Wireless
enthusiasts have been repurposing satellite dishes for a couple years now. This summer the longest
link ever was established
over 125 miles
http://pasadena.net/shootout05/
using old 12 foot and 10 foot satellite dishes. A dish that big is usually overkill for most people and modern
mini-dishes work just as well. The dish helps focus the
radio waves onto a directional antenna feed. We're building
a biquad antenna feed because it offers very good performance and is pretty
forgiving when it comes to assembly errors. Follow along
as we assemble the feed, attach it to a DirecTV dish and test out its
performance.
Why? With just a handful of cheap parts,
a salvaged DirecTV dish and a little soldering, we were able to detect access
points from over 8 miles away. Using consumer WiFi gear
we picked up over 18 APs in an area with only 1 house per square mile.
Building the antenna
Biquad antennas can be built from common materials, which is
nice because you do not have to scrounge around for the
perfectly-sized soup can.
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
We did have to buy some specialized parts before getting
started though.

The
most important part here is the small silver panel mount N-connector in the
center of the picture; the entire antenna will be built on this. We purchased it from S.M. Electronics,