Hello,

Stayed up way too late last night running radiation pattern measurements in the great anechoic outdoors.  The new patterns look much healthier than the echo-ridden indoor measures.  I was also able to test 2 new antennas.  Not sectors, but the 21dBi and 27dBi grids from Laird.  All the results are linked at the top of the Antenna Analysis page, but here are the direct links:

• ARC ARC-VS5818SD1
• Laird SAH58-120-16-WB
• Laird GD5W-21P
• Laird GD5W-28P

A few conclusions can be drawn from this official data:

1) The ARC sector is complete nonsense.
2) The Laird sector is lookin fine!  The F/B is not as bad as I had feared.  Although the "120 deg" beamwidth claim looks to be based on -6dB points, not your typical -3dB points.  Strange.  I'm still concerned about its -3dB FR @ 5.885GHz.
3) For the $25 price premium over the 21dBi model, I'd say the 27dBi Laird grid is well worth it.  I have a 31dBi grid on the way which would only cost $6 more than the 27dBi Laird.  4dB for $6 is a no-brainer.  We'll see how it measures though.

Next up, before the new antennas arrive for testing, I wanna re-run the frequency response measurements using the outdoor environment and verify that there are no changes in the curve shapes.  That will confirm the indoor FR measurement process is not suffering from echo effects.

--Bart