Could a large magnet positivly effect a wireless signal?

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

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I have a wireless card in my PC connecting to a wireless router. No matter where I place the antenna for the card, I get about 30% signal strength.

When I place the antenna on my PC speakers, it jumps to 50%. I have fiddled around a bit with positions, but no matter what, my signal jumps up by 20% when placed on the speaker.

If I switch the power to the speaker off, it drops be 20%
 
The router is in another building and on the opposite end of the building. About 6 walls in between. As well as a garden. Im about 50m away from the router.
 
w1z4rd said:
I have a wireless card in my PC connecting to a wireless router. No matter where I place the antenna for the card, I get about 30% signal strength.

When I place the antenna on my PC speakers, it jumps to 50%. I have fiddled around a bit with positions, but no matter what, my signal jumps up by 20% when placed on the speaker.

If I switch the power to the speaker off, it drops be 20%
Click to expand...
Reason dictates that, by putting your antenna on a speaker (instead of just the desk), something to do with the speakers (which are? (make/model)) themselves is influencing the gain/boost you're getting. Going by your report, if the difference is that profound between the power being on/off, the gain doesn't come from getting a better groundplane from any nearby metal component alone; evidently the presence of a electro(magnetic) field when the speakers are powered is the primary cause.

Now, seeing as the antenna on that is a fixed part and you don't get a free power boost for/from nothing, it HAS to come from somewhere! Also, the antenna you're using is likely a little 3dBi dipole on a base on the end of maybe around a metre of co-ax (similar to this example) so there's no monster power boost from that source.

So, for me, it really seems to come back to the presence of a field that's causing the boost. Hence, going by a certain famous maxim of deduction, that's the conclusion at which I must arrive - now, if only I could explain why! (it's been way too many years since I last looked at antenna theory, what I've come up with here has more to do with thinking things through than with what little I remember of anything I may have learnt way back when!) But, what little I can dredge up tells me that dipoles benefit from a better "ground" - I think I vaguely remember that from my CB (yes, I'm an oldie!) radio days when all I used was a dipole outside my window and I found it's effectiveness to differ with height.

So, HTH; if not, go and bother a radio communications engineer or something!
 
To me it's puzzling that the effect is only noticed with the speakers on, i.e. current flowing, so it is not the magnets per se. Also the magnetic field in the speakers is designed to flow through the gap in which the coil resides, so I would not expect a large spill over outside of the speaker itself.

The amount of power being delivered to your speakers is very small, so once again it would be surprising for the large change you notice.

The power delivered to your speakers is very variable, changing as it does, with the volume and frequency of the sound it is generating. Do you notice any difference dependent on the sound? e.g. Is it different when a single person is speaking compared with an orchestra. Does changing the volume have any effect?

The electrical signal is at max, 100 kHz, but the main power would be below 18 kHz, all way below the frequency of wireless transmissions, so I would not expect modulation to affect the wireless signal.

So, my guess is that it is the position of the antenna. It may be that the normal position of the antenna is such that the signal is being reflected from some object and interfering with that from the antenna. Or the converse, that placing the antenna on the speakers causes a reinforcing reflection.

Or none of the above:)
 
ok the speakers magnet and magnetic field is causing a boost but not physicaly.Its phantam,I dont know how to explain it but il try.I said i will try ok
When you place the thingy on the speaker the reading on your pc to show signal strengh jumps up.but it is not really there.Its like ayou get a db sighnal and a anolog signal the db signal looks strong but in reality its far from the true.If you get a db meter reding that signal you ill see its stil 20% .Sorry but i just cannot explain it in easy terms.But i did have thaty prob before,example tracking a stolen verhicle by helicopter
 
dablakmark8 said:
ok the speakers magnet and magnetic field is causing a boost but not physicaly.Its phantam,I dont know how to explain it but il try.I said i will try ok
When you place the thingy on the speaker the reading on your pc to show signal strengh jumps up.but it is not really there.Its like ayou get a db sighnal and a anolog signal the db signal looks strong but in reality its far from the true.If you get a db meter reding that signal you ill see its stil 20% .Sorry but i just cannot explain it in easy terms.But i did have thaty prob before,example tracking a stolen verhicle by helicopter
Click to expand...

Not to sure about it. When I remove the antenna from the speaker, my packet loss between the wireless card and the router increases significantly.

If I place the antenna on the floor for instance at a height of 10cm above the floor, using books... I get the 30% signal. If I place the antenna in the exact same place as it was before (same spot on floor, on speakers 10 cm above the floor) the signal increases by 20%. This happens no matter where I place the antenna. The signal increases and packet loss decreases based totally on wether or not the antenna is on the speaker.

Weird.
 
Up to now the assumption for the observed effect is that it's caused by the magnetism from the speakers.

Maybe it's the construction of the enclosure. Does it have a metal lining? This could affect the antenna.
 
bekdik said:
Up to now the assumption for the observed effect is that it's caused by the magnetism from the speakers.

Maybe it's the construction of the enclosure. Does it have a metal lining? This could affect the antenna.
Click to expand...

Doesn't the fact that it's not boosted anymore once the speakers are turned off disprove this theory?

Try get a stronger electromagnet and run it next to the antenna to see if you get even more of a boost. Anything with a motor that makes your screen flicker should do. If you get more of a boost by running it close to the antenna, it's probably an effect of the electromagnetic field.
 
From what I gather from Wikipedia is that these antennas send and receive data by transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. I'm pretty sure that the electromagnetic field caused by the speaker could strengthen the signal a bit. They could combine to form a stronger signal, can't remember exactly what it's called when this happens anymore.
 
t
bullfrog said:
Doesn't the fact that it's not boosted anymore once the speakers are turned off disprove this theory?

Try get a stronger electromagnet and run it next to the antenna to see if you get even more of a boost. Anything with a motor that makes your screen flicker should do. If you get more of a boost by running it close to the antenna, it's probably an effect of the electromagnetic field.
Click to expand...

Possibly. But then it also implies that the magnetism isn't the cause - I doubt that the magnetic field will fluctuate very much by the movement of the voice coil.

So then it must be something else :)

I would also be curious to see the experiment carried out with magnets rather than speakers. Also with a coil connected to the amplifier.
 
bullfrog said:
From what I gather from Wikipedia is that these antennas send and receive data by transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. I'm pretty sure that the electromagnetic field caused by the speaker could strengthen the signal a bit. They could combine to form a stronger signal, can't remember exactly what it's called when this happens anymore.
Click to expand...

No -as Wiz pointed out, packet loss decreases - i.e. real data is transferred in greater quantities when the speaker comes into play.
 
PiesangTee said:
No -as Wiz pointed out, packet loss decreases - i.e. real data is transferred in greater quantities when the speaker comes into play.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I mean. The strength(amplitude) of the signal is boosted because the 2 combine. You would get the same effect if you were to use a stronger antenna because the extra magnetic field could be helping in the boosting of the received and sent signal. It's just a theory of what might be happening though. ;)
 
Hmmm... now that would be interesting... I am willing to bet that eminem would destroy any signal there was to start with... at least he would corrupt it beyond repair.
 
Just don't play any emo rock, lest your wifi will kill itself.

PiesangTee said:
Hmmm... now that would be interesting... I am willing to bet that eminem would destroy any signal there was to start with... at least he would corrupt it beyond repair.
Click to expand...
 
I think the trick is really to do a bit more testing.

It is quite possible that the speakers are "boosting" your signal, but also boosting the noise.

What is the actual Signal Quality jump you are getting?

Henk
 
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