Well, simply, it’s what you see in the image above. “Panel antenna” is a term for any antenna that sits tall instead of wide. This particular antenna is a TV antenna, but panel antennas are used for a wide variety of things. Here’s another one.
This is a panel antenna too… except this antenna is designed for special purpose point-to-point purposes. Panel antennas are used in cellular, in Wi-Fi, and in almost any case where the frequency is higher than 500MHz.
Panel antennas work better in high-frequency applications for several reasons. First of all, in order to work properly in a low-frequency application like FM radio or VHF TV, the panel antenna would really have to be gigantic in order to work. The lower the frequency, the larger the waves. So panel antennas work even better with high-frequency applications like Wi-Fi, which sits up about 5GHz.
How do you know if you need a panel antenna?
Most of the things that need panel antennas just come with them. But, in the case of TV and cell phone boosters, it’s hard to know for sure. Panel antennas are very effective for UHF TV, but not as effective for VHF TV. Panel antennas work well for cellular indoors, but are not always the right choice outdoors. The best thing to do if you’re considering a panel antenna is to call us at 888-233-7563 and get a free, custom recommendation to help you choose!
It may be that you need a combination of a panel antenna indoors and a different kind of antenna outdoors. Yes, the indoor antenna and outdoor antenna of a cell phone signal booster are doing the same work, but they are doing them in two different places. Panel antennas used for cell boosters sometimes sit in the ceiling and blast signal out to a relatively shallow space that’s also wide. On the other hand, an outdoor antenna needs to communicate with a far more distance cell tower. Often, yagi antennas are used for this purpose because they send and receive over a much more narrow range than a panel antenna.
All sorts of communications products at Solid Signal
You’ll find the antenna you need when you shop at Solid Signal. Whether it’s an indoor TV antenna under $20 or a tower system costing $20,000 or more, we have you covered. Every antenna on our site is selected for quality. We’re proud to be the antenna leaders on the internet.
But, did you know that Solid Signal is more than just self-service? If you’re planning a large installation, call us at 888-233-7563 and we’ll be happy to quote out an entire enterprise system, whether you’re talking about a small office or a stadium. We’ve done them both.
Satellite TV, cellular, or internet, if you use it to communicate with the outside world, we specialize in it. Land, sea, or on the road no one does more than we do. Find out for yourself what real customer service is like. You’ll be glad you did.
