usb wifi antenna

Step 5: Connect to friends

i am getting this signal from across a river.

Comments

[henyobarker]

Hi Just wondering could this work with a nintendo ds wifi to improve it? please email me or post the answer here at [e-mail] cheers henry!

[xXFor_The_WinXx]

i got the same problem any ideas anyone??

[xavieronassis]

I use a small reflector like this to extend the range of a portable USB wireless speaker and it did improve the distance, so yes, it will work.

BTW, it's only nice to get answers to your questions posted here rather than asking to have them emailed to you. Other people are probably having the same questions you are and would like to find the answers also.

[uptheground]

I have this useless Dish Network Antenna, do you think it will work with the USB WiFi adapted to it?

[Foxtrot70]

You bet that will work! I have a data card on cellular service I live in a rural area in central Iowa. You might ask where is Iowa? Well, first is almost God's Country, second if you take a map of the US mount it on a wall and back up about 20' and throw a dart in the middle of the map most likely you'll hit Iowa. I digress, at my location I am 6 miles from the nearest Cell site and my signal strength is -124dbm, not enough to activate the receivers at the tower. When I use my old Dish Network 500 dish with a bowtie antenna mounted inside a oval sardine can at the location where the LNB once was my signal increases to -89dbm. On other item the dish is inside my house looking thru a 6" wall! I am in the process of modifying the LNB shroud to house a cleaned up version of the Bowtie and also have 2 versions one for Cellular service 1.9 Ghz and the other for Wifi 2.4Ghz. If you really want to have some fun you and your friends can take standard cordless phones, must be on same freqs., use the modified DishNetwork dishes or for really long distant communications say 125 miles use a 10' C-Band dish. You might want to get some friends who are"HAMS" they can help you the most.

[Gksarmy]

ohhh i want it... lol, i mean, everyone's using asian cookware, i want an old satelite dish! stuff specifically set up to recieve and send signals...woot! course i've got a pretty ghetto set up right now, but that's just me XD

[n3glv]

HI Gksarmy,
I'm new to this site, but been a ham for over 20 years, and into microwave
communications as high as 10.5ghz band. (so 2.4 was no challenge)
There are TONS of how-to's etc on the web but you need to know a few things
about your would-be sat dish conversion.
1 unless it's a solid metal dish, the mesh material inside needs to be smaller perf
than 1/10th of a wavelength. And the surface accuracy also needs to be near
that tolerance or losses will be incurred. (that is mighty tight, since 1/4 wavelenth is about 1.8737 cm)
The other thing is that you will need to figure out the focus if there is not a feed
horn arrangement there. If so, you sill will need some kind of horn arrangement
so that you "illuminate" just the are of the dish, most of these things are going
to radiate semi-spherically and you would need to figure out a way to do this.
Having said this, just about anything parabolic or even roughly parabolic
will result in gain. That can be the curve of the domed lid or even the end of
a rural Propane Tank (the submarine looking ones) Or a "snow saucer" sled.
One of my favorite sites for usb wifi homebrew is http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
These guys have close to 100 projects from cookware to strainers to converted
fans and umbrellas! It's tons of fun, my best-favorite system uses a 10.5inch
"clamp light" from Home Depot, and a chunk of foam rubber and a usb-extension
to make this just unscrew the back of the switch/bulb assembly and remove
the guts. Mount the clamp and screw on the reflector. Shove the extension cable
in from the back, and wrap the foam around just behind the metal of the usb.
Pull backwards till near flush and insert the wifi dongle. Point at a known signal
and adjust for peak on the bar graph. Tada, total build time 5min or less.
Anyone would would care to chat live, irc.freenode.net and join #voipcoop
I'm usually there. (I'm a phone/asterisk nut these days)
Best wishes and happy wifi-ing
de Jeff Kephart
n3glv

[Fallbrookdave]

It sure will. Hopefully you still have the feedhorn assembly still attached to the dish. Just remove the LNB from the support arm and get a USB adapter's antenna at that prime focus point! If thats one of those offset feed dishes, you may need to turn it upside down to get the correct angle for the incoming signal, since the dish was not designed for horizontal aiming.

[bannanaphone]

cool

[manuka]

(removed by author or community request)

[wombat7]

thanks!
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
--Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio.

[yvesbigben]

I experiment hit: well done

[wombat7]

looks good!