Imagine the possibilities of getting wifi from over 50 miles away… whoa
Amateur engineering took a new turn on July 31, 2004, in the Nevada desert, as three teenage ham radio operators from Ohio took top honors in the 2nd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest. Held in conjunction with the annual Defcon convention, the contest seeks to discover who can achieve the greatest connected wireless network distance between two computers using the 802.11b Wireless Fidelity (Wifi) protocol.
Using two consumer-grade 32-milliwatt Orinoco Gold USB Wifi adapters mounted on the feed points of two surplus 9-1/2 foot satellite dishes, the team known as P.A.D. achieved a verified connect distance of 55.1 miles (88.67 kilometers), without the use of external amplification.
This surpasses previous records set in the unamplified class, including those of Canarias Wireless of Spain (70.5 kilometers) and Seattle Wireless (61.1 kilometers). [WiFi Shootout