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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Thu Apr 26 2007 - 19:51:26 EDT
Humble apologies for the screwed-up post earlier, and thanks to the friends
who brought it to my attention. I hope this is better, and I promise never to
anything wrong, ever again!
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 but there's 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
both live across the pilothouse table from each other, this is a no-brainer as
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 Siegel's 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 don't yet have a cell for the islands
because each island requires a different SIM card it's 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 coming soon! Now, when I say in all the islands, 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, hey, $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 home.
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 intern
cafe 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 cable connection (I have not installed
this yet) One 10-foot LMR-400 cable for the 8dBi and one 18 inch
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 "average" range communications and the 8dBi would be the
problem-solver if not.
Here are the results of our first experiences. The AP was about 1000 feet
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 18 inches
above my laptop. That table is also about 18 inches 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, Penny's Vaio didn't like something. Some programs hang and
the cursor goes bonkers so she never could use the set-up. It isn't the card
(either card has the same effect). The software, Deterministic Network Enhancer,
may be the problem as it hasn't 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. Our
antenna is 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. I'm 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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