Pocketability is actually excelent. Remove it and it pockets like a pen.
Where nerd points really kick in is when you detach the antenna, insert a 6' cable, then mount the antenna bit on a satellite TV parabolic reflector to get WiFi from a mile away.
How does that work then? explain
Well, you unplug the dongle/antenna, it straightens out and becomes pen-shaped. The antenna is on a hinge - it can either stick straight out or (relatively) follow the contour of the Pandora lid up (should on the Pyra as well).
Though you probably meant the 2nd use I mentioned. Essentially it is this:
https://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/
It works - likely not -quite- as well as the bi-quad by placing the dipole antenna in the dish's 'sweet spot' where the lund normally mounts.
So that you don't have to hold the Pandora in that spot, a type N extension cable helps:
Code:
https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-RP-SMA-Female-Antenna-TEW-L102/dp/B071Y7FXWW
One key thing in aiming - satellite dishes are a parabolic
section. They are only one side of a parabolic dish. If the destination target is straight out in front of you, they need to be seemingly nearly pointed at the ground. The common satellite TV reflectors only comprises about 1/4 of a spun parabolic shape. They're highly directional - but the direction is not what you might expect. Distance and position of the antenna to the reflector is pretty critical as well. I have a few satellite dish reflectors that I've fiddled around with. Bodging an 802.11 dongle & antenna together with a commercial satellite reflector, dowels and duct tape can be done as a fun experiment, but is, quite frankly from my experience, a royal pain to get 'just right'. No, I didn't take pictures. It was not 'elegant'.
In the end if I started over I would just purchase something like this to plug into that little USB dongle:
Code:
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Directional-Parabolic-Connector-TL-ANT2424B/dp/B003CFATOW
That might seem expensive, but it would be worth it to not deal with trying to strap junk together at critical angles and positions. The metal satellite dish reflectors are heavy enough to be difficult - and the aiming is critical enough to make re-building and re-positioning it annoying. All said and done, my experiment with trying to use satellite dishes to do this cost -more- than it would to simply buy one of those.
Alternatively you could build your own Yagi and plug it into the dongle. A cantenna would work too.
Building antennas can be fun. Shortly after the US switched from NTSC to ATSC for TV, I built an 8' long Yagi UHF antenna out of an 8' long 2" wooden dowel cross drilled at precise distances with passive/parasitic precisely cut to length 1/4" aluminum elements (and a reflector) along it's length and custom bent 1/4" aluminum rod into a compact UHF loop for the active element. I took it and a 7" battery powered TV and 36 AA batteries backpacking (yeah - heavy). I was able to pull down a solid ATSC TV signal from 78 miles away - but only after the sun went down. During daylight hours interference from the sun caused more noise than it could handle. But hey, we got to watch the football game by a campfire miles from the nearest outlet. Practical? No - wasn't meant to be. With the parasitic and reflective elements knocked out it made a good walking staff - though the active element still connected into the setup looked kind of quasi-religious Ankh-like.
I have toyed with the idea of using adhesive gold foil for parasitic elements to build a VERY short yagi directional antenna on or in the lid of a Pandora. Where this idea comes up short is in trying to figure out where/how to place the active element. For a pun, the
gain would not be worth it.
The point, though, is that little WiFi dongle with the removable Type N connected dipole antenna (or other devices with antenna connectors) opens up a world of nerd fun far beyond it's $5-$10 component price.
