Somewhere in these pages I read a few months ago about using a high gain, very directional antenna to extend one's more remote weather site back to the router and the rest of the house/world without having to run CAT5 long distances, revert to a microwave link (well, this is sort of one but in a more affordable way) and enjoy the added benefit of having the shed/shop/mancave/outbuilding also enjoy a good WiFi signal to cut down on cell phone link charges.
As most others, I have a WiFi router, which works pretty good around the house and close yard. A few hundred feet away I have a shop/shed where a lot of stuff goes on, and I'd like to extend the signal out there without digging in rock to bury a CAT5 cable. Others here have commented that a highly directional antenna would help a lot, and I finally got a nice little Yagi for that purpose, and a NetGear range extender. It alone doesn't quite do the trick, so I need to attach the Yagi to one of the three antenna connections.
The Yagi has an "N" type connector on it, but the best I can remember someone called the screw on connectors something like a 'reverse' SMA or such.
Almost anything is available through Google or eBay or Amazon searches, so rather than order a lot of stuff that is wrong, and keep it and eat the cost or try to return it, I'm hoping one of the experienced folks here can tell me what I should look for when I want to make the Extender end of the cable screw into an antenna attachment plug. Is it SMA? Is it that mysterious 'reverse' SMA (how is there something other than a male or a female SMA?)
By the way, one thing that I did find out was how the extender works with a high gain antenna, and trying to figure out to which one I should attach the high gain to. Apparently all three antennas listen, then rebroadcast, then listen and rebroadcast. Otherwise if there were just one input and say two outputs, how would one know which to attach to? One in and two out. And I wondered how it could listen on one antenna and simultaneously rebroadcast, which would require a duplexer or something similar. Apparently, from what I was told and I could be wrong, is that all antennas listen, then pause and use the same antenna to broadcast, then listen again, back and forth. Sort of like the old police radios where one person talks, then releases the push to talk button, and then the other person. Not like the live two way conversation on a landline telephone. But I digress. If this ISN'T right, I'd sure like to hear how this works.
Well, thanks for all the help previously, and now before it gets cold up here I'd like to finish my station and have it on the air for happy fall and winter use of solid connections to my shed.
So please, if someone knows or has been down this path and has a connector name for me to specify, I'd really appreciate it.
Dale
PS, Happy Extending!