First and foremost, the semi-legalese bullshit and backpedaling: I work for Griffin Technology, the manufacturer of the AirClick, but I was not involved in the creation of the AirClick in ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. I have absolutely no "inside information" about this product, and I hacked it cleanly solely based on my own years of electronics experience. Griffin Technology does not endorse or support this mod, anymore than CVS endorses people hacking their "single-use" digital cameras and camcorders or Sony endorses people embedding stereo microphones in a Walkman. In other words, this is all me and has nothing to do with Griffin, save that it is their product.
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A 100% LEGAL MOD! Griffin made a decision to with a certain look, and they felt they needed to use a PCB antenna inside the case. The simple reason this is all above board? MODDING A RECEIVER FOR BETTER RECEPTION IS _NOT_ ILLEGAL!!
On to the show...
The trickiest part of the whole mod is getting the case apart cleanly. I use an Exacto knife to split the seams, starting with the joint behind the USB connector. Then I work the edges along the sides and all the way around the top; you can either futz around the lightpipe to try to get it out in one piece or you can just cut it down the middle, either way it will look fine when you reassemble everything.
Once you get it all apart you need to solder a small piece of wire TO THE THRU-HOLE SPECIFICALLY LABELED FOR ADDING AN ANTENNA! This sort of makes the hack easier. ;) I assume this thru-hole was put here just in case it turned out that the PCB antenna sucked, so Griffin could fall back on a piece of wire shoved in the case. Whatever, it makes our life easier. Prior to opening the case I assumed I would have to tack the wire onto the edge of a SMT part like a resistor or cap, or maybe even scrape the coating off a trace and solder the wire down to it. The hack would have happend anyway.
I poked my antenna out of the side of the case by putting a small thumbtack hole in the rubber "grip" and feeding it out.
Throw it all back together again, glue the seams together, especially around the USB connector but taking care not to slop so much glue you lock the whole thing up.
Enjoy your increased range!
