Re: Airport quality levels?

[Tovar <tvr@usermail.com>]

    Something that should be avoided: hanging the base staion onto a
    vertical surface with Apple's bracket. This reduced receive level by 10
    dB for me!

    I suppose the problem lies in the polarization of the electromagnetic
    waves, which would in that case be different, hence non-aligned, and
    greatly reduce receive levels. I'll have to open up the base station and
    see in what position they mounted the antenna ;-)

Correct.  Antennas should point vaguely in the same general direction, 
as the signal radiates perpendicular to that.  Not that this system is
likely to do this, but exact vertical/horizontal mismatch can have as
much as 40dB of loss.  Also, higher is not better here (unless you're
trying to cover a warehouse rather than a living space).  Try to keep
everything vaguely on the same level.  For example, if the base station
is on top of a tall bookshelf and the laptop on an nearby coffee table, 
you might see 10dB of loss if the antennas are acting like vertical
dipoles (e.g. a single rabbit ear) and you're in a large open space
(e.g. your walls don't make very good reflectors).  In reality, RF is
more complicated than that, but keeping the antennas vertical should
help.  Good luck/73s.
                                 -- Tovar