#8839 NORM Not Tri: Update Help activity to clearly state that the XO's antennas should always be pointed up for the best radio reception

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#8839: Update Help activity to clearly state that the XO's antennas should always
be pointed up for the best radio reception
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   Reporter:  joe            |       Owner:  isforinsects 
       Type:  enhancement    |      Status:  new          
   Priority:  normal         |   Milestone:  Not Triaged  
  Component:  help-activity  |     Version:  not specified
 Resolution:                 |    Keywords:               
Next_action:  communicate    |    Verified:  0            
  Blockedby:                 |    Blocking:               
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Changes (by thomaswamm):

  * next_action:  never set => communicate
  * type:  defect => enhancement


Comment:

 But the antennae are used for transmitting as well as receiving, are they
 not?  My practice is to keep the antennae down, unless I'm not able to
 connect that way.  My rationale is that 'up' antennae will spray more RF
 energy into the environment, making a more noisy RF environment for my
 neighbors.  And I hope my neighbors keep their own RF emissions as low as
 possible too, so I don't suffer from RF noise. I presume we want to
 achieve adequate signal-to-noise with minimum total RF power emitted by
 everyone, so that spectrum can be re-used by multiple small adjacent
 geographic cells.  But maybe I am wrong.  Any RF experts willing to
 comment on this issue?

 Antennae up or down never seems to make any difference for me.  Always the
 same number of Access Points in Neighborhood view, and no change to signal
 strength as indicated by the icon fill.  I am always within 10 meters of
 my AP.  I should take my XO for a walk farther away from home.

 Has anyone collected evidence that antennae up or down actually makes a
 difference?  Most XO's will be in congested school environments, not the
 Australian outback.  Has the OLPC test lab tried experiments with all
 antennae up vs. all down vs. a mix of up and down?

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8839#comment:1>
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