About

This is my story about building a WiFi antenna with a can, commonly know as a cantenna. This will be a fun and interesting project. As with most of my projects I expect it to grow and evolve as I research and build.

A passing cantenna is a number closer to zero than -80db, for example -70db would be better than -80db. Being the overachiever that I am at times my goal is going to be in the mid 60’s.

I will include a list of links with a brief description of what they are and how I used them. My goal with this blog will be to provide enough information for the readers to build their own ideas and turn those ideas into their very own cantenna. Because no two of these are the same I will not provide step by step instructions but there will be plenty of links and test results with what I did to get a different result than the test before.

I am starting with a can of Busch Beans, maybe I will get lucky and mess up the first try and get to eat two cans of beans. Since I have not done this before I have no idea what else I will be using for parts or what the final result will be. I will be adding links for research I have done and build a list of parts as I go. I will also include test results and theory’s as to why one was better than the other. I would like to do this on a day by day entry, but I do not think that is going to happen simply because of my hectic schedule and the fact I only have one day a week to actually test.

links I used for my research and to generate ideas.

This site provides step by step instructions as well as concepts behind technology (that is if you consider a coffee can technology)

An awesome example of a cantenna, with lots of info and links to other interesting sites.

Circular Waveguide Antenna for 2.45 GHz / 802.11b

A fantastic article about antennas and 802.11 I found this very interesting and educational

This is a PDF on Parabolic antennas. Most of the information is way over my head, but is was all the proof I needed to move forward with my idea of using some sort of a dish. http://www.qsl.net/n1bwt/chap5.pdf

While looking for ideas I stumbled across a wok I use for making fish tacos while camping. I noticed the shape right off the bat and a light bulb lit up in my head. A simple “wireless antenna wok” search on Google turned up with this. WOKFI

An actual primestar dish with a cantenna being used as a wifi antenna

Great video on you tube using an actual dish A Segment from TechTV’s The Screen Savers.

Miscellaneous pictures I found while doing research