parabolic reflector antenna question

[techie]

I am trying to build a simple parabolic reflector to increase the gain of my Wi-Fi access point (2.4GHz) in one direction. I want to know what matterial should I use for this purpose. The choices are

1. 0.2mm iron sheet.
2. 0.5mm aluminum sheet.
3. iron thin wire gauze (the one used in windows)
4. iron thick wire matrix.
4. plastic covered with conductive sticker or paint.
5. Any other ideas welcome.

I dont know what difference does the thickness of the reflector or teh size of holes in gauze reflector makes.

thanks.

 

[flatulent]

The material should be high conductivity to reduce losses. The holes should be 1/20 of a wavelength or less in their greatest dimension.

Cost and convenience are other factors to consider.

Another factor is that the feed element has a radiation pattern. Making the reflector diameter greater than enough to subtend the -6 dB points on the feed pattern will give you no real improvement.

A real improvement will be obtained by using a feed that is directional towards the reflector. You can use the commonly available 6 dB gain planar antennas.

 

[klug]

You can use MMDS antenna reflector, they are cheap - 7$ in my country.

You can also use old mmds converter for feed - you need to throw out all electronics from it and use only vibrator with convertor body.

There is a generator in that convertor - you can easy adjust it to 2.4 GHz (need only to change quartz there) and you will have a signal generator to test your antenna.

You can get any old parabolic antenna, and use simple feed:
https://www.trevormarshall.com/biquad.htm

There are other possible solutions for reflector. For example, in my country were popular snow sledge for children - they were available in every toy shop. That was 0.6 meter aluminium parabolic reflector for military system, but for some reason they stopped production of systems and huge number of reflectors were converted to sledges by adding two handles. These sledges were very popular among children and HAMs.