On Wed, 07 May 2014 13:27:29 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

This new, very well-insulated, foil-backed, house has one drawback...
the garage door opener range with the garage door closed is only about
20'

I assume the garage door is insulated with foil backed foam or
fiberglass. Therefore, RF through the garage door is a difficult
path.

First, try a simple experiment. Open the garage door wide and test
the range of your unspecified model garage door opener radio. If you
get normal ranges (200ft or more), then the problem is the garage door
shielding. However, if the range is the same, the tuning on either
the transmitter or receiver is off frequency.

Punching a big hole in the aluminum door insulation might help, but
methinks adding some coax cable to the antenna, punch a hole somewhere
in the garage wall (not the roof), and bring the antenna outside, will
work best. I'm not sure what frequency your unspecified model garage
door opener operates (probably 315 or 390 MHz) but the coax cable
should be specified to have the minimum loss at the operating
frequency. Satellite grade CATV coax cable (RG-6/u) is both cheap and
low loss.

Garage Door Opener Antenna Extension
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smwjAOvVACY
(Ignore his comments on how RF travels better when it's cold and wet.
His receiver is drifting with temperature. Also, you do need to
ground the shield of the coax at the receiver ground).

Any ideas on how I could extend that range?
...Jim Thompson

A wired push button switch on a vertical pipe somewhere along the
driveway approach? If that's too primitive, a 2nd remote receiver
somewhere along the driveway.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558