Not sure I could explain it perfectly but the technical term is called “Standing Wave”. However, I’m having trouble understanding why not using an antenna would burn out the transmitter. I hope that helps a bit without providing links, or whatever… Please research.Īs per dpaul, I understand that wireless devices do not need an antenna, so given a strong enough signal, any wireless “radiation” is able to reach the card. If the antenna is “hidden” behind the PC, then the metal case is reflecting the signal towards the back. Expose and orient the antenna in such a way that provides the best line-of-sight path to the AP. In your case, the PC’s would perform much better if you add a three-foot, or six-foot antenna cable between the back of the card and the provided antenna. The case would be a “reflector” to ground, where only partial transmission would be possible. Such an antenna won’t work properly INSIDE a METAL case. LegoMan indicated that he has seen some HP’s that include internal antennas under the PLASTIC covering. If the WiFi card is an “add-on”, like your post suggests, then there is no internal antenna.

Generally, antennas (antennae, if you are not in the USA) have three elements: Director, Radiator and Reflector. No antenna (or dummy load) and smoke appears…

This prevents radiation leakage from the amplifier/transmitter. In service mode, a technician uses a “dummy load”, which is simply a 50 Ohm resister soldered into an antenna connector, without an “element”. When working on an AP, there is a “service mode”. Use speakers of the wrong impedance and the amplifier will blow (over time, or in short order). It is likely at half-power, or so.Īll transmitters (amplifiers) require a “load”, “impedance”, “resistance”, whatever, in order to work properly.Ĭonsider an audio amp: Power it up long enough without speakers and it will blow. This is done by the manufacturer so that you don’t ruin the transmitter. Your WiFi card transmitter is likely to be set to 40% ~ 60% power.

It may be a bit too technical for my understanding, and I guess it’s not crucial for best practices (Ill just always make sure to have an antenna attached) but I do like to understand what’s going on/why things should be done a certain way. The transmitter requires a 50 Ohm load.Īs per dpaul, I understand that wireless devices do not need an antenna, so given a strong enough signal, any wireless “radiation” is able to reach the card. The “radiation” is maintaining the connection however, there is no “load” on the transmitter, so it will eventually burn out due to infinite ohms load. There are no internal WiFi antennas in those PC’s.

Ohm tuning fork frequency