Extending HomeLink Range?

[riggz]

My previous vehicles with Homelink had no issues with opening my garage door from the street (30-40'). I have to press the button on my 09 2-6 times to get it to open and sometimes if I back right up to the garage door it won't work at all. I was curious if anyone had modified their trucks to increase the range.

 

[BirchyBoy]

Subbed for this. My '07 Acura RDX works from quite a range, but my '99 Yukon doesn't at all unless I'm within 10'. It doesn't work when backed in at all.

 

[jroc5.3]

I occasionally experience this as well

 

[Rockytfox]

Change the antenna on the opener to a full wavelength antenna. Most are a quarter wavelength.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[riggz]

Can you elaborate more on that? I'm not familiar with this. I was going to solder a longer piece of wire in.

 

[Rockytfox]

Can you elaborate more on that? I'm not familiar with this. I was going to solder a longer piece of wire in.

You could try that too but generally speaking the length of the antenna is designed to match the frequency. If you extend the length of the wire, you could actually shorten the range. Sometimes it does work though...and some manufacturers do sell additional equip to plug in but I've never heard good things about these. Try adding the wire and see what happens...hell..that's free!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[TheFuzz]

I remember reading about this on the Pirate 4x4 forums a couple years back....full wavelength antennas don't do anything for you if the equipment isn't set up to take advantage of it. Most consumer-level electronics that use transmitters are set up to use quarter-wavelength antennas. The problem is that many of the antennas that come with the products are far too short to be optimal. There was a formula for calculating the exact length your antenna should be...one sec...

Found it:

Look up the FCC ID number to find out what frequency the opener uses, then divide 300 by the frequency (for instance 49MHz, you'd get 300 / 49 = 6.122 meters) for the wavelength. Then divide by 4 to find the quarter wavelength and make your antenna that long.

Hope that helps. I've had the same problem with my truck so I intend to try this over the weekend.

 

[riggz]

Thanks JB. I will also try doing this tomorrow.