Low cost community network - senao or smc router & adapter..

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.networking,alt.internet.wireless (More info?)

I am looking at setting up a budget wireless community network with a
few neighbors up to about 1200 ft away ( but there are trees and
houses in the way ) . My budget is very tight and really would like
to use low cost off the shelf equipment with the highest power
possible and homebuilt antennas . Would it be better to use muliple
repeaters or the 200mw equipment offered by Senao / Engentius or SMC (
you can usually find better price deals on SMC) or will I need both .
I know that this sound odd but what is the best was to test before
buying everything ( ie . Would a 2.4 ghz DSS ( waht is typical power
?) cordless phone give me an idea of what to expec ) ?