The issue :

This by far has to be the most wireless competing environment we have ever set up antennas at. It was 2 buildings requiring a fairly distant 54meg wireless link (800ft), directly next to an airport! below are some pictures.. its foggy as heck but when there is no fog more than 12 large radio towers can be seen in the distance! this entire area is overly saturated by rf waves all over the place.

the radio strength prior to this extreme hack was a brutal -98dbm which dropped like mad, and couldnt maintain any form of solid datalink (*note we are using firetide access points.. little beefier than the linksys ones :) )

The Fix :

This was a little extreme and uber hack but it worked wickedly, not only did is boost signal unbelievably, it eliminated some of the backnoise from the surrounding airport wireless towers.

The Parts list :

2 x 3ft tripods , 2 x cheap satellite dishes (58$ each), various bits of tape and some dodgy old wood and nails... Parabolic reflection rules!

pic of dish rig , second pic of distance rig using cameras uber zoom.

Final Results:

A final signal strength of -44dbm at 54mbs!

The Techs

Dave(left) and Philip (right), as you can see we where both overly happy with the results.