El Cheapo Cantenna

I nicer writeup of this mod appeared in Makezine volume 7. This is the quick and dirty version.
The build cost $8 for the wirelss card, the can was hiding in my garage.

	Ingredients: 4" diameter coffee can Standard wireless dipole antenna Soldering iron/solder Zip tie
This external antenna came with a belkin wireless card. Internally, it's the same as most generic antennas linksys, etc.
A bit of prying reveals the innards. It's a standard dipole. The top recieves signal and the lower half is grounded.
The top of the dipole happens to be the correct size for the element in our old friend the cantenna. All we have to do is drill a hole 1.72 inches from the bottom of the can. Then solder the lower shielded half to the can.
Once it's done, we can re-attache the base. Just slit it down the side, cut off the top and wrap it around the original antenna base. Add a zip tie to hold things together.