Cantenna/parabolic Antenna

[+-geek-+]

heres the thing...im trying to make an awesome directional antenna for my wireless card (d-link DWL-G510). I have an old sattelite dish and thought i could throw somthin together. so i started surfin the net and found this...

 

first i used this to make a cantenna http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

as far as my measurements went it has a diameter of about 3.3 inches(it could be 2.25 but it was very close) and a length of about 11.4 inches. I made the copper wire inside 1.21 inches(some of that is inside the N connecter but not much). And I made my own "pig tail" like this: one end has some connector (very closly related to the N connector but not exact and it is the same as the chassis mount female connector on the cantenna, 5 feet of rg-58 low loss, 50 ohm cable, then i made my own "reverse polarity SMA connector"(i used a copper wire to go around the outside of the connector on the card and a small pin-grabbing, thing with a wire comming out of it for the inside connector(this could be where the problem is comming from but there is nowhere nearby with a reverse polarity SMA connector for sale).(use the 1/4 guide wavelength to see how far from the back i put the connector: I dont remember what it was right now but I think i followed it pretty well)

 

then i used this site to turn it into a parabolic dish antenna

http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

please note that i did not use a primestar dish but it is pretty much the same size and shape.

 

now when this is all done and connected i decide to test it out (please note that i am testing with an ad-hoc network between this computer and my mom's laptop; not an access point or router)

 

i use net stumbler to test it out and watch its signal strength and i get signifficantly better signal strength through the little rubber antenna that came with the card than the parabolic dish antenna! WHAT?!?! please give me advice: do remember I am on a SUPER BUDGET!!