Well, folks I finally decided to test my new antennas. First, I decided
to shorten the antennas to 4 elements instead of 8 so I could mount
the antennas directly on the back of my thinkpad's screen. The 8 el
jobs would have made life harder, requiring connectors, mounting
plates, etc. All that for just 3db more gain. Nah...

I went on a "war walk" this morning, scanning my neighborhood for any
WiFi access points. I've got a neighbor down the street who has one
and with my old antennas (2 inverted V's), I could pickup his network
from about 5 houses away. With the new antennas, I picked up his system
from twice the distance. Nice! As I understand it, a 4 el coaxial
colinear
antenna will have about 6dbd gain so getting double the range seems
right. I was curious if my setup was directional so I got to the fringe
coverage range and turned around 360 degrees but saw no drop in the
signals. It seems like microwaves go right through my screen (and
me!).

Now to construct a pair of 8 el antennas for my WRT54G router.....

Disclaimer: I am NOT trying to "hack" free internet access from the
neighborhood WiFi 802.11b/g systems - that's not what wardriving is
about......

Ken KG0WX