Unamplified WiFi distance record set at 125 miles

Saturday. Defcon. 11:00am. The (WiFi) shot heard 'round, um, 125 mile stretch of land. That's right, Team PAD fired unamplified WiFi from Vegas to St. George, Utah—that's 125 full miles up in there. Congratulations, boys; now go live it up in Sin City while you've still got a chance, ok? Shooting WiFi signals two hours down the highway doesn't really qualify you to be in a commercial for the whole "What happens here, stays here" thing.

[E @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Well at least they did something constructive and stayed out of trouble. There's nothing wrong with that! Good for them I'd say.

[Spyvie @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

This just in�

Testicular cancer rates in SW Utah are reportedly soaring.

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

300 mW of power? I wonder what they can do with 750 mW and a 24 foot antenna.

[Jim @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Official team site is at http://www.wifiworldrecord.com

[mattb @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

now fit it in a pcmcia slot for me, please :)

[Wildoman @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

that's is so insane, I wish I could pick up that kind of wifi with my PSP. They really look like nerds. Speaking of PSP added some Mens Interest sites to my portal pspon.blgospot.com

[boxgamex @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

heck with fitting it to a pcmcia slot. I just want it in my area, 11mbit across 125 miles sounds good to me! i bet everyone in that area caught up on their downloads.

[Richard @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Ha! Now these guys will have NO problem scoring chicks back at school...

Oh wait....

[Richard @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

All kidding aside, though... I'm curious how these guys would do if they went 802.11a and had their antennas WAAAAY up in the air. I bet they could double the distance, as long as you have an antenna high enough to cover the curvature...

The best thing about 2.4 and 5 Ghz signals is that they'll goooooooo as long as you've got line of sight between the two antennas.

Theoretically, there's no limit to the distance, as long as you've got line of sight.

[egarc @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Maybe someone can explain this: why doesn't it take a huge dish connected to your laptop to send the signal back?

[Matthew @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

I can't find anywhere in the articles.. did they shoot it of the needle place (with the freaky deaky rides)? Or did they shoot it off the top of their own structure?

[strider_mt2k @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

How cool is that?!

RF is FUN people!
Kudos and 73!
~N2NLQ~

[jesse @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

#2:

that's actually true. it's called downwinders syndrome. it's a result of nuclear weapons testing in nevada. my grandpa lives in sw utah and he had/has prostate cancer.

[garyjohnson @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Doesn't wifi operate at the resonant frequency of water, like a microwave?

Wouldn't standing in front of the dish like that boil their eyeballs?

[Jason @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Now that you're done firing WiFi signals out of Vegas, make sure you go visit the bunny ranch and fire off some other stuff.

[Justin @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

#16 notice how they said "unamplified" the wattage is so low that even standing directly in the path of it there wouldnt be enough power to barely stimulate water molecules. In microwave ovens there us usually 700 or so watts at least bouncing around in a shielded and enclosed area of about 1.5 cubic feet. The power from the WiFi dishes is probally around what? 0.350 watts in a 200+ cubic mile area...

[Gorkon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

ERP is more then 350 Millawatts. Why? Well, the dish focuses the RF in the direction the apex of the dish points.

One note: I hope these kids are licensed Amatuer Radio Operators. Why again?? It's against the law for most pringles can and parabolic antennas to be used with WiFi. Granted, it's not very likely that the FCC may pull an enforcement action, but be careful. As far as I know, to keep within ERP limits, you need to design a antenna to keep you with in those, or just do it easy like and only use antennas that either came with your AP, or are designed to work with it....like Linksys's antennas that are WAY better then the ducks the AP comes with. This is why it's harder (but not impossible) to get these antennas or antenna connectors.

[Matthew @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

Great accomplishment, filthy trousers.

[er_or @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

this is totally great. I've checked the distance, and its seems hard to believe.

but, I'm little worry bout the safety. is this safe?.someone....

you guys cool.

[localrick13 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:02AM]

"Theoretically, there's no limit to the distance, as long as you've got line of sight."

WRONG - NAV is the temporal limitation in 802.11

The big question is how did they achieve the MAC layer Acknowledgment within the ack_timer.

Richard is right if he means the waves will propagate very long distances. But, the 802.11 machanism needs to receive the MAC layer Ack within a time period(NAV). The farther the 2 devices are apart, the longer it takes the waves to propagate causing a delay in time. This is the limitation.

What was done by the 125mile crew to account for the Ack delay? ..did they modify the ack_timer?