Long range WiFi link

Modified AWUS036H USB WiFi dongle. Standard connector is RP-SMA, replaced by conventional SMA adapter to allow for the connection of standard antenna equipment. This was quite tricky as the original connector had a good ground-plane connection, making a lot of heat from the soldering iron flow away. So two soldering irons were used :) The maximum output power of the dongle is 1W but this a bit excessive.

Home-made 2.4 GHz biquad antenna with SMA connector.

For additional gain, the biquad was combined with a 60cm sattellite TV dish. The WiFi dongle was then put into a waterproof housing made out of a short piece of PVC tube.

The link distance is about 2.7 km, but performance can be flakey because of the large number of 2.4GHz devices active in and around the city of Leuven. After listening for 10-15 minutes, kismet picked up more then 300 different stations. Almost all AP's are protected nowadays.

When connecting to the university's "Campusnet", speeds up to 5-6Mbps up/down are realistic on a good day.