If you can make it to the Wireless World 2008 exhibition in Darling Harbour next Wednesday or Thursday (2-3 April) please contact me for a free printable PDF ticket to the exhibition:

Email: nboehm [AT] purecaffeine [DOT] com
Mobile/SMS: 0409 288 464

It’s all happening; countdown to the Wireless World 2008 conference in 3 weeks plus upcoming BarCampSydney v3 as well as (I’m pleased to announce) the inaugural BarCampCanberra! Yes that’s right - last Thursday we got confirmation from the ANU that we will have the use of three rooms for BarCamp on 19 April.

It’s not about a bunch of geeks getting in a room and talking code snippets and beta platforms and frameworks. There might be a bit of that - but that’s not what BarCamp is about. It’s about anyone involved in technology, social networks, information, web, podcasting, business and start-ups … anything!

There’s going to be a few peeps coming down from Sydney to support our first BarCamp so if you live in Canberra there’s no excuse for not coming! 19 April. Head over to the BarCampCanberra v1 wiki page and add your name … or if you don’t have time, just post a comment here with your name, the topic of your presentation of if you’re just attending … and your t-shirt size, as we’ll be ordering a bunch of t-shirts (sponsored, so they’re free) and I’ll stick it on the wiki for you - because I’m a nice guy :-)

Now, I also should announce that we will be consolidating our various Free Wireless projects across the country under a single banner: Free Australia Wireless … JJ has done some great work with the logos and now we’ve just got to build the site. Between the various blogs we’ve already got some great content to populate the site with so it will do a better job of answering the usual questions like: What is Meraki? How do I use it? Is it secure? How can I get involved?

Oh and I’ve already started taking orders for Free Canberra Wireless Meraki Bulk Order #3.

From the Meraki High-Gain Omni-Directional Antenna fact sheet:

The Meraki High-Gain Omni-Directional Antenna can help extend the range of a Meraki Outdoor by refocusing the vertical signal to strengthen the horizontal signal.

This means that mounting a Meraki on a roof or second-storey with a booster antenna will actually result in lower signal strength below the unit compared with a normal antenna.

Below is the vertical polar chart of the Meraki booster antenna - so everything inside the shape is good signal strength, and you’re viewing it from side on; the optimal signal is like a big doughnut around the antenna:

As my Meraki Outdoor is mounted on my window on the second-storey of our house for optimal line-of-sight range it’s a bit tricky to actually extend the reach of the unit down to ground level … I’m currently doing some testing with the assistance of Rob who’s involved in the Free Canberra Wireless project and lives a couple of streets away.

Steve, Terence, Dean and Noel - I’ll email you shortly to arrange deliver; Brad, give me a couple of days and I can work out if I have a spare one for you, and “Griffmiester” I’ve put your two Minis + antennas aside to bring down to Melbourne at Easter.

COD is easiest for me, but I can provide bank details for direct deposit if you prefer.

Meraki antennas with standard antenna for scale
Meraki Outdoor with booster antenna