n4zda's blog
Maritime Mobile Wireless Adventure
Recently, due to the nature of my work, I became marooned aboard a large cargo ship berthed pierside for maintenance near the downtown area of an eastern american city without a digital connection to the outside world. I tried to use a modified DD-WRT given to me by some good friends from the digital realm of society to make a connection. To my supprise, the standard antenna that came new with the wireless adapter wasn't capable of receiving signals strong enough to make a connection on any of the open access points within range. The RF signal strength from all of the open access points was one to two dB down into the noise. To overcome this problem, I consulted my trusted friends within the digital realm, and with some late night rumaging through various shelves and boxes full of cables and connectors we came up with a solution. My friend had an extra 18 dB gain flat panel antenna, and an N-Female to RPSMA-Male adapter.


