature was between 7C to 10C as opposed to 21C when I did the test the other day. I did not check the temperature of the card or the wattage output before leaving for work. I have also removed the side panel of my computer for better heat dissipation.
I'm wondering if the cooler temperatures has increased the wattage?
I have one of those small refrigerators I keep drinks in out in my garage. It has a small freezer portion just large enough for a small ice tray. I’m wondering if I could seal the card from moisture and place it inside the freezer portion to drop the temperature down below freezing? Or just mount the card in the refrigerator itself which I keep just slightly above freezing (1 to 2C).
The bad thing about sitting the card on the evaporator coil would it might ice over and damage the card. If I place it away from the evaporator coil I suppose I could place it in a project box and seal it and place some desiccant in it to absorb moisture.
Any thoughts about this?
After raising the antenna I went on a test and the signal went dead about 1.6 to 3.2 km (1 to 2 miles) from my antenna which is usually where it went dead before. So at first I thought raising the antenna was a waste of time.
But to my amazement today on the way to work this morning the signal did not completely die until I hit 9 to 10 km (around 6 miles)! This is not a straight line, just an estimation because my job is 8 miles from my house.
So what has changed to drastically increase the range?
The software usually says the temperature of the card is around 48C when it’s around 21C in my garage. This morning it was quite cool for April and the garage temperature was between 7C to 10C as opposed to 21C when I did the test the other day. I did not check the temperature of the card or the wattage output before leaving for work. I have also removed the side panel of my computer for better heat dissipation.
I'm wondering if the cooler temperatures has increased the wattage?
I have one of those small refrigerators I keep drinks in out in my garage. It has a small freezer portion just large enough for a small ice tray. I’m wondering if I could seal the card from moisture and place it inside the freezer portion to drop the temperature down below freezing? Or just mount the card in the refrigerator itself which I keep just slightly above freezing (1 to 2C).
The bad thing about sitting the card on the evaporator coil would it might ice over and damage the card. If I place it away from the evaporator coil I suppose I could place it in a project box and seal it and place some desiccant in it to absorb moisture.
Any thoughts about this?
