Continuing my project to boost the received signal to my Airport Express (AEx) at home, I got my (MC-Card to N fitting) 5′ pigtail from EtherDesign in the mail yesterday, so I was ready to build the antenna with the Cookie can! See the

Seattle Wireless website for design specifics. I followed their basic plan, but because I was going to use the antenna inside, I used an old folding microphone tripod and short gooseneck, and twisted a wire coathanger around the cookie can, slipping the ends into the mic stand gooseneck. Having that easily bendable wire allows me to vary the antenna beam, relative to the AEx downstairs at the other end of the house. At the moment, its standing on Emma’s monitor in the office. Click the picture for an enlarged view at a different angle.

I tried to get the Airport Express (AEx) open yesterday, but I can’t see any screws or fittings, and I don’t just want to pry along the centerline. And nobody has any usable internal pictures of the internals – it’d be nice if I could put an antenna on the AEx to improve its gain … as small as it is, there can’t be much of an internal antenna in that box – even a short “rubber duckie” type whip antenna would probably help.

Using the MacStumbler tool, I have seen the signal strength numbers go from the 37-39 range, up to 47-50 with the Cantenna. The (Airport Express) AEx’s status light is still blinking yellow, but I haven’t fine-tuned the length of the tuned stub length yet, so maybe I can get another 5 or 6 units improvement (I’m hesitant to consider them dBs, as nothing is calibrated) …

ipodding.com photos of AEx internals
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AEx internal phots and Antenna patterns