9.3 Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

In about a week, I had an omnidirectional antenna installed on the roof, and 25 feet of LMR-200 running down to our access point. Why did I use 25 feet of cable that loses almost 17db of signal every hundred feet? And why did I use an omni, when a tight sector or patch antenna would have made more sense? Because in early 2000, without any prior background in radio, I went with what our vendor had to offer: a 25 foot run of so-called "low-loss" microwave antenna cable, and an expensive omnidirectional popsicle stick (after all, if Lucent made the gear, it must be compatible with a Lucent access point, right?).

Luckily for me, even with the high line loss, the omni managed to do the job. That afternoon, I walked across the street, ordered an iced mocha, and merrily typed out the confirmation email. As I hit Ctrl-X Y , I was compelled to meditate on that inevitable question, "What next ?" If it was possible to get a good signal about 1,500 feet from the AP, how feasible would it be to provide wireless access to our local employees ? After all, many of our people live in the area and were using dialup to access our network from home. Would it be possible to provide a fast wireless connection to anyone who was within range? Just how far could this technology be stretched ?