Wifi router antennas

I thought I’d see what I got out of EZNEC for modeling the three antennas on the wifi router. I treated each of them as single wires at 2.452 GHz about 1m off the ground (not the floor). Each wire was 8 cm long (0.654 lambda) spaced 8 cm apart. Radiation pattern is directed perpendicularly to the plane containing the antennas, so I have two of them pointed down (the wifi router is mounted to the side of the desk) and one pointed off to the side (there’s a power strip that gets in the way of it pointing down like the others).

EZNEC Wifi antenna
EZNEC Wifi antenna

After reading through some of the original documentation for NEC learning about the somewhat arcane input format (like MCNP, it can be pretty confusing at first), I’m liking how EZNEC simplifies and hides some of the complexity, but is still accessible if needed. When I start getting into building antennas, I might have to get a copy of it.

New antenna model

I was able to find some EZNEC model files for a G5RV antenna including the feed line and tried to modify it to match my current antenna setup. 40m and 80m are pretty much the same, but the radiation patterns for 20m and 10m become a little more complex compared to my initial model.

10m

EZNEC G5RV 10m
EZNEC G5RV 10m

20m

EZNEC G5RV 20m
EZNEC G5RV 20m

Here’s EZNEC’s SWR plot

EZNEC G5RV SWR plot
EZNEC G5RV SWR plot

Modeling the antenna

Using the EZNEC ARRL version that comes in the ARRL Antenna book, I attempted to create a simple model of the antenna as it’s currently set up.

Using a tape measure and some very rough estimating, I came up with this plot of how the antenna is set up, without the ladder line in the middle (haven’t figured out how to add the feed line yet).

EZNRC antenna diagram
EZNRC antenna diagram
EZNRC antenna diagram XY
EZNRC antenna diagram XY

The far field plots EZNEC gives me look like this

80m

EZNEC far field plot 80m
EZNEC far field plot 80m

40m

EZNEC far field plot 40m
EZNEC far field plot 40m

20m

EZNEC far field plot 20m
EZNEC far field plot 20m

10m

EZNEC far field plot 10m
EZNEC far field plot 10m

The antenna model is pretty simple and nowhere near perfect. I’m probably missing a lot by not having the feed line included. Based on these rough simulations though, it looks like I’m warming a lot of clouds (ham speak for when your antenna is sending radiation mostly straight up).