Concur, but you don't need a lot of power to get wifi distance. With line of site, we got a 20 mile link running between a linksys AP and an orinoco PCMCIA card, each running about an unaltered 28mw, using 24dB gain antennas. We use this stuff to supply internet access to rest stops at a local bike ride, and never use power amps. We've done a reliable 8 mi link for the past several years this way.
...snip...
Yeah, you don't
We were running crazy power as a test, more to see what we could do over the noise - we were running from a 'Tall building in Manhattan' (But NOT the empire state building) to a building on the Queens/Nassau border, as a test to see what could be done in disaster mode - we were on air at those kinds of power for circa 5 minutes. We found we could no it nicely with one of the readly available 'high power' PCMCIA WiFi card, and a GOOD antenna, IF we kept the coax run short (like a couple of feet). You know - the typical rules you play with with LNAs and the like. The High power test was a "can we hook the antenna on the far end of circa 100 ft of LMR-400 and still get signal in, in case we can't setup where we want"
Our eventual answer? A laptop, the high power card, and a router in an "orange box" - running in infrastructure mode - the Orange box goes in a high spot with a BIG battery powering the box, the laptop is basically acting as an internet router/gateway - and feeding the signal to the router, which is providing the local WiFi to the area. I don't know the exact way it was done, as one of the other AECs and the EC were the guys doing the main playing, but I know where the box IS, and how to set it up
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