I apologize for using the AMSAT-BB for an OUTERNET... When using Outernet's Wi-Fi ability, I am wondering what the effective range of that Wi-Fi may be?

I Quintupled the range of my Outernet Raspberry Pi from about 200' outside to about 1000' outside by soldering on a 1.2" piece of wire as a 1/4 wave vertical compared to the on-board-ceramic antenna... This hotspot would be able to cover the entire fleamarket at Dayton for example.

see: http://aprs.org/outnet-hotspot.html

And then today, I played around with EZNEC to see if I could come up with an Omni Vertical to be able to have an Outernet Receiver in my car able to receive the Outernet signal no matter what direction the car was pointed. I came up with this:

http://aprs.org/OUTNET/antennas/Colinear-100ohmsX.png

I haven't built it since it requires a hole in the middle of the roof, but its an idea... This omni is 17" tall and has a conical max gain of over 9 dBi at an elevation angle of 40 degrees that matches the elevation angle of Inmarsat over the central latitude swath of the USA. It was hard to get the 40 degrees, but was easier at 45 degrees and higher just with simple long monopoles, suitable for Southerners or Mexicans. Just cutting wire whip to the right length without even a phasing stub works at these higher elevation angles (and lower latitudes).

Of course a helix woiuld be an easy to build antenna, but it needs to be pointed at the Inmarsat satellite which is geostationary south of Texas.

For the overall ham radio ideas for this Global Outernet system, see:

http://aprs.org/outnet.html

Bob, WB4APR