Pick Up Wi-Fi 2 Miles Away!

If you have experienced the frustration of not being able to pick up a Wi-Fi signal this summer from a marina antenna, then you may be a candidate for the "Island Time Marine Wi-Fi System." After a month of "almost" getting a signal in one Pacific Northwest marina after another, we finally gave up trying so as not to spoil our lovely cruise. But next year we will be prepared with a "booster" which will amplify both outgoing and incoming signals which we are told usually work up to a couple of miles from the base antenna. Best of all, it costs only $255, including shipping, and is so simple any one of the Three Stooges could install it.

In addition to radar, VHF and GPS, the newest required equipment aboard cruising powerboats is a powerful Wi-Fi antenna that boosts both incoming and outgoing signals for your laptop.

It has often been said that necessity is the mother of invention. For many of us, keeping connected with the office or home is a necessity because it allows us to cruise far and wide and enjoy the pleasures of our boat and the great outdoors for long stretches at a time. However, keeping connected to the Internet by satellite is still very expensive, and using an air card for telecommunications system is often slow when it works, if you have the cell coverage at all. The best and lowest cost alternative is Wi-Fi -- when you can receive it!

Trouble is, the Wi-Fi antenna baked into most laptops is a cheap, low-db system that was really intended for use in hot spots in airports, motels and the local Starbucks. When you are 100 yards down the dock from the marina's antenna, it often does not work, or is so problematical that the crime doesn't warrant the punishment.

Bob Stewart, who is a semi-retired live-aboard cruiser and electrical engineer, has taken off-the-shelf products and adapted them for use aboard boats. By reconfiguring these components, waterproofing connections and terminals and putting all of the parts together in a kit, complete with instructions, he has created an 8-db system that has experts singing the product's praises.

We have not used or tested the product, but it has been recommended by two of the most electronically and Internet savvy cruising folks we know -- Jeffrey and Karen Siegel. These two folks are retired computer software developers who cruise on their DeFever 53 trawler and are the founders of ActiveCaptain.com.

We spent an enjoyable lunch with them several years ago while we were waiting out a hurricane in Castine, Maine. They are two of boating's most innovative electronic whiz kids and the concept of ActiveCaptain.com's updating of electronic chart information has been embraced by Furuno and others. (More about that another time.)

The long and short of it is that when they recommend something, everyone should listen. See what they have to say about this important connectivity device...

Reprinted from ActiveCaptain.com---

Extending Wi-Fi range from your boat

Although we mainly rely on cellular communications for all of our internet activity onboard, there are times when WiFi is a better choice. Cruising outside the US especially creates situations where cellular access is very expensive. Or there are times when you're able to use available Wi-Fi from a marina or "borrow" someone else's Wi-Fi hotspot. Wi-Fi can be much faster than cellular and there are no annoying 5 GB limits.

This is the antenna attached to the backstay of a sailboat.

We use Wi-Fi for video and Skype for when we have to download large files. Sharing test code with some of the manufacturers we work with includes loading some 500 MB files every now and then. Wi-Fi is perfect for that.

We first installed a long range Wi-Fi capability on our boat in 2004 - ancient times! Since then we've had two other systems and now have just installed a final new set of products. We couldn't be happier with them. One thing that had been missing was the ability to easily share the long range Wi-Fi connection between multiple computers. Only one of us could be connected at a time. We either needed a marriage counselor or new Wi-Fi products. Turns out, the new WiFi products were much less expensive.

This is what the kit looks like and it comes with installation instructions.

We could go into the specifics of the different devices (Ubiquiti 2HP, 8.5 dB antenna, 12v POE insertion, 12v DC router). But instead, there's a wonderful company we found called IslandTime PC who sells all of the products together as a bundle at about the same cost as if you went around and bought them separately. Getting everything from IslandTime PC means you'll also get exceptional service and support in one place from a guy who really knows what he's doing.

Don't misunderstand this - we paid full price for our products. This isn't an advertisement for IslandTime PC and Bob will be surprised to see us writing about it. This is a testimonial. Just as all of you contribute your knowledge to our database, we want to contribute an excellent resource to all of you.

In fact, we've added IslandTime to the Products and Tips We Love section of the website.

If you want to expand the reach of your Wi-Fi capabilities, my highest recommendation goes to:

Bob Stewart

IslandTime PC

Wewahitchka, FL, USA

850-890-2815

-- Karen and Jeffrey Siegel