Looking For Some Soldering Mojo!, Mod my CF Wifi! Options

[maytagman]

G'day!
I'm fishing for a bit of expertise and perhaps some suggestions into either modding out a CF Wifi card to have some sort of antenna connection (preferably orinoco/mmcx). This topic has been discussed before, but it's also sort of a solicitation for some help. I live in a barracks where I don't exactly have room for a clean dustless space and a nice desk for all sorts of soldering equipment.

I'm looking for any suggestions as to an easy to mod CF card, and possibly someone to mod it out for me, in light of the above circumstances. As I've been unable to find a CF card that comes natively with any sort of antenna jack, I'm looking for help. My requirements are as follows:

1) Ability to use internal antenna when external gain is less (I know this is performed at the software level on some cards, where the stronger gain leads are drawn from)

2) Either a PCB-mounted jack or pigtail with a common wifi connector.

3) A natively compatible card if possible, if not, at least one that supports promiscuous mode and enumeration under kismet (which should be just about anything).

4) Hopefully the maximum (which I believe is 300mW) transmission power.

I'm sure we've dealt with this before, I've seen several options from d-link that look easy to do, but I hate d-link. I can provide you with a working CF card and any connectors you might require, along with very fair payment for your quality work. I don't need any warantees, or anything stupid like that. I'm not going to sue you. I just want it solidly built, slathered in epoxy, or heatshrunk preferably, the neater and more solid the better. I think I would like an in-built connector on the PCB better than a pigtail, as it allows more flexibility.

Again, I'd do it myself if I had the time, facilities, and expertise. The most soldering I'm used to is plumbing and some light antenna construction.
I'm in the US too, and would prefer to ship to someone on the continent before going overseas. Or, if you just have some tips or a photoguide, I'd appreciate that too!
Thanks!

[Da_Blitz]

I have done it however my wifi card has scince died (is recignised but all ID fields are blank, i hvent tried to fix it thogh)

when you pop off the top you will find that most already have a pigtail connector, i didnt have one handy so i solder directly to it

for antennas i belive that the dlink antennas that come with thier AP's are just the right size, however if you use a socket you can change to any type quickly enogh

as for power transmission you are not supposed to go over that however im sure there are pleanty of people that do, also note that that only applies to omni directional antennas, point to point are allowed to go higher

1) is done by the card so you dont have to worry, 2) as i said early is also done, all you need is the pigtail unless you are unlucky 3) is basically any 802.11b CF card on the market

Do not use the soldering iorn you used for plumbing, grab a cheap iorn with a low wattage and some resistors/vero board to practice on, Clean room conditions are nice but i cant think of any time where i have bothered and all my stuff works fine (including the bluetooth adaptors with external anntennas i added that are inside my NSLU from linksys

took me about 15mins in total to do, longest part was drilling a hole