My RTL8188SU usb stick sucks :(

[Weedy]

How do I make this stick suck less? I was sitting in the same room as my
AP when I ran the scan. My atheros card picks up 2 strong APs plus my
own, and 4-7 others of varying strengths.
Not even a directional antenna lists more networks.

3.15.9
[I] sys-kernel/linux-firmware
     Installed versions:  20140809(06:30:29 AM 07/09/14)(-savedconfig)

Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0bda:8171 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188SU
802.11n WLAN Adapter

HAF ~ # iwlist wlan2 scan
wlan2     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 64:70:02:E2:A4:29
                    ESSID:"My AP"
                    Protocol:IEEE 802.11bgn
                    Mode:Master
                    Frequency:2.442 GHz (Channel 7)
                    Encryption key:on
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s; 24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s
                              48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s

Extra:rsn_ie=30140100000fac040100000fac040100000fac020c00
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    Signal level=7/100

HAF ~ #