<OT> Wireless Access Point

[Peter L. Peres]

On Tue, 30 Sep 2003, Wil McGilvery wrote:

> What I am wondering is if anyone on the list knows of a better way to
> pinpoint the location of a wireless access point.

There would be the trick of making the antenna directive and taking a
bearing or two. You can do this using yourself (your body) as movable
attenuator screen. Put the laptop on a non-metallic desk and slowly walk
around the desk while keeping fairly close to the laptop. When the
fieldstrength indicator dips you are cutting the main vector that ties the
laptop to the transmitter. Keep in mind that there will be reflected paths
too so there will be several dips. The biggest one is the one you are
looking for.

This works because your body is mostly water, and 2.4GHz is absorbed
pretty well by water (microwave ovens work at 2.4GHz too). The field
strength indicator must have reasonable resolution for this to work (say
3dB steps or finer).

This trick works for most microwave equipment above 1.5GHz, including GPS
up to a point. Do not try it with active radar though.

Peter
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