Signal strength for ath5k is poor

The signal strength for netbooks with the ath5k wireless card is reportedly much worse than in Xandros, with the signal intensity being much lower, or non-existant, in places where the signal was perfectly fine under Xandros.

http://forums.geteasypeasy.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=616

One person's dmesg (on an eeePC 900A) is as follows:

# grep ath5k /var/log/messages
Jan 11 13:04:08 easy1 kernel: [ 9144.874998] ath5k_pci 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A disabled
Jan 11 13:04:11 easy1 kernel: [ 9148.496151] ath5k_pci 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Jan 11 13:04:11 easy1 kernel: [ 9148.500663] ath5k_pci 0000:02:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
Jan 11 13:04:11 easy1 kernel: [ 9148.505081] ath5k phy0: Support for RF2425 is under development.
Jan 11 13:04:12 easy1 kernel: [ 9148.550331] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
Jan 11 13:14:00 easy1 kernel: [ 57.424411] ath5k_pci 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Jan 11 13:14:00 easy1 kernel: [ 57.424489] ath5k_pci 0000:02:00.0: registered as 'phy0'
Jan 11 13:14:00 easy1 kernel: [ 57.428889] ath5k phy0: Support for RF2425 is under development.
Jan 11 13:14:00 easy1 kernel: [ 59.389760] ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)

and some more info (also on 900A):

root@easy1:~# lsmod | grep ath
ath5k 100096 0
mac80211 209396 1 ath5k
led_class 4228 1 ath5k
cfg80211 24456 2 ath5k,mac80211

root@easy1:~# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"keller"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:1D:0F:C5:XX:XX
Bit Rate=11 Mb/s Tx-Power=27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr=2352 B
Encryption key:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Security mode:open
Power Management:off
Link Quality=39/100 Signal level:-78 dBm Noise level=-103 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

root@easy1:~# uname -a
Linux easy1 2.6.27-8-eeepc #1 SMP Sun Nov 16 12:02:12 MST 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

root@easy1:~# ls -lrta /lib/modules/2.6.27-8-eeepc/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath5k/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 120016 2008-11-16 20:37 ath5k.ko