Re: X10 questions

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

The Alien <Someone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>>#2: Cut a piece of stiff wire (e.g. from a coat hanger) ~18" long and tape
>>it horizontally to the wall at the top of the Slimline switches. You will
>>see a big improvement in their range.
>>
>
>Now how the heck did someone discover that neat little trick?!

It just popped into my head one day when I was upgrading the foil liner in
my helmet. ;)

Actually, there were two people (whose names I cannot recall) who posted
here about this. One said he had gotten better range from a transmitter that
was suspended by a length of wire and another suggested a half wavelength
wire saying it was a parasitic element a la a Yagi antenna.

I tested it and found it did indeed work quite well. One of the BX24-AHT
users (Larry Nielsen) had access to a lab and measured a 10dB increase in
all directions. Larry also reported over 200' range with an eggbeater
antenna and wideband preamp on the receiver end. (I can no longer walk well
enough to conduct long range tests.)

The wire can also be vertical and one BX24-AHT user put two small holes
behind the transmitter and put the wire behind the drywall for higher SAF.