Antenna mod extends Bluetooth up to a mile
By Marc Perton 
posted April 21st 2005 10:25PM
posted April 21st 2005 10:25PM
Want to leave your Bluetooth-enabled laptop on the desk and still control it while you're out and about? With a
(relatively) simple mod, you can replace the antenna on a Linksys USBBT100 USB Bluetooth adapter with a larger one, and
extend its range by up to a mile. Slick, but we're not sure what you can do with this — what we'd really like to see is
a way to leave our Bluetooth phone charging while we're out mowing the lawn and still answer calls on our
headset.
[Thanks, g]
Repost
It will be very usefull if it is Bluetooth 2.0 !
Depending on your phone. you could always connect your phone to your laptop. and your headphone to your laptop too. and answer your calls using software.
That is of course true ! But will standart devices work with this "extension" ?
Heh. This was done to Delco's Blackberry on the aforementioned "toothing" episode of CSI: Miami.
you can use it with Skype. this is cool now i can go to my mailbox and talk on skype like my a cordless phone. thanks cool hack
http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2005/03/skypeheadset_ta_1.php
Hm... I own the USBBT100 adapter because I saw how impressive it's Class 1 range was, I think it was like 100 ft. But snap! A mile is possible. I've been wanting to to use my broadband connection and somehow have my bluetooth adapter transfer it's connection to my t616 phone. This way I could use WAP browser lightening fast and without charges. Anyone know if it's possible. Probably not, I'll just keep dreaming.
My Goodness ! This "thanks cool hack" remembered me of Bud Love from that Klump movie thing, "I´ve lost 150 pounds in 30 seconds, Thank You Diet Shake" !huahauha ! something like that ! But to finish ! I still don´t trust breaking apart my usb bluetooth adapter ! That´s it !
Didn't they do the something like this with a Blackberry on CSI: Miami?
Whoa. I hope I can convince my Dad to do this to our USB dongle. My school is less than a mile away and I could get free internet there on my PDA! Awesome!!!!!!!
To take avantage of this hack you have to do the same at the other side to increase bluetooth range of the other device ... do I get it right ?
#7 Some time ago I remember someone talking about having set that up with a Nokia 3650, which I believe has roughly similar capabilities (I think.) Google around and you might find it. I don't recall how it was done, though, as I wasn't really interested in duplicating it.
This is like gining a loudspeker to one of two men standing 1 mile away from each other. the one with the speaker will be heared at the other side alright but what about the one without one?. I say you need to extend the transmit range for BOTH devices.
To add on to avinz, I remember reading somewhere that even though one of your BT device, in this case the USB dongle has a range of, say 200m boosted, your other device, ie mobile phone or PDA would also need a matching range (200m). Otherwise, even though the signal from the dongle would be able to reach your device, it just isn't powerful enough to get, say http request to the dongle to request web pages. Just my 2 cents.
Argh! Forget hacking into the USB BT adaptor - just use it "as is" but with a cheap cookware parabolic reflector! This approach has been magnificent for USB WiFi (see => http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz), & indeed gives greatly enhanced BT ranges too. Check the 300m (~1/4 mile)link between an Axim X5 + Socket CF BT & USB BT laptop down a NZ suburban street => http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/btscoop.jpg
Wasn't impressed. Scoured the shops for the Linksys Bluetooth Class 1, bought the high gain 2.4Ghz antenna (which wasn't cheap!). Rigged it all up, then ran up the street with my phone. After 50 metres or so, my phone couldn't detect any devices. So how did they manage a mile???
Wikipedia (Spanish) says:
"If a Class 1 device (100 meters) wants connect with a Class 2 device (20 meters [most of phones]); they must to be located at distance of Class 2 device..."
Connection is made always at distance of the lower range device.
But, Wikipedia (English) says:
"It has to be noted that in most cases the effective range of class 2 devices is extended if they connect to a class 1 transceiver, compared to pure class 2 network."
I'm confused, your comment makes me think that Wikipedia (Spanish) it's right.