I'm investigating ways to make my own wifi antenna for the purpose of broadcasting a wifi signal from a Piratebox

Now try to see if you get any signal from the sides
Protip you won't

...

The raspberry pi doesn't shoot nearly as much juice as the laptop, so the range is shit. I'm gonna have to boost the voltage. Time to rip up some charger blocks.

Consider free space optics instead, such as ronja.twibright.com/

I won't have LOS for this, but bookmarked.

Update: The Edimax burnt out. Destroyed. RIP. I need to get my hands on a wifi dongle that can handle having a big ass antenna attached.
Is this just the result of chinky hardware or is it going to be a real problem?

Buy some better chinky dongle.
What use case? Why don't you have LoS?

For wireless communication there is the Cantenna.

Mildly related I've heard on occasion of madmen using light instead of wifi in line of sight cases (think high rise apartment block to rest of town) with high speed and low error data transfer. Drop the optics into infrared for more stealth from certain types of eyes.

Here's a nice directional Wifi cantenna you can work on before you realize you'll need an amplifier to transmit outside of your backyard.

jacobsalmela.com/2013/09/07/wi-fi-cantenna-2-4ghz-how-to-make-a-long-range-wi-fi-antenna/

Dipoles are the easiest way to get the point across. Type in 2400 and learn something.

westmountainradio.com/antenna_calculator.php

You need to break the beam to see it, it's not very visible from the side. There is an IR version.
ronja.twibright.com/security.php
ronja.twibright.com/inferno/

Depends on what you want to do. For long range the receiver can probably build their own hardware too, but for short range you want normies to be able to receive with their devices.

MTM attack for Ronja optical systems would now would come from drones.

Also, piratebox is a giant fucking meme.
over $50, desirable to steal, needs maintenance, needs expensive parts from overseas
less than $10, not desirable to and almost impossible to steal, requires no maintenance whatsoever besides putting up new ones, very basic concept so anyone can figure out how to make a new one with stuff they have at home

People might vandalize it, but they'd need a hammer for it. It might be possible to hack something together with RFID/other passive wireless technology so it's hidden inside the wall, but that could get complicated real fast.

And flying a drone around trying to catch beams wouldn't look suspicious at all? It's a trivial fix, just put up a security camera and block tx if there's something moving in the way. You could also encrypt the signal, but it would be quite apparent if there was a drone hovering in mid air for multiple days.

Piratebox
There's a reason it's $50 and not $10.
Besides, once the concrete sets on the $10 USB it's a permanent fixture that anyone can modify or monitor

kek. Add in a jammer (there would be sufficient power available) and the drone would have a hard time calling home unless configured for automated operations.

In this case, the normies are squirrels and birds in your back yard. You might get a few more if you're in a multi story apartment. It will be little mystery who the pirate is, so you might want to limit what material you have on your adhoc network.

a hunting rifle is cheaper

..and fun

wrong, nigger, see

read the OP, it's a piratebox
also stop shilling ronja

There are a variety of cherry picked conditions which could increase the receiving range one of which was already discussed in this thread. It still wont change the fact that the majority of people wont be able to connect to you.