In August 2004 Unwired began its rollout of it's Wireless local loop (WLL) in Sydney. The system currently uses Sychronous Code Division Multiplexing (SCDMA) similar to CDMA mobile phones. The base stations are located around Sydney and provide a limited 'non line of sight' range to the customer using 3.55GHz. Each base station has beam steering phased array antennas so that RF energy for each timeslot can be directed towards the customer. The customer has a small indoor modem that does not require any extra wiring or external antennas.

To most customers this is where the story ends. They have their internet connection and are happy with the broadband connection.

The Unwired modem is commonly refered to as a "wabbit". The wabbit's ear can be disconnected by lining up the two marks and gently pulling it off. The exposed connector is an MCX type. It's commonly found on GPS receivers and is rated up to 3.5GHz. Unfortunately the coax availble for these types of connectors isn't rated to such a high frequency, limiting us to short pigtails to adapt to other types of connectors.

I started building antennas for unwired as soon as I had made some pigtails to adapt the MCX connector to SMA. I have lots of equipment that I previously built for 3.6GHz Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) which shares the band with unwired. first I used a commercial panel antenna and then made up some double diamond antennas. .......... to be continued. Doh !
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