This article will describe how to make a very effective and easy to make wifi antenna if you have lost the OEM antenna that came with your card. Note: This was only tested with a D-Link DWL-AG530 card, your results may vary. This howto is intended to help you make an antenna for a card with a RP-SMA connector, but you can adapt it to fit your needs.
Steps
- Get a (large) paper clip, a Bic pen, and some electrical tape.
- Straighten the paper clip so that you have a straight piece of metal.
- Bend about 3/4" at one end of the paper clip into a right angle.
- Remove the ink cartridge from the pen, and clip off about 1/2" to 3/4" of the tubing that contains the ink. Careful, this can get a little messy. :)
- Place the cut-off piece of tubing over the bent-end of the paper clip, but make sure that the paper clip end stays about 1/16" in from the end of the tube.
- Take a lighter or other heat source and GENTLY heat the tubing that is around the paper clip. This will shrink the tubing and make a tight fit to the paper clip.
- Wrap the paper clip in electrical tape to prevent excess interference with the wireless signal.
- Insert the 'tubing' end of the paper clip into the antenna connector, seeing that the connector pin and the paper clip are pressed together inside the tubing, if you can get them to overlap, even better.
- That's it! You should have a fairly reliable wireless signal for no cost!! Try it out!!
