Alfa AWUS036H 500mW high tx power

[thrasher12ga]

Regarding bell-curve txpower, I've seen the same results on other devices, the one I worked most with was the Asus WL-500g AP (busybox). I performed dBm tests and it showed a power dropoff above a certain point. I then worked on other parameters, IIRC there seemed to be an automatic gain limiter or some such in action which could be modified also.
See wl500g.info/archive/index.php/t-1633.html

GROUNDING
Previous poster mentioned this. I noticed there's a significant grounding/earthing problem with the Alfa. Touching the SMA metal collar "undeafens" the NIC. Often few AP's are picked up unless resting a finger on the metal collar. Can anyone else confirm this issue?
CHANNEL HOPPING
Further, Kismet (bt3final) misses many AP's unless channel dwell time is lengthened. Confirmation?

[kevinviper]

Originally Posted by Fotokot

actually I got this eBay cheap clone of Alfa for 20$ -works fine (both monitor/injections)!
Palm RTL8187L USB 500mw 54Mbps B/G Wlan adapter card
Free shipping to all over the world Item number: 110415855632
Can reach much longer distances now due to >>> output Power :-)
The Field Strength may be approximately measured by the Dish-TV handheld detector (check the range of 2-3 Ghz and not 10 ghz) Also by a Current mA Meter inserted in the USB link (5v wire) in series

It really sound good. The price is good too. Anyone in this forum who have test Palm RTL8187L usb adaptor?

[ReV1500]

ok do you have your adapter hooked up with one usb port or two i just got mine and it came with the single usb cable i installed the drivers and patch from aircrack-ng.org and im getting low power even when i put the power leavel up to 15 im not real sure what is going on here but i think i need to have the usb cable with 2 male ends

[alacrityathome]

Originally Posted by ReV1500

ok do you have your adapter hooked up with one usb port or two i just got mine and it came with the single usb cable i installed the drivers and patch from aircrack-ng.org and im getting low power even when i put the power leavel up to 15 im not real sure what is going on here but i think i need to have the usb cable with 2 male ends

ReV1500,

On the original Alfa, the two cable connections are needed only when you are operating on battery power.....so, you are probably ok there.

When you say you only get low power, how do you know that? What does iwconfig say for your dbm?

The "power" reading or capability is ONLY for the transmit side so you may not see any improvement in number of APs that are visable.

BUT, if you see the AP, the higher transmit power may be the final factor that allows you to interact with the AP.

Finally, on a French 036 site, they did some very detailed analysis of the power but found a high sensitivity in the actual numbers....based on the exact positioning of the power meter (in order to make a valid comparison with other wireless cards)

A

[xCPPx]

Can anyone tell me why the txpower of the new rtl8187 in bt4pre can't go beyond 20? It used to go up to 27 for Alfa 500mW.

EDIT: I think I know why.

[whistler2008]

Alfa AWUS036H, BT 3:

iwpriv wlan0 highpower 1
iwconfig wlan0 txpower 35

[moha99sa]

Very good thread ... it helped me too much

Thanks

[msenoz]

Has anybody found the utility in the video which has many extra tweaking features for 8187L chip, if yes can you please advise the link to download and try.

http://www.youtube.com/v/BktInZcBHak