Oh yes you can do that... all you need is big enough ears (read high-gain antennas) and absolutely clear line-of-sight (including fresnel zone!)
Just run a link budget calculator (for example this one
http://www.antennspecialisten.se/se/sup ... udget.html) and plug in the values you want to test before building the link
Your setup however, calculated on standard 18 dBm cards, pigtail, 25 meters of LMR400 cable and 18 dB antennas.... will not work over a 7.4 km distance. You will only get 1dB margin on 6Mb according to the math
Suggestions.....
- ALWAYS go with 802.11a! b/g is just to crowded to be usable
- use cards with good sensitivity, CM9 has -88 at 6Mb while SR5 has -94 at 6Mb!! That's an extra 6dB that you do not have to gain with antennas!
- always lock the cards on a lower speed (where they listen and transmit well, 24Mb is a good max limit) so that they do not try to step up and then fall back causing problems. Look at the link budget to see what kind of power you can expect and set the speds accordingly
- place the cards as close to the antenna as possible, 25 meters of LMR400 will cost you 8.8dB ON EACH SIDE! That's almost 18db lost in the cables that you have to make up for somewhere else... if you have to use long cables use 1/2 inch or 7/8 inch (3.62dB and 2.13dB loss for 25 meters cable length)
- use as few connectors, bulkhead adapters etc as possible.. each one costs you between 1/2dB to 2dB depending on quality
- use high gain antennas, it's easier to listen well then to shout loudly
So, after looking at those few points I would build your link using the Mikrotik RIC/522 integrated antenna with SR5 cards (excellent combination that I use myself).
This would give you the following signal strength (assuming legal output = reduced transmit powers, at least legal in europe.. not sure about the limits in your country), output power on the cards set to 8.3dBm = 30dBm at the antenna
Signal strength = -72dBm
Signal margin
6Mb = 22dB
9Mb = 21dB
12Mb = 20dB
18Mb = 17dB
24Mb = 14dB
So to summarize;
- reduce loss (few connectors, short cables)
- increase gain with PASSIVE methods (cards with better sensitivity, better antennas)
/Jörgen