Once again, the only signal you will ever transmit is the signal at the same frequency that you're feeding through the wire. The antenna is only there to maximize the signal strength.
If you feed a 1cm wavelength signal through a 10m antenna you will still get a 1cm signal on the air. The problem is that the strength of that signal will be extremely poor.
Lastly, you can indeed replace the monopole antenna for a wire. The benefit of the antenna is that it can stay straight, otherwise it is indeed just a glorified wire.
Question for a #radio person, perhaps nostr:nprofile1qqszw48usckkhs9hcwt3q3np9k2z2c73s8qc0gu3uxqw66cqlq88ukcpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq3qamnwvaz7te3xsczue3h0ghxjmc3zk5tp?
If a dipole antenna is 59.14 mm in length (tuned for 802.11g, channel 1), and you attach it directly to the wifi card, that's great.
My question is: if you now extend that antenna by attaching it to the wifi card using a wire, like a normal person, would that cause it to no longer be tuned for 2412 MHz?
If so, what's the point of buying the "proper" antenna?
If not, how on Earth does that work?!
correct me if I'm wrong, but 2412 MHz is the frequency of the alternating current. Having a cable doesn't change the frequency of the alternating current, it just makes the circuit longer.
The length of the antenna is required for the right wave to be able to escape the circuit and travel through the air.
Assuming that the cable can be modeled as an extension of the antenna (in a dipole antenna this is clearly not the case). If you send a 2412 MHz signal through the wire, you would still get 2412MHz radio waves, the only difference is that your new antenna (antenna + cable) is worse at transmitting it.
I am just an amateur SDR user, so I might have made many mistakes. Just answering from intuition.