A little info...and different things

I originally wanted to do some long-distance experimenting with wireless networking.

Firstly though, I want to say that this blog and info is for people who want to LEGALLY experiment with long-distance wifi. If you're trying to use your neighbor's connection without his permission then please go elsewhere. Remember, if you don't have permission to use it and it's not a free access point then it's illegal to connect to it.

Wireless networking has definitely held high interest for me. It combines some of my hobbies and work (computers, networking, radios, and electronics) into one thing.

So I picked up a couple routers and wireless cards. Unfortunately they were all ones that did not have detachable antennas (older Belkin and Netgear) . I figured I'd put antenna connectors on them, but after looking at the tiny traces I'd have to connect to I put my experimenting on the back burner for a time and just played with the wireless aspect 'as-is'.

I did set up a local Wireless Networking in NNY Yahoogroups Mailing List, and while a few people joined and posted it quickly died.

I want to also throw in a quick thank you to an old friend of mine, Peter B. - he's given me some older obsolete equipment to mess with over time and we've traded software, links, and advice for years.


A quick and easy project you can try, that really works - is to make reflectors for the stock antenna on your router or PCI card. It does work, maybe 10 - 17% increase in power or so. Here's the original link and a modified one here.

One of the projects I was working on - adding an antenna to my existing Belkin PCMCIA card. Blah. Anyway, some info from my old webpage:


Abandoned project - Belkin Wireless PCMCIA Notebook Card Model F5D6020 ver.2
This card is much different then the version 1 of this model. Version 2 is the same as the SMC-2632 card and has a Atmel AT76C502A Chipset.
To add an external antenna I researched the links you can find below as well as many, many others, and Usenet groups too. I found nothing on modding my card, but some on other cards. After giving up on finding anything I set out to figure it out myself. First I checked the FCC database and found some info after entering the FCC ID of the card. Some internal photos from Belkin showed some nice shots of the 'innards' of this bird. But nothing on taking it apart.










I could find the two small antennas and a U.FL plug (used for testing?) in the photos. After a little fiddling with the actual card I saw that I might destroy the card before I got it apart.

Back to the pictures I got from the FCC site first... On closer examination on one of the photos I could see the Belkin label on the plastic part seems to be covering an access hole, and it looks like it is right over the U.FL connector and is on the correct side. Carefully peeling it up reveals this to be true (see pic below).



Now all I needed to do was find a U.FL connector for it, and wire some some pigtails into a BNC connector. Once I have that I will be all set to test external antennas. Supposedly on other cards when you plug something into the U.FL port it disconnects the internal antennas, but also the U.FL port might not be a heavy-use connector. So possibly it will be best to permanently mount this connector onto the card and always use an external antenna - plugging it into the N connector on the end of the pigtail instead. These little U.FL connectors seem to be very expensive for their size!

I ordered a U.FL to N pigtail from netgate.com (item #PIG-UFL-NF-19) . It cost about $23, after shipping. Received it fine and plugs in under the label on the card, just like it is supposed to. Now I just need to mate an antenna to it. NOTE - this project is abandoned...