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Wi-Fi World Record

supersam writes "Interline Wireless Technology, a Polish company has reportedly set a world record in stretching the range of a Wi-Fi network for an amazing 110 Kms at 2.4 GHz. They achieved this using an antenna developed by them and an INTEL Pro/Wireless 2011 Access Point."

103 comments

  1. Wi-Fi jargon by Leffe · · Score: 0

    110 Kms at 2.4 GHz

    Exactly what does this mean? It doesn't make much sense to a non-techie like me :)

    1. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by CausticWindow · · Score: 0, Informative

      It's just the speed of the signal. It translates to about 450 mph.

      Didn't use to make much sense to me either, but then I took a bs in cs.

      --
      How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
    2. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Leffe · · Score: 1

      Ok, thanks.

      Hmm... I should take some CS too...

    3. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by EddWo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is this a joke?
      The speed of the signal is the speed of light.
      The frequency of the signal is 2.4GHz
      The distance the signal was received at was 110Km

      The wavelength was 299 792 458/2 400 000
      = 124.913524m

      I take it you never did any physics then

      --
      "Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
    4. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Jugalator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I was actually confused by the "Kms" notation. Never seen that before... Kilometers shouldn't be "Kms", just like meters shouldn't be "ms"...

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
    5. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Exactly what does this mean? It doesn't make much sense to a non-techie like me :)

      The shiney dishey pointey things let the silly men send naughty pictures a long way through the air magically.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    6. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Didn't use to make much sense to me either, but then I took a bs in cs.
      Maybe you should ask your college for a refund.
    7. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you used 2.4 Mhz rather than 2.4 Ghz :)

      the real wavelength is around 12 cm.

    8. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by EddWo · · Score: 1

      Yeah your right
      Guess I shouldn't try to correct people when I don't know and maths

      --
      "Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
    9. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by march · · Score: 1

      Read the article... It's 110 km @ 2.4 Ghz.

    10. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by EddWo · · Score: 1

      Or English either it seems

      --
      "Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
    11. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

      Yeah. Kelvins per millisecond? Kelvins per meter per second?

    12. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 1

      Just to check if I get this right, the wavelength is 12 cm, which means the signal goes up & down every 12 cm and can therefore represent 2 Bit every 12 cm.

      The speed is 300km/s (speed of light, not accurate). Which means that we have 2500000 waves / second (300 * 1000 * 100 / 12) which translates to 5000000 Bit / s which would be ~4.7 MBit / second "raw" capacity.

      Can anyone please point out any mistakes I might have done? Cheers.

    13. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 1

      Okay, actually speed of light is 300.000km / s of course and the wavelength is not a complete up/down wave, but only the up or down part of the wave and can therefore only present 1 bit of information.

      So, revised calculations:
      300.000km/s --> 2 500 000 000 waves/Bit per s --> 2384 MBit per second "raw" capacity.

      This somehow looks too high, or is that much lost in error correction & stuff?

    14. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by stfvon007 · · Score: 1

      Actually you can get more than 2 bits in a 1 wavelength. most wireless equipment today uses 4 or 8 bits per wavelength. (9.4Mbps or 18.8Mbps at that frequency)

      --
      All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.
    15. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 1

      Wow, how does that work? Does the carrier signal which is mapped onto the "base frequency" use a higher frequency than the "base frequency" itself?

    16. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by DaneelGiskard · · Score: 1

      err..messup..other way around (carrier signal = base frequency, base frequency = signal carrying the information)..sorry

      can you also take a look at my revised calculations, where I got to 2k something mbit/s? can you detect my mistake there?

    17. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't use to make much sense to me either, but then I took a bs in cs.

      It made perfect sense to me.. Especially where it says: "Jednym z kluczowych etapow eksperymentu by wybor lokalizacji dla stacji tworzcych planowane poczenie punkt-punkt. Pierwsza z nich, to 10 pietrowy wieowiec na jednym z wrocawskich osiedli. Druga lokalizacja, kluczowa dla caego eksperymentu to hala pod OEniek, obok schroniska Dom OElski na wysokooeci 1400 m.n.p.m."

    18. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by solarium_rider · · Score: 1

      It's been a while since I took digital communications, but I believe you can get more than 2 bits per wavelength by using QAM, which plays with the phases to fit more in.

      --
      -- How many sigs are as useless as this one?
    19. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by thebigmacd · · Score: 1

      You can also use a multiple-level system (the simplest). A four-level system encodes two bits per level change (4bit/cycle), an 8-lvl system = 6 bits/cycle etc.

    20. Re:Wi-Fi jargon by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

      K/ms would be the only way. That would be interesting, though - what is the heat output versus time of that thing?

  2. Other Antenas? by Hiro2k · · Score: 0

    Why not use a bunch of cantenas ?

  3. Re:Wi-Fi jargon - Distance / Frequency by tbase · · Score: 1

    Here's a translation of the distance. The 2.4 GHz refers to the frequency used (similar to a cordless phone).

    --

    666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
  4. Slashdotted.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please tell me they aren't using this wireless link for their server..

    5 comments and it's toasty already..

  5. 500mw by slim+hades · · Score: 0, Redundant

    a 5w amp?... around here that kind of thing would have an FCC agent beating down your door faster than you can say nine-eleven... brighter side: if any stray birds pass through the line of sight for the shot, anyone living below gets a free meal... yay!

    1. Re:500mw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      500 mw = 0.5 Watts not 5 Watts

    2. Re:500mw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would be amazed at how much power is allowed under the current Part 15 FCC rules on Point-to-Point WLAN links. You are only allowed to have a maximum of 1 watt (30 dbm) of power at the input of the antenna, but after that they use a sliding scale to determine how much power you are allowed to use for the link.
      It works like this:

      For each 6db increase in antenna gain above the first 6db, decrease the input power by 1db. This means that if you have a 1 watt amp (30 dbm), a 24dbi gain antenna and 3db of line losses, your overall system gain is 51dbm (roughly 125 watts).

      As long as you have nothing in your fresnel zone and a good amount of altitude, you can drive a microwave signal extremely far.

  6. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can you see France from Kent?

    No, the garlic fumes get in the way :-)

  7. Re:Damn measurement standards..!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I prefer dollar bills laid end-to-end, or for longer distances (say the Earth to Mars): football fields.

  8. Re:Amateur radio operators do more than this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yes, but the bandwidth you used was a lot less
    than in the wifi link

    Joe NA3T

  9. Re:Some details... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not sure whether 500mW is legal for private unlicensed use in Poland or not. But if it is, more power to them.


    Yes, but how much more power?

  10. Re:ground attenuation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Heh. Since our telco is a monopoly, wavelan was the only way to get an internet connection here in Lithuania (neighbors of Poland) a few years ago. Wavelans were widely used and abused here too. One of such abuses was linking Vilnius and Kaunas (distance 100 km) in 2 hops. Antennas were placed on top of a church tower in Kaunas, on the chimney of an electric station in Elektrenai (city in the middle between Kaunas and Vilnius), and mm, i don't remember where did they put them in Vilnius. All places were quite high. The link worked, and worked well. They used standart Orinoco WaveLan cards with external antennas, but no additional amplifiers. There was packet loss, but it wasn't significant. So, it is possible to get 50 km range without 'cheating' :)

    --Coder

  11. Re:Err... it is a cheat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Or was I the only person paying attention in physics when it was explained how *any* electromagnetic transmission has infinite range, since decaying amplitude in accordance with the inverse square rule never reaches zero? Assuming a perfect vacuum, naturally.

    Wow. You payed attention at the wrong time. There's a little problem called noise. Ignoring the fact that a perfect vacuum doesn't exist and never has.

  12. Re:They stole his idea... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey - that antenna they're using looks a lot like the one from this story. Of course, he only claims a LOS range of 10 Miles.

    yes as we all know that using a parabolic dish is very innovative and a new idea.. How dare they!

    Damn those Dish network people... they stole Primestar's idea!

  13. Re:Err... it is a cheat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Recommend WISP list at part-15.org for very informative discussions of exactly what the various unlicensed, but regulated, services can and can't do. Here HTH

  14. Re:Range is fine but... by keepr · · Score: 0

    ok stop me if you have heard this one..
    2 pollocks climb a mountain ......

    --
    Slashdot taught me how to use the preview button!
  15. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by StressedEd · · Score: 1

    Oh! I never knew Kentarians liked garlic so much.

    --
    Be nice to people on the way up. You will meet them again on your way down!
  16. Re:Old joke to be duped by Ubergrendle · · Score: 0

    Less than the required # of hackneyed American comedians?

    --
    John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
  17. Re:Err... it is a cheat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful
    Speaking of not paying attention...

    "True, picking the signal out from the noise at more than 50ft is proving problematic at present," quoth the parent.

  18. Re:Satellite dishes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It doesn't matter that they did it in Poland - the FBI will just have to wait until they step foot on US soil before nicking them.

  19. Re:Range is fine but... by Raghead · · Score: 0

    A pollock is a fish. Gee, that is funny... mountain climbing fish!

  20. polish.. they must of... by Thelonious+Monk · · Score: 0

    They used vodka bottles.....plenty of them.

  21. MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He actually has a clue.

    1. Re:MOD PARENT UP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please refrain from replying to your own posts

    2. Re:MOD PARENT UP by EddWo · · Score: 1

      That wasn't me, and yeah I messed it up as well. It was should have been 2.4 Ghz not 2.4 Mhz

      --
      "Taligent is still pure vapor. Maybe they'll be the last who jumps up on Openstep... "
  22. Re:110 Km? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    About 0.15 phathoms.

  23. LD pr0n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    now I can get pr0n on my laptop in the middle of the desert

  24. Re:110 Km? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    110 kilometers = 68.3508311 miles

    Is that statute miles or nautical miles? UK Nautical miles or international nautical miles?

  25. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by ynohoo · · Score: 1

    We're not "Kentarians" we're either "Men of Kent" on the french side of the Medway River, or "Kentish Men" on the London side. Strangely, although Men of Kents' language is different to the folk of Calais, our accent is very similar...

  26. Re:Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nope. Time for the rest of the world to submit to OUR standards.

    Let we forget whose the one on the playground with the biggest stick.

    While we're at it, the rest of you foreigners need to learn English.

  27. Re:Err... it is a cheat...NEW VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or was I the only person paying attention in physics when it was explained how *any* electromagnetic transmission has infinite range, since decaying amplitude in accordance with the inverse square rule never reaches zero? Assuming a perfect vacuum, naturally.

    So now we need a VPN-Vaccuum Private Network

  28. Re:110 Km? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    uhhh errr... no ::points:: HE IS!

  29. Wow! by mesmartyoudumb · · Score: 0

    Yowzah!! That's .00916 rods to the Hz!

    --
    "Comedy's a dead art form. Now tragedy, that's funny."
  30. Re:Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amen, brother! This is one American that is ashamed that only that paragon of freedom, the Sultanate of Burnei, is the other country that sticks with us in clinging to this ole, insane system of measurements!

    You want to know the REAALLLY weird thing? The only industry in the U.S. to have completely and totally switched to metric is.....the liquor industry! Somehow, they finished the switch before the Reagan administration put a halt to the "metrication" program in the early 1980's. But most American still buy "fifths" and "pints" and "quarts" of whiskey and some still have no idea that they are not even getting that! Even the liquor store people give you a dirty look if you ask for a liter of whiskey - even though it plainly says it on the people.

    AMERICANS ARE STUPID!

    I really believe our leaders like it that way.

  31. that's not wifi jargon, that's incorrect notation. by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

    Metric units of 110km, not 110 Kms, the lamer. km is a abbreviation of KiloMeters, not KiloMeter, so the s should be left out entirely, and if you are going to capitalize the K, you better capitalize the m. it's better to just leave them both at no caps.

    so 110 km at 2.4GHz. 2.4GHz is superflous, we know they wouldn't be using anything else for that range, so it would have been better to just say 10km!

    Idiots!

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
  32. Re:Err... it is a cheat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ever since the pringles cantenas, that is not considered cheating. But the amp, if true, should not have been used.

  33. Re:WOW! THE DISTANCE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    110 Kms
    110 Kilometer seconds
    Shouldn't that be Kelvin milliseconds?

    No, it should be Kelvin meter seconds

  34. Re:Damn measurement standards..!! by tesmako · · Score: 1

    Football fields are confusing, they are typically used for area measurements. For things like the distance it is better to use a two-level pseudo-measurement system, for example; All the people in New York standing on each others shoulders would... and so on. Then we get two odd units (population of new york and the average height for a person in new york. Doubling the confusion in the name of explaining things for the daft ;)

  35. Re:Faraway, But So Close? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > useable signal on my laptop three rooms away from the WAP.

    You're not the only one with that complaint! I work for Best Buy, and it seems half of the wireless cards we sell come back because they won't work from one side of someone's house to another. I bought a $150 8dBi omni to get 802.11 to work reliably in my small 1,200 square foot house. Of course, as soon as I spent the money on the expensive antenna and cables, I read a post here suggesting decreasing the speed on 802.11 to make it somewhat reliable. I changed it to 1Mbps, and it worked even with the stock antennas. So, give 1Mbps a try in your house, and it might work well enough to live with.

  36. Re:Damn measurement standards..!! by RabidMonkey · · Score: 1

    according to this, the avg heigh of a human, in 1996, was 70.1 inches.

    google tells me that 1 inches = 0.0254 meters.

    population of new york city is 8,008,278 people (in 2000).

    so we have 8,008,278 people * 70.1 inches * 0.0254 = 14,259,059.31012 metres ...

    so, sadly, thats 14,259.059 km, which is a lot more than the wifi run.

    cheers.

    --
    We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
  37. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    We're not "Kentarians" we're either "Men of Kent" on the french side of the Medway River, or "Kentish Men" on the London side

    What happened to all the women?

  38. Re:Damn measurement standards..!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You sir, obviously have terrorist ties. You're plan to lay down the Sears Tower must fail.

    I'm telling momm... er... Ashcroft on you.

    Stormtroopers should be at your door in 5... 4... 3...

  39. Re:Units by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There's the problem. Most of the sheeple in the U.S. run as far away from physics as they can. Take only the required course in high school (at most, one year!) and then take Rocks for Jocks (Intro to Geology) in college, skipping physics altogether.

    This general American aversion to "knowing things" and "thinking about stuff" is really irritating. I think I want to go live in Europe for a while. Of course, according to Douglas Adams, I'm screwed there too...

    Jim

  40. Extremely useful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I mean, I guess it is extremly useful to use your laptop to access the net with a 10W amplfier powered by your batteries ...

    Some friends of mine have an office with a cool position above the city (nice view from there), and they have wireless access. The idea to exploit this to have wifi at home seems somehow cool and natural to me (I don't live too far away from there), the problem is how I am supposed to send data back (in a useful way)

  41. No, I'm New Here by New+Here · · Score: 0

    No, I'm New Here

  42. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well, considering Dover is in the county of Kent the odds are that if you can see Dover you can probably see Kent too.

  43. 110 Kms != 110 km by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Q: When is an editor not an editor?
    A: When he doesn't edit.

  44. Re:my personal best: 21.7 miles with 802.11b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uh, if you say so.

  45. Re:Old joke to be duped by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A pollock is a fish. Surely you mean a polack...

  46. Re:Old joke to be duped by qnxdude · · Score: 0

    too bad it wasn't italians that accomplished this. that way the headline could be WOPS do WAP :)

  47. Re:WOW! THE DISTANCE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dumbass. Kms = Kelvin meter seconds.

  48. record by digital_b · · Score: 0

    dude what good is the story if you cant read it? ITS IN POLISH.

    --
    yeah yeah yeah, of course you're right. now shut it then.
  49. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by reality-bytes · · Score: 1

    Funny, I thought everyone South of the Thames was just an "escaped criminal" :p

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
  50. Polish Buzzards... by twoslice · · Score: 1
    anyone living below gets a free meal... yay!

    Never ate a polish buzzard have you?

    --

    From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
  51. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by ynohoo · · Score: 1

    We keep them in the kitchen - we wouldn't want them to find out about the Frenchmen or the Londoners... ;)

  52. I don't think Poland cares about the FCC by winkydink · · Score: 0, Troll

    just a hunch

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

  53. Re:WOW! THE DISTANCE! by mrselfdestrukt · · Score: 1

    I thought it was Kitty Money Sodas.

    Ok, This is the last time I reply while under the influence... *sad*

    --
    "I used to have that really cool,funny sig ,but it got stolen."
  54. 7.5 miles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Working for a WISP the longest shot we have to a customer is 7.5 miles. With no trees :o)

  55. I don't think you read the previous post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He said "it would not be legal in the US" not "it would not be legal in Poland". Who cares what Poland thinks about the FCC?

  56. Re:bad polish-english translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know I could certainly use some "Sound towards our huge joy for our ear"

  57. Not Wi-Fi compliant by CaptainFrito · · Score: 1
    I believe that ACK response is 10mS (SIFS) which means the farthest compliant link is about 2km. Even if one uses 50mS DIFS, the maximum link distance is 10km. Beyond this the interframe space values must be tweaked and thus is not Wi-Fi compliant.

    If we're not talking Wi-Fi specifically, than satellites do 23,000 miles with similar power bandwidth ratios...

  58. Anyone willing to translate this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I dont supposed there is any English translations available?

  59. Re:my personal best: 21.7 miles with 802.11b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work for WiLAN and mobile access 802.16a is just a few months away ;)

  60. do you want a slap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you certainly deserve one

  61. Re:my personal best: 21.7 miles with 802.11b by cameronsto · · Score: 0

    Well looks like the morons have been slashdotted

    Congrats!

    cameron

  62. Re:Huzaa! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I always love to see the "my dick is bigger" posts on /. It's ruining the damn site. I know exactly what the original poster is talking about. 802.11 is absolute crap. It doesn't even work well enough to use 100m much less the ridiculous claim of 8km. You might have got it working for a few seconds at that speed, but we know for a damn fact it won't work consistently at 1/100 of that distance. Go take your crap elsewhere. This is a technical audience that knows better. The network at my plant needed 40 100mW access points with +6 dB omnis to cover about half of the shop floor. The only advantage 802.11 has is cost. We only needed 8 computers with WebGear Aviator 900 MHz cards to cover the same area. Unfortunately, you can't buy that equipment any longer so we had to use something else. I really miss that equipment. 900 MHz penetrates so much better than 2.4 GHz.

  63. Re:my personal best: 21.7 miles with 802.11b by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wireless in metro areas is a waste of time and money unless you're doing licensed band DS3 bypass and such. I got out of it a while ago - I watched all of the thievery, stock fraud, criminal misuse of spectrum for as long as I could, but there came a day when antinausea drugs or another line of work was the choice.

    Its interesting to hear that WiLan is moving along like that - there stuff has always been just bulletproof for me ... unless you have morons with torque wrenches who think they're installing the exhaust manifold on a small block chevy when they're touching your Andrew P2F. Funny thing is the chief moron for that event was *named* Andrew. I guess you'd have to know him to understand why its humorous.

  64. Re:and probably not legal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did you notice that the article mentions that this happened in Poland? Not the bailiwick of your wonderful FCC? US-centric idiot.

  65. Re:that's 110 kilometers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too fucking funny, nice one mate.

  66. Re:Huzaa! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > 802.11 is absolute crap.

    Exactly. I always love to read all these ridiculous claims wrt 802.11. It's entertaining like the National Enquirer. So far, I've called three guys on their bluffs. One was a local guy that was claiming to get 11 Mbps from his nearly 500m connection. We all know that's a lie. I ran a "ping -s 1500 10.0.0.1" on one end. The "-s 1500" part is important. It tells ping to use 1,500 byte packets. With the default 56 byte packets, there was only 2% packet loss which I might call working. With the 1,500 byte ones, the packet loss was >30%. I wouldn't call that 802.11 connection "working."

    Another was in Asheville, NC. He had great line of site between his office building and his house on top of a mountain. This is a wild guess, but I think the receivers were about 2km apart. He called it working, but when I visited his office, I got the real story. "I saw it work for a few seconds so I know it might work if I get it aimed just right." That's not working, and I saw a post here on slashdot bragging about how he got it to "work."

    The third was in the middle of nowhere in Maine. You know the type of place where the chance of any interference is absolutely zero. I met him when we worked together at Net Access in Philly. He claimed to have a wireless connection working between his house and his guest house. After going to visit him, I got the real story. He spent about $2k in antennas and cables from hyperlinktech.nu, and still couldn't get it to work at more than 1 Mbps with >50% packetloss at times. Admittedly, there were trees in-between the two houses, but they should have worked with those nice antennas at a distance of only 50m. He used wireless because he didn't want to run any cables between the two buildings since they used separate generators. In retrospect, he should have taken one of his spare cisco's and a pair of CSU/DSU's and used them.

    Out of all of those, doing "iwconfig eth0 rate 1M" to set the maximum transmit speed to 1 Mbps and "iwconfig eth0 256" to set the packet size the wireless protocol uses on both ends helped greatly, but it still wouldn't be what should be called working.

  67. Re:and probably not legal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is not correct.

    You can actually put up to 24dBm into a 24dBi parabolic, 48dBm EIRP, on a fixed point to point link. 100mW would be just fine. 24dBm actually is ~250mW.

    Under FCC regulations, the maximum EIRP for a fixed point to point link is variable depending on the antenna gain you use. You are rewarded with more EIRP by tightening your beam down. Makes sense. More reliability, less interference. Win-win for everyone.

    This scale starts from a 6dBi antenna with 30dBm input power. For every 3dBi of antenna gain beyond this, you must subtract 1dB of input power. And yes, its as confusing as it sounds.

    There is also no set limit how much EIRP you are permitted in a fixed point-to-point link, as long as you follow all the rules. And yes, RF safety regulations will become a factor when you start punching kW of RF with your beam-of-death 70dBi parabolic.

    Check out the table at the bottom of this page for reference:

    http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/Interpr et ingFccRegulations

  68. Not exactly a world record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First off, congrats to the team on accomplishing this feat.

    I would also like to note the two existing world records:

    Longest fixed link in operation: 115 km (72 miles) by HPWREN

    http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile /s tory/0,10801,75830,00.html

    Longest temporary wireless link: 310 km (192 miles) by weather balloon -- in Guinness

    http://www.newswireless.net/articles/030307-reco rd .html

  69. Re:WOW! THE DISTANCE! by bhtooefr · · Score: 1

    No. I don't think you can combine three units like that (temperature over distance AND time?!?). It WOULD be K/ms, or Kelvin/milliseconds.