DefCon WiFi Shootout Winner Announced

devn2k writes "At the first annual WiFi Shootout at DefCon in Las Vegas, Adversarial Science Lab won the contest to shoot a wireless signal across the Nevada desert, with a distance of 35.2196 miles. The antenna was built from metal poles, window screen mesh, cardboard, duct tape, and aluminum foil! According to the official contest page, the antenna was designed the night before the contest, its component parts were purchased for $98 at Home Depot, and the next day it was built completely from scratch in the desert, on the side of the mountain, in the rain."

Comments

shape of the antenna

[ih8apple]

Notice that the shape of the winning antenna is a pyramid? There are a lot of theories regarding electromagnetism and the pyramid shape, including a bunch on how the ancient egyptians figured out how to utilize these electromagnetic properties, which is (supposedly) why the pyramids were built that way.

If you want to get kooky, it can also point to the extra terrestrial origins of ancient egyptian civilization.

Re:shape of the antenna

[throwaway18]

> There are a lot of theories regarding electromagnetism and the pyramid shape
True, however only the theorys that involve Maxwell's equations and a lot of advance mathematics can actually be used to predict the behaviour of electromagnetic waves in antennas. A theory involving aliens building pyramids will not tell you what angle the sides of your horn antenna should flare out at.