downtown core free wifi

[James Knott]

phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>> I've been wondering as well.  Also, any ideas on the
>>> range?  I'm out
>>> in the Brampton / Mississauga area...  Any chance
>>> it'll extend this
>>> far?
>> This is a Toronto Hydro project and they plan to set
>> up repeaters to cover all of Toronto over the next few
>> years, but only Toronto (starting with the downtown
>> core). Since they are using 802.11g you are talking
>> 300 feet (100 metres) plus or minus. I mean just to
>> prove it COULD be done I was reading about a bunch of
>> guy who set up a 125 MILE (201 Km) 802.11b connection
>> across the desert in Nevada, without amplification,
>> but with 12 foot (3.7 metre) antennas. So, how close
>> are are you to the Toronto boundry is the first
>> question, the second question being how wierd (and/or
>> big) are you willing to get with your antenna?
>>
>> Blunt truth, unless you want to get very wierd you are
>> going to have to talk to the powers that be in
>> Brampton and/or Mississauga.
>>
>> Colin McGregor
>>
>>> I also spend a lot of time in Hamilton.  I read in
>>> the Spectator
>>> earlier this year that the City of Hamilton was also
>>> thinking about
>>> setting up city-wide wireless.
> 
> There are web sites that describe in great detail how to build a suitable
> antenna, and the sort of gain that you can get. My favourite: a parabolic
> dish using a won-ton strainer. Doubtless such a unit could be found on
> Spadina Avenue near Dundas...
> 
> One thing to keep in mind is that these antennas (antennae) get their gain
> by being very directional. So the antenna has to be aimed *very* carefully
> at the source *and* it has to stay put during things like a Canadian
> blizzard. Also, a rainstorm in the path can kill reception.
> 
> So it would be a fun thing to do, but I wouldn't want to count on the
> reliability.

FWIW, I recently attended a course on a digital microwave system (up to
50 Km & 500 Mb/s) and found that aiming was surprisingly easy.

First rule of thumb, was to extend your arm, with thumb up, to get a
general idea of beam width.  ;-)

Next, there is a simple bolt on "gun sight", which is used to aim the
dish at the target.  It is now close enough to measure signal strength
to make final adjustments.  They even had a device that sends the signal
strength info, via blue tooth signal injected into the coax going to the
dish, so that the person adjusting the antenna can get a bar graph
displayed on a Palm computer.  All quite interesting.
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