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.

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I checked inside my G4 PowerMac to confirm the little pigtail with a 90 connector that’s plugged into my Airport Extreme (802.11g) card.
My plan is to build a high gain cantenna, connect it to my powermac instead of the existing Omnidirectional internal antenna, and use it to feed a focused beam to the Airport Express downstair on my stereo.
See Pepperidge Farm Cookie Cantenna with a 15-18dB gain!

So I checked my old ham junkbox yesterday and found a bulkhead N connector – I got a can of Pepperidge Farm Pirouette cookies when I did the groceries today – and I ordered a 60″ pigtail (MC-Card connector to N) a few moments ago! About $30 for the pieces (mostly the pigtail). I’ll make a little mount from an old gooseneck microphone stand. With any luck I’ll get the pieces late next week and maybe get a chance to try all this out in the next couple weeks.

Lotta work for an automated (computer) radio station …!

I’m still playing around with my Airport Express (AEx) at home.

The signal strength LED blinks yellow (medium) most of the time, rather than glowing green as I’d prefer.
The AEx is in the Den (our TV/Stereo media room), down a floor and at the other end of the house from my G4 Mac in the office. The AEx has an internal antenna, so without cutting it open to hack on a bigger antenna, I’m pretty much stuck with leaving it alone. But I can increase its received signal strength by focusing the transmitted power into a narrower, more concentrated beam, rather than using the omni-directional pattern of the built-in G4 antenna.

Basically this means I need to build or buy a tighter beam anternna (with a 2 foot long or so lead) and connect it to the antenna connector on the Airport Extreme card within the G4.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, its makes sense to look at what others have already done – there has been an evolution beyond the old Pringles “Cantenna” technology. And considering I’ve worked in CATV/TVRO technology and around the edges of antenna tech before I gave it up and came to web development, I have some old N connectors and such stashed away from those old days (somewhere!).

Here are some reference links for later use:

• Greg Rehm’s Homebrew Antenna Shootout
• How To Build A Tin Can Waveguide WiFi Antenna for 802.11(b or g) Wireless Networks or other 2.4GHz Applications
• Build a Pringles Can Yagi 12dB gain
• A Yuban Can Tenna – claimed 16dB gain
• NoCat.net – community supported 802.11b wireless network in Sonoma County, CA (lots of Links)
• AirShare.org – a wireless community
• Seattle Wireless Net (a community project)
• QSL – Ham site with a number of designs & Tips
• Wireless LAN resources for Linux (Huge list o’links)