Hi, Ansley, and group,

Ansley W. Sawyer wrote:
Greetings gentlemen,

I would like some advice from those of you who have some experience with
internet on board your vessels. I am considering placing an Inscape Data
CB54E bridge at the top of my mizzen with an OA15 db antenna. It will by
powered thru the cat5 with a junction in the waterproof box at the foot of
the mast that houses the radar cable junction. The cat5 will then be routed
to the nav station.

Currently my internet connectivity is just thru the laptop's wifi card and
there are very few places that it is strong enough to use.

What do you think?

Thanks


Another writer opined about a cell card. If you're always going to be
in cell range, and are willing to deal with the realities of that (as
different from the realities of wifi at a distance), that can work.

If you're willing to remain connected (with your ethernet, vs the route
I'm attempting, and had for a time, but have glitches which need
identification and conquering, of wireless connectivity), and the unit
you're considering will allow you the same functionality as an adapter,
with its accompanying configuration utility, that's definitely a way to
go.

I don't know about the unit you've selected, as I could not make the
data page open, but I'm assuming it's a unit with a big mouth to match
the big ears you have in your antenna.

One of the other sites mentioned in the other thread has a nice
calculator for for figuring the antenna and amplifier needs for
distance work. It's a delicate balance to make sure you don't
overwhelm the neighbors' signals, if there are any, which a bigmouth
can do, but still at the same time get your signal back to the site you
can hear with the bigears antenna.

I spent more than a year trying to figure out the wireless solution.
For those willing to do the wired solution, it can work extremely well.

One gotcha, though, is that as you go up in gain on the antenna, you
get a flatter band. That means that at a certain point, high location
will make it impossible to see something low and close. That's the
gotcha which lost me the signal which I'd been using, and forced me
into a pay site's redirection, when I raised the gear to mast-top.
OTOH, I'm sure that the height allowed me continued connectivity long
after I left the marina.

Boating's all compromises :{))

As to powering and ethernet, it sounds like you're using POE - which
makes me wonder why you're bothering with the junction box. POE is
capable of great distances, and I'd think you'd want the injector at a
convenient AC location...

I'd really like to look at what you're getting, as I want to do
something else than the current bridge in upgrade, but Senao has left
such a bad taste in my mouth that I want to avoid that in whatever
solution I make.

I was very pleased to find that we were able to maintain connectivity
at some distance and motion, despite the relatively flat antenna
pattern inherent in a high-gain unit. If your use is always going to
be at some distance from shore, that will work well. If you're mostly
going to be in marina situations, that might be too high and/or too
much gain.

I've taken the liberty of crossposting this to alt.internet.wireless,
as they have considerably more informed folks by the nature of the
group, than here in rbc.

Keep us posted...

L8R

Skip

Ansley Sawyer
SV Pacem