I did a quick rough measurement of the 2.4 GHz ASIAIR and ASIAIR Pro WiFi signals.
Because of the presence of other WiFi signals, the only measuring instrument that I have is some apps on an Android tablet, and those can at best only give relative readings. So, I used a fix mounted TP-Link WR-902AC Travel Router as a reference signal. See here:
http://www.w7ay.net/site/Images/ASIAIR_WiFi/reference.jpg
The AZ-GTi mount is used to rotate the ASIAIR in azimuth and elevation, The TP-Link travel router is shown mounted to the half pier of the Takahashi tripod. The reference 0º azimuth shown is with the microSD-card facing the measuring receiver. At 90 degree azimuth, the side with the power connector faces the receiver. The elevation shown is 0º.
The setup is on top of a non-metal garage roof.
http://www.w7ay.net/site/Images/ASIAIR_WiFi/range.png
The other tripod is my regular one, and behind them on the right is an experimental turnstile antenna that I used to measure HF circular polarization.
The Android tablet is about 8 meters away in the house behind a wood wall. The AZ-GTi is connected to the home network and controlled from an iPad.
http://www.w7ay.net/site/Images/ASIAIR_WiFi/screen.jpg
(All of the other WiFi signals are my home mesh network and its WiFi backbone. You can also see a SynScan signal in there.)
For testing, I have a (original) ASIAIR in the original plastic case, a second (original) ASIAIR is installed in a ubiquitous metal cases from Amazon (designed for the Raspberry Pi 3+) and the third device under test is a brand new ASIAIR Pro (just opened from a week long quarantine in a corner of the house, backed-up and updated to firmware 505.
The first set of numbers are from the ASIAIR in the original Plastic case. The numbers (in decibels) are relative to the TP-Link's signal.
Recall that with the inverse square law of a signal in free space, 6 dB is a factor of 2 in distance (a -6 dB signal would require the receiver and transmitter to be half in distance to get the same signal strength). Thus 12 dB corresponds to 4x in distance, 18 dB corresponds to 8x in distance.
The three columns are for an elevation angle of 0 degrees (basically like an ASIAIR sitting flat on a desk), 45 degrees and 90 degrees (the ASIAIR in a vertical plane -- at 0 degree azimuth, you are basically looking straight at that the large red ASIAIR Logo)
0 deg Elevation 45 deg 90 deg
0 deg Az -8 dB -8 dB 0 dB
30 -13 dB -6 dB +3 dB
60 -10 dB -8 dB -8 dB
90 -13 dB -13 dB +3 dB
120 -20 dB -20 dB +6 dB
150 -26 dB -20 dB 0 dB
180 -18 dB -10 dB +6 dB
210 -13 dB -10 dB 0 dB
240 -22 dB -8 dB -3 dB
270 -15 dB -12 dB -6 dB
300 -12 dB -8 dB -6 dB
330 -8 dB -13 dB -15 dB
Notice that in the vertical plane (last column), there are some azimuth angles, the ASIAIR signal can be 6 dB stronger than the TP-Link whose orientation is shown in the first photo above.
However, the majority of the ASIAIR orientations produce pretty poor signals. Anything that is shown as -18 dB or worse relative to the TP-Link are probably unusable signals (slow and poor connection). Remember that the above is about 8m away through a wooden wall.
This next set of numbers are for the original ASIAIR mounted in an Amazon metal case:
0 deg Elevation 45 deg 90 deg
0 deg Az -12 dB -8 dB -3 dB
30 -10 dB -3 dB -6 dB
60 -8 dB -6 dB -3 dB
90 -10 dB -22 dB -10 dB
120 -9 dB -17 dB -12 dB
150 -15 dB -13 dB -6 dB
180 -15 dB -9 dB -18 dB
210 -10 dB -23 dB -6 dB
240 -20 dB -28 dB -12 dB
270 -26 dB -26 dB -12 dB
300 -18 dB -24 dB -10 dB
330 -13 dB -18 dB -8 dB
Finally, the last set of numbers are for the stock ASIAIR Pro:
0 deg Elevation 45 deg 90 deg
0 deg Az -20 dB -26 dB -13 dB
30 -15 dB -16 dB -13 dB
60 -3 dB -15 dB -13 dB
90 -18 dB -18 dB -16 dB
120 -20 dB -18 dB -18 dB
150 -22 dB -18 dB -18 dB
180 -22 dB -26 dB -33 dB
210 -26 dB -18 dB -30 dB
240 -24 dB -26 dB -26 dB
270 -20 dB -26 dB -13 dB
300 -10 dB -18 dB -16 dB
330 -15 dB -18 dB -13 dB
Generally, you can get a 18 dB or better boost with the small TP-Link travel router that is fix mounted. It allows you to be 8x the distance away than with the ASIAIR Pro by itself. Further, by fix mounting the travel router, you will not see the the deep nulls in many orientations that you see above (for example, caused by mounting it on an OTA that changes direction relative to your router through the night).
Clear skies,
Chen
