First, thank you all for your help. Here's the feedback:
Peter,
I'm flying a Cirrus SR-20, but regardless of aircraft or location, I have a poor WiFi signal. Like I said, I even tried it in the middle of a field with no improvements. (I was thinking more about interference with other B, channel 9 WiFis, so short of stepping into a Faraday Cage, I've really tried many areas, where there should be no interference)
brinzlee,
I have tried other Wifi Strengths, but also no luck. If I drop it down to 10 mW, at 2cm, I'm at 50% strength. I hit apply after each time. I have noticed that the Dongle is Hot, but if it were too hot and were shutting down because of it, I would think the symptoms would be- Great Connection> No Connection, but I have a weak connection that is consistent from boot.
The hot aspect did make me wonder if it was a failing Dongle- I know in hydraulics, heat=leaks/failure. I have also tried to install a new dongle (edimax N150) but in that case, I can't even find PA WiFi at 0 distance (I guess I would need to install the driver for it, but I don't know how).
Geoffrey,
I did a clean install (reformatted the card, reinstalled, reset the settings per P.21 of 180520-Operating-Instructions-.pdf) and still same results. At 100mw I can't get further than apx 30 cm.