Excellent buy for the outdoor wifi connection

For those who live in an area that requires external WiFi linkup, boosting, or even upgrades, such as in a mobile home park, wood cabin, or in the middle of the desert somewhere. You have to take into great considerations when you purchase a WiFi upgrade for indoor/outdoor usages, such as what WiFi components for best broadcasting/receiving, what type of wire to prevent signal strength loss and noise induction into the wire from the local sources, such as a microwave, electromagnetic interference, or worst yet, accidental crimping of the wire.

The Wire:
It's a pretty big and heavy duty wire. Hawking Tech doesn't offer any info on it, accept it's made for its proprietary outdoor high gain antenna. It's actually an LMR/CAG 600 wire. Very thick insulation, with a very thick copper core in the middle that's flexible to prevent kinks when it's curled or bent accidentally. The wire has a reverse male and a female N-type connectors...Remember, N-TYPE. If you want to convert this for your router usages, you may have to purchase a N-type to TNC, SMA, RF, or even BNC converter. All can be found at a specialized electronic warehouse, Fry's Electronics, or online stores. Forget about looking at CompUSA or RadioShack for these converters. Not going to find it.

The Field Test:
Using the software NetStumbler for Windows, and GKismet for Linux, I've measured and compare constantly for Signal-to-Noise Ratio, as well as the power level requires by the router/access point pushing to the antenna, and the amount of power uses by the PCI/PCMCIA card to rebroadcast/receive the signals. I use the shorter version of the wire, less than 2 feet, connecting directly to the external HyperLink Tech 8.5dbi HiGain Antenna as a control test. Same configuration, antenna location, and laptop distant-angle away from the antenna, I replace the ~2 feet Hawking LMR 600 wire with the 30-ft version. From the noise and signal strength results, there's a signal strength loss of 2.6dbi, with an induction of noise of 1.7dbi. Total lost is 4.3dbi. In otherwords, if you're planning to get an external antenna, with omni-directional broadcast/receive, you have to get a minimum of 6dbi to extend your WiFi coverage by 100 feet all around. But keep in mind that you have to clear everything in between the antenna and your computing unit, such as laptop, computer, etc. Anything in between such as a wall, tree, shrub, etc, will decrease the signal dramatically.

Note:
If you're going this route, you might as well go with the directional patch antenna array. Three 7dbi patch antenna linked together with a signal splitter box, pointing in the three direction where you will use the WiFi the most, and your signal strength will be much higher, with greater coverage distant, regardless of the in betwen obstructions. My two patch antennae can penetrate through 7 dry walls at 6dbi, and still have 75% of their signal strength relayed between the patch antennae and the systems.