Type my zip code into the Sprint coverage map and you’ll get the above. The green color indicates some level of service, but the little dots mean “Signal strength information unavailable.” Well, when I queried AnyTrack last week, a tech there told me that “usually, in areas with this sort of coverage there is very spotty Sprint cellular coverage.” I’ll say!
I finally launched Annie G., my Rhodes 18 (named after me mum), and am getting pretty excited about the various Tacktick instruments I’ve installed. I had to drill a substantial hole in the hull just forward of the mast for a T910 triducer that’s wired to a T121 Hull Transmitter mounted just under the mast partners. And I had to modify the old Windex mast-head plate to attach the T120 Wind Transmitter . But I did not have to run a wire down the mast, which would have been a major pain. And of course the T112 Analogue and T111 Dual Digital displays—also wireless and solar powered—don’t need wires either, as I’m demonstrating from my skiff above.
Last night, I had an enlightening email exchange with Aaron Lynch as he tested his new WiFi setup from a slip at Marina Del Rey:
I spent a buttload of money trying to buy high power cards and then pigtails and antennas on the cheap. $20 or $30 here or there, but it just never quite worked. I was going to get the WaveRV USB, but they never responded to me, and their drivers only supported 10.3, not the current Mac OS 10.4. Finally I got so fed up I bought an Engenius 3220 EXT {$170 on eBay, and elsewhere}. I can’t say enough about it! The most important features for me are the 400mw transmit power and an external antenna connector so I can add a yagi or something like that if I need it {it came with the 5dBi rubber stubby shown}. Currently it’s on the stern rail and I’m surfing at 1.7 megabits/sec where before I would surf intermittently, and very, very slowly. Unlike previous Engenius products this one has a web interface that works with Firefox on a Mac. It has a site-survey feature that makes it really easy to see and connect.
Now Aaron can see 20-30 networks and was able to get online with an open hotel conference room system at about 1,800 feet (illustrated in GE below) and a boatyard that “blew my mind, it’s 1900’ and diagonally through a 60's era concrete hotel building.” The 3220 is a Power over Ethernet (POE) device, like the Port Networks I tried, so you’ll need 110 ac or an inverter. By the way, Aaron has his connected to an Apple Airport Express “which gives me full WiFi signal within the boat, and I can stream music to the stereo too,” but the set up “got awfully complicated” requiring a “weird double-NAT thing.” Thanks, Aaron! (Coincidentally, David Pogue has piece on the travails of WiFi routers in the Times today. Don’t miss the video, especially you Mac fans.)
When I first heard of the WaveRV Marine USB WiFi combo radio/antenna last year, I wrote that the radio pumped out 400 milliwatts. One Panbo commenter wrote in doubting that figure, and he was right (that was AdriftAtSea, and hearts out to him for h
is recent tragedy). As you can see in the connect software that comes with the WaveRV (and is quite good), the actual “Tx Power Level” is 100 mW. When I questioned RadioLabs about this, they said that their 400mW spec is based on the combined power of the amp and antenna, justifiable since they are physically combined. Well OK, fellas, but how about putting that information clearly into your specs?
RadioLabs has scaled down its performance claims from the “Up to 30 Times the Range of Standard Integrated Wireless Cards. Line-of-sight up to 4 Miles.” on the original press release to the “Over 15x the range of your notebook wireless card!! Up to 1 mile of range to a wireless access point.” now on their Web site. But I doubt I saw any ranges approaching a mile when testing the WaveRV in Maine, the Netherlands, and Florida over several months. But it certainly did increase my range as compared to the Intel PRO radio built into my HP laptop. I also tried it in the same Camden Harbor locations as I did the Port Networks Ethernet radio and, while changes in the APs spoiled a direct comparison, I’d say that PN’s box did better. (And I also tried it with an older laptop, but the connection was pokey due to the limitations of USB 1, not the WaveRV.)
Syrens Onboard is the relatively new brand name for the high end marine WiFi systems developed by GeoSat Solutions (now also marketed by Syrens At Sea). I’ve heard mostly good things about this gear’s performance, even one report of getting usable WiFi 12 miles offshore! I may have misunderstood that range, and it’s certainly not common; WiFi may get you true broadband in some marinas and anchorages, but it’s cellular always-on data plans that keep your e-mail, weather reports, etc. flowing as you move along the coast. Which is why I saw a number of cellular data products in Miami, including the Syrens Onboard EC-Hybrid model above, which includes high power WiFi radio, amplified Cingular radio, local WiFi access point, and Ethernet router. It will supposedly even be able to use both forms of Internet access together.
In the meantime I just discovered that my hotel's Wayport WiFi service (I’m in Miami until Wed.) is also part of the Boingo WiFi service, the main difference being price. Like instead of paying $50 for five days Boingo is $22 for a month and includes coverage in the airports I’ll be passing through, and lots of other places! The problem is that your computer will not see the Boingo service in many places, like this hotel, unless you use Boingo software as your WiFi "sniffer". It's free, there is a Mac version, and actually it's quite good for seeing and connecting to any WiFi access point. If you use WiFi on the road, or water, you might want to download Boingo software today.
PS 2/20: Here’s a screen shot illustrating Boingo’s software, and the unfortunate attitude of more and more WiFi users I’m afraid…i.e. a secured AP named “NoFreeWiFiMoFo”.
A comment in the Velocitek S10 entry reminded me of this DeLorme Blue Logger that I tested a couple of years ago. It’s a pretty powerful little gizmo for the money, but one thing I didn’t get into in the short review was the annoying file format it logs into. As I recall I had a devil of a time getting the data into non-DeLorme mapping programs, but that issue may now be easily solvable with some of the conversion programs we’ve discussed (though I haven’t checked). Apparently I also missed the fact that the real time Bluetooth NMEA 0183 output does not include the WAAS corrections, as discovered by a PMY reader. I don’t know why DeLorme did that, or if it’s still true.
One trend I’ve been enjoying lately is cruising blogs, like Faye and Gary Hussion’s Hullaballoo to St. Vincent trip, and Jeff and Karen Siegel’s aCappella Maine to North Carolina delivery just completed. There’s also Collin’s elegant ruminations on Building Galene (and don’t miss his PlasticBoat cap, useful for annoying the woody zealots).
I’d bet there are 100’s of blogs like these out there—wonderful for tapping into boat passion, and wells of useful info—but Jeff Siegel is a man apart. For years now he has been collecting and sharing valuable information on cruising communications (mostly via Trawlers-and-trawling). Last summer, for instance, he posted a thorough entry on his cell amp testing, and now has just posted his cell and WiFi experience during that 1,000 mile coastal trip. I recommend reading the full posts, but here are some highlights:
“My general finding is that WiFi isn't worth the effort of all the special hardware any longer. This is a sad conclusion. I've been using much of this WiFi hardware over the last three years with stellar success in the beginning.
…My story isn't all bad. In fact, my "connected boat" experience during the last five weeks has been the best experience that I've ever had with being connected on the water.
Where WiFi has fallen off, cellular has picked up the ball with amazing results.
I maintained a continuous Internet connection WHILE UNDERWAY from Maine to North Carolina except in one 25 mile spot. This included sections where I was offshore: Maine (3-10 miles), Boston (12 miles), Long Island (10 miles), New Jersey (4-5 miles). The only dead zone that I experienced was along most of the Alligator-Pungo Canal in North Carolina.”
Good news, eh? Jeff will do more testing in a few months during leg two to the Bahamas (plus he continues to work on the next, very interesting, iteration of Activemap). His cell set up, by the way, is:
1. Wilson wired GSM dual-frequency cellular amplifier.
2. LMR-400 coax.
3. The best quality connectors possible.
4. Special connectors removing the need for any "patch" cables.
5. Shakespeare 4dB cellular antenna.
6. Cingular $40/mo all-you-can-eat data plan (to phones & PCs).
PS And how about V.I.V.A., the online log of a Vinalhaven voc ed teacher sailing to Florida and back with some of his students, and some comms gear Jeff helped spec out (small world).
Here’s another marine WiFi system, this one QuickerTek’s $1,000 QMS (QuckerTek Marine System). The release and web page are light on specs, but this seems to be a high powered WiFi transceiver bridged to an onboard WiFi LAN such that any computer onboard (Mac or Windows) can get online (which, by the way, is the hot ticket system amongst some rec.boats.electronics geeks). It sounds interesting, if pricey, but what really got my attention was this note at the bottom of the product page:
“No returns. All sales are final. This is what happens when the few abuse our good graces, install our products, sail around with them for a couple of weeks, soak them with salt water and then return them with no reason given. We don't like it either...”
Well, I wouldn’t even consider buying expensive hardware under that policy. I think QuickerTek has ignored an important lesson of modern retailing: A company hurts its best customers, and itself, by basing policy on its worst customers. I would refer them to Paul Hawken’s classic Growing a Business, which splendidly lays out the smartness of generous customer service, and also to L.L. Bean, the Maine business which may have invented the no-questions-asked return policy. I once got a behind-the-scenes tour of Bean’s and naturally asked if the famous policy wasn’t abused. The answer, delivered with a smile, was something like, “Hell yes! For instance, we’ve tracked one guy who’s had the same pair of boots replaced 22 times. But the guarantee is so good for our business that we’ll never change it!”
That little silver Nokia shining up through six feet of saltwater isn’t mine, but it did slip out of a friend’s holster as he helped with a project on Ralph (still for sale). I’m not sure even the Sony Ericsson SO902iWP+ would have survived. Doh!
I’ve never heard of RadioLabs before, but maybe it’s come up with an excellent aid to onboard WiFi reception. The WaveRV Marine is an 22” 8dB omnidirectional 2.4 GHz antenna with a 400 mW WiFi radio built into its base. A 15’ USB cable moves data and power between the WaveRV and a down-below Windows, Mac, or even Linux computer. The unit is waterproof, fits a standard marine antenna mount, and costs $170 plus shipping. The fifteen foot power/data cable might be too short for some boats, but otherwise this looks like a good alternative to Wayne’s Way, etc. Here’s RadioLab’s WaveRV Marine page, and here’s a highly optimistic press release PDF. (Four mile range? I don’t think so.) By the way, I’m hoping to test this product.
