W4NNG wrote:
Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range but
suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG




Use ethernet up the tower and PoE (Power over Ethernet). There's lots of
off the shelf solutions here.

RF interference to/from the Ethernet (or USB for that matter) would be
an issue.

You can also do fiber optics (for ethernet, you can pick up
ethernet:fiber media converters surplus quite cheaply.. Then it's just
the fiber cable with connectors already attached, which can be found
fairly inexpensively, if you scrounge. Fiber is cheaper than coax, in
general.)

Or, as someone else suggested, use a second wireless adapter with a
directional antenna to bridge it to your shack. Then all you need up
the tower is DC power.

You might be able to do it with something like a single WRT54, too.