When you are traveling with laptop or PDA and connecting to wireless hotspots, there is often a problem of a weak signal. I have often wished I had external antenna to extend the range of my laptops internal WLAN antenna.

I also need a hat to protect me from a hot sun particularly here in New Zealand with thin ozone layer.

Why not combine a fashionable hat with removable top layer which becomes WLAN antenna?

Best shape for antenna would be parabolic shape but that is not necessarily best for a hat. I would prefer some cowboy style hat. To marry these two someone needs to come up with designs which will accommodate both shapes and has the required hardware and cabling to connect into your laptop. Also the antenna part would need some adjustable attachment to allow positioning of the antenna towards the WLAN transceiver.
-- Pellepeloton, Jan 02 2008

WiFi Detecting T-Shirt http://www.thinkgee...hirts/generic/991e/
Only at Thinkgeek, I think. [Spacecoyote, Jan 03 2008]

Hat Antenna Plans http://www.southgat.../atv/hatantenna.htm
Use unmodifed as the 802.11 frequencies are actually inside the 2.4Ghz amatuer allocation! [webfishrune, Jan 04 2008]

Hat Cam http://www.hamtv.com/pdffiles/Hatcam.pdf
A cam and a TV transmitter in a hat [webfishrune, Jan 04 2008]

Led Lamp Solar Cap www.2clight.com
Solar powered led light cap [Pellepeloton, Feb 05 2008]

Cantenna http://www.cantenna.com/
[MisterQED, Feb 05 2008]

Phased array antennas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array
[MisterQED, Feb 05 2008]

All hat, no sheep.
-- ConsulFlaminicus, Jan 02 2008


Parabolic shape dictates you have the crown - assumedly the receiver - of the hat pointed directly at the LAN transmitter. Don't move.
-- elhigh, Jan 02 2008


Practically you need to remove your hat or at least part of it to use the antenna.

The parabolic dish needs to be facing down towards your head while walking except if you are war-walking and looking for hotpots. This would make you looking quite silly unless the antenna part is camouflaged somehow?
-- Pellepeloton, Jan 03 2008


I like the idea, it could become a geek fashion statement. Pair it with WiFi detecting shirt [link] and you're set.

Only issue is, most laptops don't have an easy way to hook up an external antenna. With mine for example, one would have to make a hole in the case, take the entire laptop apart, run wires through the hole, and solder them to the WiFi adapter in the right place (marked by the two removable wires plugged into it), and finally solder those to a plug and glue the plug into the hole. (Not that I'm incapable of doing that...)

A bun anyways.
-- Spacecoyote, Jan 03 2008


External USB WLAN antenna dongle would solve that problem.
-- Pellepeloton, Jan 04 2008


I've seen this done. both for 802.11 and for 2.4Ghz and 10Ghz Amatuer TV transmissions.

See links for a couple of examples.
-- webfishrune, Jan 04 2008


I forgot to mention that technically this product would be illegal in the US (damn FCC raining on everyone's parade).
-- Spacecoyote, Jan 04 2008


//I forgot to mention that technically this product would be illegal in the US (damn FCC raining on everyone's parade).// Would love to know why?
-- sprogga, Feb 05 2008


It would be legal, just like the Cantenna. It is only illegal to boost the power of the signal. For your hat though I would probably go with a phased array antenna system, as that would look less rediculous and would allow you to turn your head, though not nod your head, which is at least a little better.
-- MisterQED, Feb 05 2008


Signal is not amplified but better directed between the sender and receiver, nothing illegal about that as far as I know.

This way then distance from the hotspot could be much longer without the loss in data speed.
-- Pellepeloton, Feb 04 2009



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