But the short wires in a Nikon camera are not long enough to be a useful antenna. In fact, I doubt there's really anything one would consider a wire in a camera body. Everything is probably just traces on a PCB.
But the short wires in a Nikon camera are not long enough to be a useful antenna. In fact, I doubt there's really anything one would consider a wire in a camera body. Everything is probably just traces on a PCB.
At >= 2.4ghz, you measure antenna length in mm.
Bluetooth antennas that are just traces on a PCB board are very common. Think about how small a bluetooth earbud can be and still get pretty incredible range.
> But the short wires in a Nikon camera are not long enough to be a useful antenna. […] Everything is probably just traces on a PCB.
Anyone who's had to get newly developed hardware through EMI certification in recent times can tell you that it's quite easy to accidentally make PCB trace work as an antenna. Not necessarily a great antenna but enough to emit some random signal and fail certification. 3 GHz is 100mm in wavelength, and a quarter wavelength makes one of the simplest antennas… that's only 25mm. The whole story is much more complicated but the thing is that the scales are in range.
Am I missing something? Most IoT devices use trace antennae
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstrip_antenna
Trace antennas are very specifically designed shapes given the PCB material and other nearby components and structures. It’s never “just a trace”.
You’re right that traces can emit and receive RF, hence why things like FCC limits and testing exist even for unintentional emitters, but even failing devices which greatly exceed the limits have traces which are many orders of magnitude worse at being antennas than a typical trace antenna.
There's enough space for one.
Traces can be antennas