Re: Signal Booster for Lionel Legacy

[Steve Wise <swise@aoot.com>]

Great report Bill!



Bill Lohman wrote:
> Hi All,
>  
> I received and tested a Hawking HSB2 Hi-Gain Wi-Fi Signal Booster on 
> my Lionel Legacy System. 
>  
> The results are extremely promising. It effectively doubled the range 
> from about 40 feet to about 80 feet.
>  
> It also worked flawlessly in our garage.  It absolutely wouldn't work 
> in the garage with the stock antenna.
>  
> My train room is in a separate building on our property 
> which iincludes a two car garage.  The train room and garage are 
> separated by a six feet wide storage closet and then a bathroom.  The 
> two walls between the garage and train room -- are loaded with copper 
> plumbing and electrical wiring.  Yet it worked flawlessly.  Oh, and I 
> have another wi-fi router in the trainroom sending out signals in the 
> same frequency range to boot.
>  
> There was one area out in the yard about 40 feet from the building 
> where it didn't work.  But, there were other areas in the yard 60 or 
> more feet from the building where it did work.
>  
> Will be interesting to try the Signal Booster with Legacy on our club 
> layout.  But, in the meantime I declare it a huge step in the right 
> direction.  Certainly on my layout.
>  
> There's nothing exotic here. The Hawking HSB2 is just one of many 
> Wi-Fi signal boosters that have been sold for years for the purpose of 
> extending the range of our home wireless routers so we can use our 
> notebooks and stationary PC's just about anywhere in our homes and 
> garages.  Seems all Lionel did was use a totally proven wi-fi 
> transceiver technology when designing Legacy.  Conservative and 
> smart.  And therefore seems to behave the same as the wi-fi systems 
> we're accustomed to.
>  
> This Hawking model is a little more expensive than the one we had been 
> talking last week on email.  $63.24 "on sale" at Amazon.com.  I chose 
> it because it is AC powered and therefore has higher amplification 
> than the passive hi-gain antennas.
>  
> It has a switch selectable signal boost with three positions 100, 200 
> and 500 milliwatts.  Receiver gain is 10-13 dbM, 12 dbM Typical with a 
> noise figure of of 3.5 dbM typical.  Which is a nice signal to noise 
> ratio.  I tested on the 500 mW setting. Comes with a 75 cm cable.
>  
> The instruction manual recommends placing the antenna in the highest 
> location possible for the best signal.   I also got a 7 ft Hawking 
> antenna extension cable and will play around with antenna placement.
>  
> The three signal amplification ranges would seem to me to be 
> beneficial in the case where other clubs are using Legacy at a show 
> and we want to select the minimum power range neccessary for reliable 
> operation on our layout so as to minimize the potential for 
> interference when picking up another club's Legacy commands.
>  
> So, now I can sit out in the yard and run my trains in the trainroom.  
> Can't see them of course unless I get a camera like 
> Ira's.   Opportunity knocks!!  *:)  :)*
>  
> Bill
>  
>