DIY Mini SD Wi-fi Antenna

I've posted in the past about the Mini SD wi-fi card that I had purchased for my Motorola Q9m and how I was unhappy with the range that the card afforded me being that it was only a wireless B standard. I searched pretty extensively on the Internet looking for an antenna or some other sort of range extender for mini SD wi-fi cards but could find nothing. So I decided to solve the problem myself.

Introducing the Easter Egg Mini SD Wi-fi Antenna. Here's how you make it:
1. Take any run of the mill plastic Easter egg and separate the bottom half from the top. You may discard the top half.
2. Using a knife or scissor cut a slit in the bottom of the egg that is the size of the part of the Wi-fi card that sticks out from the phone. It is imperative that you leave an opening that will result in a snug fit. It's better to start off too small and then make it bigger as needed.
3. Now you want to line the inside of the egg with foil. I found that cutting the foil into triangular wedges worked well for placing them inside the shell without too much crumpling. My first attempt involved just jamming the foil down in in one big sheet and it didn't work very well.
4. The foil should cover the entire interior. I simply crimped the foil around the top edge of the egg to hold it in place, though an adhesive would be more desirable for long term use. You might be able to see in the pictures that I resorted to packing tape around the outside to hold the foil in place.
5. Now you simply push your wi-fi card through the slot that you made in the egg and into the card slot on your phone. If you made the slit in the bottom of the egg correctly, then the card itself should hold the Egg Antenna in place. My egg stayed on the phone in winds of 10-15 MPH.

That's it. Using the Egg Antenna I was able to detect and connect to two separate wireless networks that were each almost 1/4 of a mile away across open fields. The signal wasn't strong but it was there. Without the egg I couldn't even detect the networks. The lightweight nature of the plastic egg made it perfect to attach to the side of the phone and not even notice any weight difference.

I'm sure that there could be vast improvements made to this design. Here are just a few thoughts on the subject:
1. Finding a better method of completely covering the interior of the egg smoothly.
2. Possibly use some other small plastic item that isn't quite as deep as the egg is. I feel that it currently might be making the connection a bit too directional.
3. Though I did just fine with having the egg held on by the card itself, it seems that there could be a better way to ensure it stays attached.
4. For long term use I would definitely paint the outside a matte black so that it looked a little less flamboyant.

Well I hope this was helpful to people that also have smartphones without built-in wi-fi. I'm sure within the next year you would be hard pressed to find any on the market that don't have it built in. But for those of us that already have one, we should try and get the most productivity out of it as possible.