Bristol Wireless are doing a demonstration of wireless technologies. One of these demonstrations is a live webcast from the streets of Bristol back to Easton Community Centre, where the event is staged. Rigging up a DV camcorder to a laptop for webcasting was easy. We hit a snag when we realised that the signal dipped out at street level because of the wireless card's antenna. The solution to this was to hold a more powerful antenna up at around 10 feet. Seeing as none of us wanted arm-ache, Matt Leonard built this fantastic backpack!
The backpack is built from an old camping rucksack, and is fitted with an antenna pole with an 8dB omnidirectional antenna from Solwise. A Linksys WRT54G wireless router is attached in the middle, with a 12vdc sealed lead acid battery to provide power for up to 15 hours.
It's extremely comfortable to wear, and can easily be worn all day (provided you don't walk through any doors).
The router runs a hacked version of the firmware from Sveasoft, which supports WDS and connects to the Bristol Wireless network for a backbone, whilst relaying the signal to any device nearby. The range of the network means we could conceivably cover a couple of miles on foot whilst webcasting continuously.
The main reason for no waterproofing is to keep the equipment on show to demonstrait the technology and get people interested in the Bristol Wireless network.
Article written by: Andy Laurence
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