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Here is the setup that I'm using at the apartment that I rent in a residential neighborhood on the Pawtucket / Providence city line. I'm on great terms with the landlord so he doesn't mind me mounting a few small antennas on the side of the house. It is very unobtrusive and can be barely be noticed from the street. In the spring I would like to move the antennas a little higher up to the peak of the roof to get a better line of sight. I may also install a second unit on the north side to get coverage in that direction. The two attached photos were taken during installation.
The WRT54G hardware ver. 2 is running the new v1.0.0 firmware and is connected to a Linksys antenna stand with TNC connectors model AS2TNC which has a cable about 6' long. The stand is mounted outside next to a window frame on the second floor with the cable running inside to the WRT. The omni antenna is 16" long and claims to be 9 dBi gain. Similar antennas can be purchased on eBay for about $3.79 each with free shipping. The flat panel is a TRENDnet TEW-AO14D with a claimed 14 dBi gain. I've seen them sell for about $50 - $60 new. The coverage pattern is about 30 degrees and the antenna is designed for outdoor use. The omni will only cover east through south to west as the building blocks the signal to the north. The flat panel is aimed south towards my other node hosted at Ladd Observatory. There is a second WRT54G node in my basement which connects the MESH wireless network to my Sun Netra server.
-mikeu W9GYR
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