Roll your own parabolic microphone

roll-your-own-parabolic-microphone

Parabolic microphones are used to listen in from a distance. You see them on the sidelines of NFL football games, but they're part of the standard issue in detective and spy novels. Now you can build your own parabolic microphone by following this example. The one component that may be hard to find is the parabolic reflector. You cannot simply use a bowl or other curved object as the precise … [Read more...]

FabLab helps the developing world set up long-distance wireless Ethernet

fablab-fabfi-wireless-ethernet

The wooden frame seen above hosts a parabolic reflector making up one side of a wireless network link. This is a Fab Lab project called FabFi which uses common networking hardware to setup long-distance wireless Ethernet connections. It's a bit hard to tell in the image above, but the reflector focuses radio waves on the antennae of a router we're quite familiar with, the Linksys WRT54G. It's held … [Read more...]

Various Cantenna builds

cantannas(bw)

Here is a classic project used to increase wireless signal strength. Cantennas focus using a waveguide very much like a magnifying glass focuses light. [Robert] made a Natural Light beer cantenna, pictured in the upper left. His approach used three beer cans, a paper towel holder, and a shower curtain rod. On the tipline, he noted a signal boost from 11Mbps to 54Mbps. This is certainly something … [Read more...]