Amateur engineering took a new turn on July 31, 2004, in the Nevada
desert, as three teenage ham radio operators from Ohio took top honors
in the 2nd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest. Held in conjunction
with the annual Defcon convention, the contest seeks to discover who can
achieve the greatest connected wireless network distance between two
computers using the 802.11b Wireless Fidelity (Wifi) protocol.
Using two consumer-grade 32-milliwatt Orinoco Gold USB Wifi adapters
mounted on the feed points of two surplus 9-1/2 foot satellite dishes,
the team known as P.A.D. achieved a verified connect distance of 55.1
miles (88.67 kilometers), without the use of external amplification.
This surpasses previous records set in the unamplified class, including
those of Canarias Wireless of Spain (70.5 kilometers) and Seattle
Wireless (61.1 kilometers).
Read more from Wired News and the full release will be available on WiFi-Shootout.com.
I had the good fortune of visiting the event when the winners set their record. Signed copies of Wi-Fi Toys were awarded to the P.A.D. team. Congratulations!
My digipics from the event are below...
