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Penny and I are fortunate (or nuts!) to own two boats. Seahorse, a trawler,
is our home from May thru December, and Truelove, a Westsail 43 sailboat is
our winter home in the Eastern Caribbean for the rest of the year. Wifi has
now proliferated throughout the Windwards and Leewards b no more need to
put
your laptop into a Pelican case and lug it ashore. That is, if you have the
right equipment.
Penny has a 2006 Vaio laptop and I have a 2004 Toshiba; both have built-in
wifi.
While traveling in the States, we use a Verizon aircard in my laptop and
connect the two machines using Ethernet; sharing the bandwidth. Since we
b liveb
across the pilothouse table from each other, this is a no-brainer b our
laptops are literally back-to-back. At our summer home, a marina on Lake
Champlain, we get free wifi, and for this the built-ins work well as we are
only a
few hundred feet from the AP. But our wifi experiences while traveling in
the
US mirror Jeff Siegelbs b frustration. Not being a wardriving type, I too
gave up on wifi as cell access is pretty good up and down the East Coast
except for parts of NC and the Champlain Canal. We "do" the East Coast twice
each
year.
On to the Caribbean. Wifi is available in Trinidad, where Truelove spends
hurricane season. CrewsInn Marina offers pretty good wifi for $US35. per
month; that serves both Penny and I simultaneously while we prep the boat for
the
sailing season and during the week prior to storage. Cell phones have yet to
come into their own here; they are available but internet access with cellular
is an unknown, and likely poor. We donbt yet have a cell for the islands
because each island requires a different SIM card b a PITA.
However, one wifi company, Hothothotspot _http://image-locker.com/rates.htm_
(http://image-locker.com/rates.htm) has spread out this year from their base
in Antigua and now has coverage in most islands except the BVI and
Martinique, which are b coming soon!b Now, when I say b in all the
islands,b what I
mean is in all the anchorages, because the marinas are few and far between
and
almost no one uses them for the same reasons as in the US. But, het $US50.
per month that covers almost all the islands is not too shabby! This,
however,
is per computer. Anyway, this is a real boon for us; we have become Internet
junkies and have to have our fix for at least an hour a day, just like at
b
home.b
So off we sailed from Trinidad to Grenada and on up the Island chain on our
way to Antigua for the Classic Regatta. And frustration reigned supreme as
we
attempted to connect to the Hotspot. And it grew when we met up with Dave
and Nancy on Swan Song in Bequia. Dave had a high-gain external antenna and
some big low-loss cable which enabled them to wifi away while several hundred
yards or so from the AP. Motivated, I went ashore and sat in an internet
cafC)
and researched wifi. Every day for a week. Then, a friend loaned me an
Orinoco
Gold card and a magnetic base rubber duck antenna about 6" high. I think
this was a 100mw card. I was in hog heaven - I could "get on" from inside the
boat if I put the antenna up thru the hatch onto the deck. Well, sort of. As
long as the boat didn't swing, etc. But now I was researching from the boat.
Eventually, I ordered my stuff from Moonblink Communications
_http://www.moonblinkwifi.com/_ (http://www.moonblinkwifi.com/) I wasn't
sorry. They are a
great company. No connection - just a happy customer.
Two (one for each of us) Z-Com 325HP+ PCMCIA cards. These cards are 300mW
and were used in setting the record for wifi communications.
Two 5.5dBi Omni mobile laptop antennas. These are small folding antennas
which you attach to the top left side of your laptop (if your card slot is on
the left). It folds down for storage.
One 8dBi Omni outdoor antenna. My research indicated that 8dBi was about max
for a sailboat which is prone to roll in an anchorage. Of course trawlers
roll too, but not as much. Of course those with anti-roll tanks can have as
much
gain as they want!
One waterproofing kit for the antenna b cable connection (I have not
installed this yet)
One 10b LMR-400 cable for the 8dBi and one 18b small-diameter adapter
from
the LMR-400 to the mmcx connector on the card.
I thought the combination of a high-power card and the mobile laptop
antennas would solve the problem of b averageb range communications and the
8dBi
would be the problem-solver if not.
Here are the results of our first experiences. The AP was about 1000b away:
The builders of our sailboat were smart and lined the inside of the hull
insulation with aluminum foil before sheathing it over with teak. So, my
laptop
sits on the nav station table surrounded by foil which extends about 18b
above
my laptop. That table is also about 18b above the water. So, with my legacy
system I could get virtually no signal inside the boat. I could get connected
if I moved to the cockpit. With the new card and 5.5dBi antenna I connected
right away from inside the boat. I had thought this impossible what with the
foil. I was ecstatic!
Unfortunately, Pennybs Vaio didn't like something. Some programs hang and
the cursor goes bonkers so she never could use the set-up. It isnbt the
card
(either card has the same effect). The software, Deterministic Network
Enhancer, may be the problem as it hasnbt passed Windows Logo Testing, but I
have no
problems on my machine. We will look for another card for her when we get
back to the States. I would be happy to hear from someone if they think they
know what the problem might be. I don't believe it's RF, as it doesn't seem to
mind when I'm nearby using my card, and she never got it to where it was
connected.
So, I have been happily wifing my way amongst the Islands for about a month
since we got our gear. Of course, we now get up close to the APs so penny can
get connected. Today, as we continued sailing southward back towards
Trinidad, I decided to test the 8dBi. We departed Portsmouth, Dominica, and
as we
motored out of the harbor to the southwest, I noted various data and used
lat/lon from the GPS to determine the distance. The AP was on a building on
the
beach; the top of the antenna is about 20 feet above sea level. My antenna was
mounted atop a lifeline stanchion; the top of it is approximately 6.5 feet
above the sea.
Here are the results.
Distance from AP Packets/sec. Link Quality Signal Strength
TX rate
nautical miles TX/RX %
% MBPS
.125 15/30 100 90
11
.75 15/30 100 80
11
1.5 16/13 80
75 11
2 10/14 66-80
73-75 2-11
At this point we were about to lose our line-of-sight to the AP as a point
of land would soon intervene, so I quit. Ibm pretty certain that I could
have
gone to 3 miles without losing a workable signal. Probably, from what I read,
much more with a 12 or 15dBi antenna. We'll get one of those for Seahorse
when we get back to the States. Meanwhile, we'll leave the 8 here for next
season.
Many thanks to Jeff (a Cappella), Dave (Swan Song), Jim (Jim's Boat) and all
the other listees who have provided wifi and cell info over the past. I
look forward to hearing more!
Regards,
John
"Seahorse"
(currently aboard Truelove in Roseau, Dominica)
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