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From: Jeffrey Siegel (no email)
Date: Thu Jun 02 2005 - 16:18:09 EDT
During the last six weeks I've cruised between Key West, Florida and the
Penobscot Bay in Maine. Each time I was in a new harbor, marina, or
anchorage, I experimented with WiFi access using a high gain 12 dB antenna.
The following are the results that I experienced at each location along the
way:
Key West, FL, Garrison Bight mooring field - 2-3 sites visible. All were
commercial, encrypted or protected.
Key West, FL, Galleon Marina - 3 sites visible. All were encrypted or
protected.
Marathon, FL, Marathon Marina and Boatyard - 3 sites visible. All were
commercial, encrypted or protected.
Miami, FL, Miami Marine Stadium anchorage - 4 sites visible. All were
encrypted or protected.
Dania Beach, FL, Royale Palm Yacht Basin - 5 sites visible. Only able to
connect to 1 site but it wasn't connected to the internet.
Ft. Pierce, FL, Ft. Pierce City Marina - 5 sites visible. Connected to 1 at
600 kb.
Melbourne, FL, Eau Gallie bridge anchorage - 4 sites visible. All were
encrypted or protected.
Daytona, FL, Caribbean Jack's Marina - 12-15 sites visible. All were
commercial, encrypted or protected.
South of Jacksonville, FL, MM765 anchorage - no sites visible. This was a
very remote area.
Lanier Island, GA, anchorage - 3 sites visible. All were commercial,
encrypted or protected.
Hilton Head, SC, Skull Creek Marina - no sites visible. This is the remote
side of the island.
Beaufort, SC, Downtown Marina - 6 sites visible. 1 weak connection
available but unreliable. Others were commercial, encrypted or protected.
Charleston, SC, City Marina - 12 sites visible. All were commercial,
encrypted or protected.
Morehead City, NC, Portside Marina - 5 sites visible. 1 weak connection
available but unreliable. Others were encrypted or protected.
Ocracoke, NC, Anchorage Marina - 1 site visible. It was encrypted.
Pamlico Sound, NC, anchorage behind Long Shoal Pt. - no sites visible. This
was an emergency weather anchorage and very remote.
Coinjock, NC, Midway Marina - 1 site visible. It was protected.
Poquoson River, VA, anchorage - 1 site visible. It was protected.
Great Wicomico River, VA, anchorage - 1 site found. Able to connect to site
but it wasn't connected to the internet.
Rhode River, MD, anchorage - no sites visible. Anchored with fellow TWL'r
Ron Barr!
Chesapeake City, MD, Schaefer's Marina - 3 sites visible. All were
encrypted or protected.
Atlantic City, NJ, anchorage - 4 sites visible. All were encrypted or
protected.
Atlantic City, NJ, Trump Marina/Farley State - 2 sites visible. Able to
connect to 1 at 80 kb. Verizon was faster so the WiFi site wasn't used.
New Rochelle, NY, Huguenot Yacht Club - 1 site visible from the Yacht Club.
Connected at 400 kb.
Clinton, CT, Cedar Island Marina - 6 sites visible. Marina provided one of
the sites with an 1,800 kb connection.
Cuttyhunk, MA, mooring field - 2 sites visible. Connected to one at 1,200
kb.
Scituate, MA, mooring field - 7 sites visible. Connected to one at 400 kb.
Falmouth Foreside, ME, mooring field - 1 site visible. Too weak to connect
to reliably.
Castine, ME, town dock - 3 sites visible. Connection possible with one at
1,200 kb. This one is a little unfair because I set it up...
Summary
=======
Out of 29 locations, I was able to connect to 7 WiFi sites with a reliable,
useful internet connection (24%). Five of the 7 connections happened
between New Jersey and Maine. By contrast, we were able to maintain an
internet connection with Verizon at every location, even the very remote
ones. The Verizon connections were slow and weaker at 2 of the sites and we
couldn't get a 100 kb connection at Morehead City although a 14.4 kb
connection worked.
The bottom line with it all is that we were able to have a consistent
internet connection every day from February 28th until returning home on May
31st. We relied mostly on Verizon and used their unlimited data service
(currently $49.95/month). It was often the case where we had a live
internet connection while moving up to about 5 miles offshore or on the ICW.
...Jeff
================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine
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