Wireless Lan on sailboat
 

I installed a wireless lan at a marina near Midland, Ontario, Canada.
I used a Linksys access point coupled to a 18 Dbi gain flat plane
array antenna through 30 feet of LMR 400 coax. My slip is about 500 to
600 feet away.
On the boat side of things, I built in one of those all in one
motherboards and used a Linksys pci wireless card.
The trick is to use an external gain antenna on the boat. Omni or
directional works in my case. When at the slip, I just put the antenna
outside so that it has a clear line of site to the base antenna at the
marina office. The Linksys pci card on the boat has an external SMA
reverse polarity connector (the connectors for the LMR 400 coax are
sold at RF Connection) I have relaible connectons as long as the DSL
modem does not crap out! I see 50% to80% signal strength at the slip
using this setup. Some people have tried it using only the dinky
little wireless cards for laptops. This will not work unless you are
really close to the acces point. The laptop wireless cards MUST have
an external antenna connector (coupled to a gain antenna) to make the
range. Oronco cards in my experience work the best. (Silver or gold,
it does not matter)

Tim, Grampian 28
Experienced "Keel Sounder!"

Wireless Lan on sailboat
 

Ashley Marina is running a wide open 802.11b WiFi on DSL for everyone
in the marina at the office. Their antenna is on top of the 3-story
building. To extend the range to the face dock, they have a WiFi
repeater on top of the lounge on the corner of the face dock. Works
great. We get about 35% signal on a Linksys card into the side of a
Dell Latitude notebook mainframe at the chart table on Lionheart with
no antenna.

Sure is nice to take all the latest weather charts to sea with
you.....(c;



On Sat, 18 Oct 2003 01:18:31 GMT, (Tim
Mackinlay) wrote:

I installed a wireless lan at a marina near Midland, Ontario, Canada.
I used a Linksys access point coupled to a 18 Dbi gain flat plane
array antenna through 30 feet of LMR 400 coax. My slip is about 500 to
600 feet away.
On the boat side of things, I built in one of those all in one
motherboards and used a Linksys pci wireless card.
The trick is to use an external gain antenna on the boat. Omni or
directional works in my case. When at the slip, I just put the antenna
outside so that it has a clear line of site to the base antenna at the
marina office. The Linksys pci card on the boat has an external SMA
reverse polarity connector (the connectors for the LMR 400 coax are
sold at RF Connection) I have relaible connectons as long as the DSL
modem does not crap out! I see 50% to80% signal strength at the slip
using this setup. Some people have tried it using only the dinky
little wireless cards for laptops. This will not work unless you are
really close to the acces point. The laptop wireless cards MUST have
an external antenna connector (coupled to a gain antenna) to make the
range. Oronco cards in my experience work the best. (Silver or gold,
it does not matter)

Tim, Grampian 28
Experienced "Keel Sounder!"



Larry W4CSC

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