Just got this combo myself. Can't wait to try it. Rather than using the ugly plastic antennas I want to use the built in ones in my Mac Pro case. Will it still work?[/QUOTE said:
Tekkboi the short answer is maybe. The long answer is this:
An antenna is not just a random piece of metal. It is a metallic object with an electrical length that is tuned to the resonance of a particular frequency or frequency range. Often times with very specific shapes designed to give the pickup pattern very specific characteristics. With laptops we're probably not too concerned with pickup pattern because it's most likely either a simple dipole or a loop. What we ARE concerned with however are a few other things that are very important. We're concerned with the incredibly short wavelength of microwaves at this frequency. Microwaves are tiny and that makes creating a properly measured antenna very difficult by hand. So if you use an antenna from a card using the same standard you should still be fine. However we're still not done, there is the aspect of nearby metal which can become a parasitic element or a reflector. In other words metal doesn't have to be touching the antenna to become part of it. I would assume that is taken into account in the engineering of the device. Maybe I give them too much credit. Also, since you'll probably be connecting this, and this is your number one most likely point of failure, make sure that you either have a proper feedline that matches your antennas impedance and the wireless cards impedance, or that if you aren't, and you're soddering this together, make sure that it's a good joint, again, know the impedance of your line. Also, long feed line runs create ridiculous amounts of loss at microwave frequencies (wifi). Hopefully I was helpful.
