FREEWARE Radio Modem Signal Strenght Monitor

[somic]

A program to monitor the strenght of the signal (connection) of a Radio (Wireless) Modem

Recently I involved myself in the task to try to connect a modem in an isolated house, far from wireless civilization.
Basically I had to call the only cable phone line available in the "in the middle of nowhere house" from a laptop. The area was in a wood with a very week, if not null, signal.

There was to:
- find the way to extend the built in antenna of my modem to go around the house looking for the signal (rabdomante phase)
- understand how to built a decent antenna to get the most of the "so to find" signal (rabdomante tool)
- catch the variation of the signal with my erratic moves around the rooms.

This had to be done with a minimal (if not null) expense.
This is the result of the tests, the investigations and the programming activity, that is free (code and binary) for anyone to use and modify at his own pleasure (?:+) and risk ;D even because some code was taken from this forum.

http://www.semelinanno.com/downloads/rd ... trMon.html

Funny to remark that, after of some esperiments, I discovered that the small antenna integrated in the radio modem (removed and replaced with the home made ones) was equivalent to the home made parabolic "aluminium foil" device (see http://www.freeantennas.com), but at least I was able to walk around freely.

At today I still have to go to the "in the middle of nowhere house" to test the sw and the various antenna(s) build, but the most of the fun has already come...Stay tuned...

Any comments will be welcome.
Regards,
Somic

[blueznl]

Perhaps I overlooked it, but what is your primary aim for a signal? UMTS or?

[somic]

You didn't overlook, blueznl. This data is missing (by the way,thank you for remarking this). Such a verbose post (it was too late ... ) and details missing.
The frequency I was testing was GSM (i.e. 900 and 1800 MHz in Europe) with an stilo antenna of 12 cm
lenght = k * c / freq / 2 = 95% * (300 / 900 ) / 2 = 15.3 cm
and
lenght = k * c / freq / 2 = 95% * (300 / 1800) / 2 = 7.7 cm
then (15.3 + 7.7) / 2 = 11.5 cm approx.

However you can test any frequency, adapting the antenna (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UMTS_frequency_bands)
UMTS Frequencies (MHz) goes from 1900 to 2620, that means:
lenght = (300 / 1900 ) / 2 = 7.5 cm and lenght = (300 / 2600 ) / 2 = 5.5 cm that means approx. 6.5 cm antenna.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Somic