Re: Need some antenna advice (for my CM15A, of course)

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <ydobon@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> >>Anyway, lots of folks have put on better antennas and elevated the
> >>unit (to the attic) and run long serial cable to the PC.
> >
> > I'll bet that moving the unit to a central location and using a long
serial
> > cable is probably the best *bang* for the buck.
>
> You'd lose your ante.

I lost her in 1981!  :-)

Well, I'd certainly have to defer to your deep knowledge in this area, but
IIRC, the OP's not the only poster that has tried antenna modifications that
failed.  I have some dead TM751s that were sacrificed to the antenna gods in
the same pursuit. <sigh>  I wish I had tried relocating them centrally
before I hacked them up since fine-tuning antenna and unit placement seemed
to solve most of the problems I was having.  Ironically, it was your
messages about reducing endless dims that led me to the solution to my RF
range problem.

http://forums.accessx10.com/showthread.php?%20%20s=&threadid=88

Has an interesting (although limited) poll on the success of antenna mods.

There are also lots of messages and photos that are of interest.  Here's
someone else, who found, as I did, that high and horizontal were the two
most important things to consider:

"While digging deep into some other homeautomation boards, I found One more
tip for everyone to try! I can't remember where I read it but one person
setup their module (think It was a TM751,someone else used a cm15a) as high
in the house as they could and had the antena horizontal This improved
everyones reception that posted. One poster stated they could recieve
signals from a palm pad anywhere on their 3/4 acre lot. So why not try it
whith the cm15a set it horizonal with the antena pointed away from the unit
also in a horizonal postion and as high as it can be mounted in the house."

In terms of simplicity, lowest cost and easiest reversability, trying to
locate the transceiver in the best place possible still seems a good, safe
bet for the average X-10 enthusiast.  When I mounted mine high and
horizontal, I could finally activate the porch lights from the driveway,
something the little keychain remote could never do before.

--
Bobby G.