A high customer satisfaction is the central goal of the REEL GmbH. To us, this means to not only supply each customer with exactly the product he needs for their application, but also to provide advice and support in any aspect. We regularly receive many questions regarding the topic of antennas and their application. Below, you will find answers to questions which reach us frequently:
Following the FAKRA color scale, we use these shrink tubing colors: red for GSM, GPS for Blue, Yellow and White for WLAN, Bluetooth, Wimex. On request we can also use a color code you specify.
Generation descriptions:
With the exception of our PCB solutions, all REEL antennas have an internal mass and thus need no further mass to function. Mounting on a plastic or glass surface is possible, but installation on a metallic surface improves performance.
In order to compare antennas, we introduced our own standard. The cable has a length of 0.60 m without connectors. In the measurements for the general data sheets, an SMA (m) connector is used. Why? In order to calculate the power of an antenna at 900 MHz and a cable length of 3.00 m, you must subtract the cable attenuation pull of 2.4 m from the power at 60 cm (eg. +3 dBi).
An attenuation of 0.5 dB / m results in the following: + 3 dBi - (2.4 x 0.5) = + 1.8 dBi.
Therefore there is an antenna power of +1.8 dBi at 3 m cable length. As once again a connector is used (usually with similar attenuation values), one can ignore this, as it has already been measured.
The REEL configurator also offers as a function the creation of technical data sheets. Here the complete article number (note spelling!) has to be entered in the corresponding area at the bottom of the page. A corresponding data sheet in PDF format will be generated. If the desired data sheet cannot be generated, we are of course at your disposal. Please replace customer-specific endings with "XX", as these cannot be displayed.
Basically, it can be stated that the cable length has a greater influence at higher frequencies (e.g. WLAN) than at lower frequencies (e.g. GPS). With increasing cable length, the signal losses also increase, so that it is generally recommended not to specify cables longer than necessary. Accordingly, cable lengths longer than 10 meters are critical. For special applications also very low-loss cables can be used as adapter cables.
The installation is possible on all clean, stainless surfaces. No additional ground plane is required as the antenna has an internal ground plane.
When installing the roof antennas, it is essential to observe the maximum torque. The following torques apply for the different roof boxes:
Before the adhesive pad can be applied, the surface must be cleaned thoroughly. For this purpose, use the cleaning cloth provided or a cleaner with isopropanol. The temperature during mounting should be >10° C.
The standard delivery time for antennas is about two weeks. REEL does not have any stock on hand, as all antennas are assembled according to customer specifications using the modular system but has sufficient raw material available.
ECE-R 118 is a guideline that regulates the flammability of substances in vehicles used for passenger transport. REEL has had new materials certified according to ECE-R 118.03, so that the antennas can be installed in the interior of buses, for example. These antennas are given the suffix R118 after the article designation.
MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) refers to a transmission method in which several receiving and transmitting antennas are used for communication. In practice, MIMO technology is often used in mobile communications and WLAN. For LTE, the method was introduced to receive two data streams radiated separately from the base station simultaneously, which ideally doubles the data rate. Due to the close proximity of the antennas in one housing, however, overlapping may occur. In this case the data rate is reduced, because the receiver has to capture both data streams separately and separate them cleanly in order to be able to process them further.
Don’t hesitate to contact us and take advantage of our extensive technical expertise. At REEL we will find a solution for every individual requirement.