This is a highly directional super sensitive 802.11 G WiFi antenna. It was created using a used Direct TV satellite dish, weather proof container, a Hawking high-gain wireless antenna and some scrap parts. It is not a radar, it is just a cool name for this project.

The Idea

The Hawking wireless card/antenna I used in this is already directional, but this gave it even more of a boost.

To get the most gain and to make the antenna the most effective use the parabolic equation to find the location of the focus in both the X and Y directions, this is where you want the wireless antenna to be, so that it will receive the strongest signal from the most angles.

The antenna will be enclosed in a weather proof container I for for free as a sample from OKW Enclosures.

The Construction

I used a rack adapter for some old ethernet switch to attach the enclosure to the end of the direct TV dish.

I mounted the wireless card inside the enclosure merely by adding a screw head for it to sit on.

I added a hole in the back for a usb cable to fit through and then sealed it up with hot-glue. Below you can see the finished product.

Results

I used merageek’s inSSIDer 2 to test the gain of the antenna. inSSIDer 2 is a much needed replacement of the old war-driving software network stumbler. Comparing the signal strength of both using my new antenna and not I got about 10db of gain. I was hoping for more but it is still nice. And even with only 10db of gain, I was able to go from picking up 2 wireless networks to at least 20, depending on which way I aimed the antenna.

I would also like to mention another piece of software called Ekahau HeatMapper. While this software is not useful with this antenna design it can be useful making out signal strength of a building or neighborhood. Its fun to play with.