Here's a question from this. Does the ionosphere block frequencies in the 2.4Ghz range? If one can reach 125miles with WiFi equipment, perhaps communications with satellites in Low Earth Orbit may be possible with the same equipment.

TECHNOLOGY: 125 Miles of Wireless: "Last year at Defcon, four kids from Ohio cobbled together scavenged satellite dish equipment, loaded it onto a truck, and dragged to the desert outside Las Vegas to see how far they could send an unamplified wireless signal. They set the record at 55.1 miles, and on the last day of the conference when they stepped up to accept their award, one of them jokingly asked if anyone wanted to buy their equipment so they could get home.



This year, the same four friends loaded up even more gear and set out for the desert again, with the intention of shattering their record... which they did. They shot a decent wireless signal almost 125 miles into the desert, across the border into Utah.

Contestants had to establish an 802.11b or 802.11g Wi-Fi link using two laptops with home-brewed or commercial antennas, and see how far apart they could place the computers and still get a connection with or without amplification.



The team, iFiber-Redwire, competed for the second time in the Wi-Fi shootout contest last weekend at the DefCon hacker conference here, and achieved a 124.9-mile unamplified connection from atop a mountain in Nevada and a small mound in Utah. (Wired magazine helped sponsor the contest.)



That was several dozen miles farther than the 55.1-mile link that won them the contest last year. They maintained the connection for three hours.



Ben Corrado, Justin Rigling, Andy Meng and Brandon Schamer, all 19 and 20 years old and hailing from Ohio, were hoping to demolish a 192-mile record set by an amplified air-to-ground link in 2003, but were limited by terrain and time.

Even though they had some sponsorship this year, the team was plagued with problems. One of their laptops died in the desert and would only function if held upside-down. Their path to their destination for the shot was blocked by a forest fire. While rigging up their gear, one of the teammates fell from a scaffold and broke his leg.



That's some pretty amazing stuff from young engineers. I can't wait to see what this team is doing in a few years.

(Written by: Shalome)

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(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)