Working on Custom Made Antennas with Smaller OEM's

There are many pros and cons of working with a large, well known company. A huge advantage is that they are well regarded and they can virtually assure you their product will meet your standards. However, a common downside is that you will not get hands on communication or personalized service from these companies.

We came across a company in this situation recently. This company is in fleet management/transportation services. Specifically, they create video surveillance solutions for the public transportation market.

The antenna they were using with their system was the VMD24493RSM-366 from Laird, which is a “puck” style dual Wi-Fi antenna. Upon talking with them, we found some issues they were running into with their setup.

First of all, the antenna they were using only has a 12 foot cable attached to it. This was not long enough for their application, so every time they purchased an antenna they also had to purchase a 10 foot cable extension. Adding cable extensions may seem like a plausible solution, but attaching an extension increases attenuation (loss) in high frequencies like WiFi, therefore decreasing the signal strength of the antenna.

The stud on these antennas also needed to be customized to be at least 1.25" so that they could be mounted on busses with thick roofs. You can see the stud on the antenna below:

So this company was spending extra money on the additional cable extensions and customized studs, as well as paying the labor cost to attach the cable extensions. On top of it, it usually takes larger companies more time to complete custom requests, so they were frequently left waiting.

We spoke with them and offered the Brick Antenna from RFMAX as a possible substitute for their current antenna. 

The RFMAX engineering team reviewed the product data and found the customer would certainly be better off using the Brick antenna. The efficiency is better, and peak gain is also higher. The overall gain will be better in the Brick antenna as well.

RFMAX was also able to work with this company and make sure they had the cable length they wanted, without using extensions, and ensure the studs were long enough for their application.

Unlike at larger companies, RFMAX is able to customize their antennas easily and quickly. They can customize many aspects of their antennas including:

• Cable Length
• Connector Type
• Cable Type
• Stud Length
• Number of Elements (up to 6)
• Color

RFMAX will work with your company to make sure you can get the customized products that you need, whether you are a smaller OEM or an established company. They also keep a large amount of product in stock, so that they will always have the parts you need available.

Click here to view the entire collection of Brick antennas from RFMAX