# This Antennas?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 5, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586 "2013-05-05T23:39:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/1 "2013-05-05T23:39:00Z")

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Hi all, my Neighbour has this Antennas on a 100 foot pole, what are they used for, one seems to be directional and the one on the top is a “Ground Plane”? that has all around properties, my guess is that they are used for High Speed Internet:  
Thanks

[http://i1335.photobucket.com/albums/w671/Yellowee/Straightdope/Anntena\_zpsc770a04a.jpg](http://s1335.photobucket.com/user/Yellowee/media/Straightdope/Anntena_zpsc770a04a.jpg.html)

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**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/2 "2013-05-05T23:52:21Z")

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The top one, a white pole, looks like a VHF antenna. The other one is a directional dish, maybe for WiFi or some other point-to-point RF connection. The gray box is probably a pre-amp or something for the VHF.

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/3 "2013-05-06T00:52:45Z")

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You could just ask them… 🙂

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/4 "2013-05-06T01:42:05Z")

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Both antenna match to “ubiquiti” brand.

There may be other brands (and uses!) which look the same, being a big world 🙂  
but my best guess is “yes its for Internet”.

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**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/5 "2013-05-06T01:54:14Z")

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In fact, ubiquiti brand, airmax “range”. Which means regular home network type, 802.11 b/g…  
The omni spreads the internet around the town. (in the plane of the ground.)  
The directional just extends the range in that direction… The presence of that big box suggests its self contained on the pole, the directional is for the uplink to the internet.

But of course the directional could also be for a single customer - a dead end.

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**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-antennas/657586/6 "2013-05-06T22:37:00Z")

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What would you estimate the Transmitting Power would be used for the “Ground Plane”? This “Network” would show in my WiFi connections on my Tablet but I have only very weak Signals showing, the Neighbour is only 30 meters away.  
Thanks