I think most readers already know the existence of a new standard for wireless computer networks. It is the
802.11b standard, using a no-license ISM band that, in Europe, goes from 2400 to 2483 MHz. The band is divided
into 13 overlapping channels, each 22 MHz wide. Modulation used is DSSS - Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum, with
a maximum EIRP power of 20 dBm, that is 100 mW, and with a speed of 11 Mbps (megabits per second).
These modem are now quite cheap and can be used by everyone to make a private network inside his/her house
or company building.
Recently in Italy companies can also install public hot spot sites, to make people connect to Internet from
their laptop or handhelds.
The interesting thing here is that in many countries part of the ISM 2.4 GHz band is also
assigned to the radio amateur service. For example in Italy we have assigned the spectrum from 2300 MHz to
2450 MHz, so we can use commercial WiFi modems as ham radios, provided we don't go over the limit of
2450 Mhz. For 802.11b and g I think this means we can use only channels from 1 to 6 (and only 2 non-overlapping:
the 1 and the 6).
Even more interesting is the fact that, as licensed radio amateurs, we can use more power than commercial users.
In Italy we could go theoretically up to 57 dBm (!), but I doubt someone will do this, unless you want to put
online a microwave oven... In fact, it becomes possibile to transmit up to 30 or 40 dBm, covering wide
metropolitan areas.
And probably you don't even need all this power: much better to stay at the beginning
with 20 or 23 dBm and use high gain antennas. A vertical antenna at the access point can easily provide +8 to
+18 dBi gain and a small parabolic dish up to +24 dBi gain at client stations. Apparently this is enough
to cover 20 or more miles (32 km), line of sight.
Radio amateurs participating to the AWF tests would only need a Linux or Windows computer (any kind is ok)
with a wifi lan card. These cards exist in many flavours: external USB devices, internal PCI cards, etc.
Depending on distance, they should also install an external, possibly directional, antenna aimed at the
access point (my node). There are many antenna types usable: Yagi, can antenna, patch, parabolic dish, etc.
The higher the distance, the higher the antenna gain required, of course. Each doublig of distance should
require about 6 dB more gain, if I remember well.
I recommend (to myself and others) to consult the data sheet of the cards before buying them, because they
have not the same transmitting power or (more important!) the same sensitivity at the receiver. You should
compare the sensitivity at the same data rate because if you go slower, the sensitivity would be better.
This is interesting question, beacause 802.11g can reach 54 Mbps and is compatible also with 802.11b cards. But if you look at the specifications, you will see that to obtain these data rates you need much more dB of S/N ratio. Translated to English, this means LESS distance. Since AWF is not for a local, fast, computer LAN, but should connect radio amateurs at the maximum possible distance, I think it's better to stay with slower but more sensitive 802.11b (and perhaps not even at the full 11 Mbps). As a collateral effect, 802.11b equipment costs much less than 802.11g stuff. However, if someone wish to test distances with 802.11g, results are highly welcome.
I hope to start as soon as possible my node. I already have two USB wifi modems and I am trying them. I have also the Linux box, with web and ftp server already working. I need more work to set up the POP3 server and possibily also the News server.
Home page