S/V Soggy Paws - CSY 44 - Dave and Sherry McCampbell

Soggy Paws has 3 laptop computers aboard, all wifi equipped. However, early on we discovered that the wifi cards built into most laptops are pretty lame. Since email and the internet are a big part of our travel experience, having a better wifi setup seemed to be worth investing some time and money in. We now have 2 external setups ... the $300 'Big Gun' and the $100 'El Cheapo'.

Note: Make sure you read the entire set of 'wifi' entries before you buy anything. We no longer think this one is the best solution. Especially here.

Setup (2006):
Here is a picture of the 'Big Gun' hanging in the rigging on a flag halyard.

This setup consists of a 400 mWatt Engenius Access Point/Bridge EOC-3220 EXT (which comes in a weatherproof box) and a 15db omni outdoor antenna mounted right next to the Bridge.

For our setup, Dave mounted the antenna in a PVC pipe the length of the antenna, and then mounted the bridge using the supplied brackets, on the pipe. The PVC has a bit of line on either end to hang it up in the rigging with. (See note below about the drawbacks of this clever mounting arrangement).

You will need 2 Ethernet (Cat 5) cables; one that connects from the bottom of the Engenius bridge down to where you have 120v power (ie below decks). The second from the power injector to your computer. We are using a 25' and a 15' cable. The 25' cable is long enough so we can hang the antenna high up for better range (not sure yet how important this is). You will need 120v somewhere near the end of this cable. The 15' cable allows us to hook up to our laptop at any point in the cockpit or main cabin.

Links:
The Engenius Access Point/Bridge OC-3220 EXT from the manufacturer's site:
http://www.engeniustech.com/datacom/products/details.aspx?id=174
We bought from Keenan Systems in Ft. Lauderdale.

The HG2415U-PRO antenna: http://sharperconcepts.zoovy.com/product/YSC-HG2415U-PRO

This antenna/bridge was recommended by the Wifi provider in Marsh Harbor, Bahamas to another cruiser. (ie not our original idea)

You DO want an omni directional antenna instead of a directional (yagi or patch) antenna, if you plan to anchor out, because the directional ones are very focused and would lose signal as you swing. See note below in the box about using a 15db gain antenna.

The HG2415U-PRO is 40" tall (big) and heavy. There is an omni directional marine Wifi antenna available with less db and much smaller (and a little cheaper). But I was encouraged by my "overkill is just about right" friend to go for the 15db.

Costs:
Engenius Access Point from Keenan Systems: $154, plus a $15 pigtail to convert from the SMA connector to the N connector on the Antenna. On their website

HG 2415U PRO Antenna from Sharper Concepts: $120 On their website

Note that this particular product can be used with Apple computers, because the only connection to the computer is via a web page. Therefore no drivers required.

Downside:
Besides cost, this unit is designed to be a professional wifi provider device, so they assume you know quite a lot about networking. There is no hand-holding application to magically set up the connection on your computer. You DO have to know a little bit about networking, or have someone help you through it. You must have a hard wired network connection port on your computer (nearly every computer sold in the last 5 years has one). It looks like an oversized phone jack. You will have to change some network settings. It DOES NOT interface with programs like 'NetStumbler', but it does have a 'scan for available networks' option built in, but it is clunky.

Note: Several friends have asked if the PVC pipe attenuates the signal at all. I posted the question (with a link to the specs on the antenna) to a wifi antenna guy I found on the net (Jeff Liebermann). Here is his answer:

8 degrees vertical beam width is going to make this antenna difficult to keep vertical. It has too much gain, therefore too narrow a vertical radiation angle. As the boat pitches and rolls, the signal will go up and down unless you're very close. A lower gain omni antenna (about 8dBi) would have been better. However, that wasn't your question.

PVC does not attenuate the signal much. That's not the problem. What it does do is detune the antenna.

High gain (15dBi) antennas have a fairly narrow operating bandwidth. They're lucky to cover the 83.5MHz of the 2.4GHz band. Any more gain, and these would be sold by the channel number. Putting it inside a PVC tube will lower the resonant frequency. It's difficult to guess how much, but there will be an effect. What you'll probably see is that it works better on channel 1 than on channel 11.

In any case the added water proofing is not necessary for this antenna. Just keep the connector water proof.

However, what seems to be the problem is a way to clamp the top of the antenna to some kind of eye hook. You could do that with some kind of plastic strap (UV proof) and a plastic eye hook. No need to embalm the entire antenna. Also, nothing wrong with mounting it upside down (as long as the water stays out).

Here's a link to another boater using a similar setup, but different mounting: http://www.panbo.com/yae/archives/cat_wireless.html

July 2011 Update: The EUB-362 is a bit obsolete, though it still works. I don't think they ever made Windows 7 Drivers for it. What we have bought recently were both an Alfa and an N3. I like the N3 better. Here are some current links and prices for what we use most of the time:

In addition, a cheap directional antenna might be useful to figure out where the wifi transmitter is (helps in positioning the boat and/or antenna for best reception).

Here is a link to the n3--has much slicker packaging (and about the same performance) as the Alfa. But it's only sold/supported by Rokland. It DOES however have USB drivers for the Mac. I keep wondering why it didn't catch on, besides maybe price. It is both Mac and PC compatible, there are Windows 7 drivers available for it, and it also supports some EU-only frequencies.

If you are on a boat, I wouldn't leave home without AT LEAST the $30-40 USB wifi adaptor, either the Alfa or the n3 are good choices. The antenna and USB extension cable just make it more useable.

August 2008 Update: We still think the EUB-362 EXT is the way to go. Buy a spare, or buy one for your spouse, they're so cheap.

Because the Big Gun antenna is big and isn't very user friendly, we also bought the Engenius USB (EUB-362) product, which has an integral antenna (but also detaches) and a cheap/small external antenna. Both of these purchased from Keenan Systems (http://www.keenansystems.com) and total cost is about $70. This WILL work with NetStumbler. You can also buy this on Amazon.com (click here)

+7dBi mag mount antenna with SMA plug (7dbimagsma) - $14.95
+EnGenius 200mW 802.11BG USB 2.0 EXT SMA Connector (EUB-362 EXT) - $50.00

I also bought an alternate antenna to try it out:

+8.5dBi omni directional antenna with N female connector (8.5dbi-omni) - $39.95
+plus a short pigtail to convert the N connector to an SMA connector ($10)
(this antenna is ultimately what has become my best external antenna, the mag mount turned out to be worth what I paid for it, and is now an expensive paperweight).

Right, the EUB-362, shown with it's original antenna, and the cheapo 'mag mount' 7dBi antenna, next to it. (Note that this cheapo antenna isn't very good--not worth buying).

After spending some time at anchor playing with antennas and wifi devices, and mixing and matching between devices and antennas, I have a hard time recommending our 'big gun' setup except in the case where you are staying in one place, know there's a wifi access point there you can hit, but just can't quite pull it in (or want to get a stronger (faster) connection). The bridge device is complex and painful to use when you are moving from place to place and trying to pick up wifi on the fly. Primarily because you have to keep switching your network connection configuration between 'fixed IP address' (to talk to the device) and 'assign an IP address' (to talk to the internet). I haven't found a way around this. When you lose connection (happens fairly frequently with tenuous connections) and want to check on the status of the signal, you have to switch your IP configuration and then switch back. (On the USB setup, there is an icon in your tray that you use to scan for new wifi and check on the status of your current connection). I haven't seen any big improvement in connection using the 400 mWatt device (as a bridge) versus the smaller 200 mWatt device.

Also, the 15db antenna is big (40" long) and heavy. I found that the 8.5dB 'marine' omni is almost as good and much easier to deal with (20" long and only weighs ounces). The one from Keenan Systems comes with u-bolt mounts, so it is easy to clamp to stanchions or other uprights on your boat. We also added a loop of line at the top of the antenna with a cable tie, and have hung it from various parts of the boat. You want to make sure that the path between the antenna and your access point (if you know where it is) is as clear as possible. Even trees (and rigging) will block the signal.

I understand the length of the antenna feed line is an issue (between the device and it's antenna). That's why they only sell a 15" pigtail. So what we do is put the EUB-362 in a ziplock and tape it to the antenna support, and use a 15' USB powered extension cable to feed it into the cockpit or down below (ours is made by BAFO).

This setup is of course only marginally weatherproof. And it does limit where you place your computer much more than the 'big gun' setup. But for most cruisers, it is workable. I much prefer to be sitting in my cockpit web surfing than anywhere else.

Does the extra expense produce wifi that you wouldn't get otherwise? When comparing any of the above combinations to my internal wifi on my laptop, YES YES YES!

We are currently in the Rio Dulce and for a time the wifi at our marina was out. Nobody at the dock was getting wifi. So we had to go elsewhere, an internet cafe, to do our internet work. I decided to try out my EUB-362 system and could pull in 2 different signals that could have been used. Unfortunately, both were WEP encrypted, and I haven't yet figured out how to break the encryption (though hackers say it's not very hard).

2007) After going without radar for our Caribbean cruise, I finally broke down and bought a small Furuno 1622 radar (cost: $550 on sale at West Marine). Now I don't know how I did without it. Photo here shows the screen mounted on a small West Marine swing out arm. It stays out of the way, and out of the sun/weather, until we need it, and we can also view it from down below in the case of middle-of-the-night thunderstorms. We find it VERY convenient to be able to use it in both places, and especially nice not to have to get wet at night to watch thunderstorms while at anchor.

The radar antenna is mounted on an aluminum plate atop an aluminum pole attached to our our arch aft. This mounting system has two positions... down and up. It can be moved from one position to the other in about 5 minutes with the use of only a screw driver. In the 'up' position it sits on it's pole mount just above the solar panels. Here it has a clear view all around but casts a shadow on the solar panels. So I keep it down whenever they are in use. It still does a pretty good job in the down position, although I'm sure we loose a little distance and probably have a small blind spot to starboard. The plate is fixed atop the pole so that it can be rotated side to side to match the boat's angle of heel when we are on passage.

We have nearly 100 chart CD's acquired from trading with friends over the years. We looked at a new color binnacle-mounted chart plotter, but the cost was pushing a thousand dollars before we had the first chart pack, and world-wide chart coverage runs in the thousands of dollars.

So we put our heads together and designed a very workable system, with the computer mounted below on the navigation table (velcro'd to the plexiglas tabletop), and an inexpensive (less than $150) 15" 12 volt LCD monitor (not waterproof, but we made a cover for messy wx) mounted on a small West Marine swing-out arm in the companionway.

We specifically chose an LCD monitor with a 12v-type plug and a brick adaptor. We cut off the cord at the LCD's 'brick' power adaptor and spliced it into a 12 volt wire coming directly from the 'GPS' 12 volt circuit breaker panel.

We purchased a 12-volt adaptor for the laptop, too. So everything runs directly off 12v.

Left, computer display with tide program showing.

The device that really makes this setup convenient is a 'presentation mouse' that provides mouse capabilities from as far as 15' from the computer, wirelessly. This allows us to control the computer from the cockpit without having to go below. Now the computer is safe and secure on the navigation table down below while we are watching the LCD screen and controlling the computer while on watch in the cockpit. This minimizes the computer's exposure to the elements. I experimented with a few inferior brands before I found the Keyspan Wireless Presentation Mouse (about $40 on Amazon.com)

We often operate with 2-3 different navigation programs running at the same time, as each does a different function better. To facilitate this, we use a piece of commercial software called GPSGate. GPSGate takes the NMEA input from one physical serial port and creates 1 to 4 pseudo-serial ports with the same information.

Our most recent standard configuration is Nobeltec, SeaClear, and ShipPlotter. Nobeltec is our normal charting program, we are most familiar with it, and it is very fully featured. We like it because you can do almost everything with the remote mouse (no keyboard required), you can make the buttons large, and the fonts large, so it is easily viewable from 5' away.

We use SeaClear to scan in detailed guidebook chartlets for navigation close in, where we have a guidebook with more accurate charts than we have in the raster collection. Sea Clear also shows AIS targets. But it is a little quirky. Finally, ShipPlotter does the best job for displaying and watching AIS targets. (see AIS discussion below)

Updated July 2011: During our winter interlude in Hawaii, and anticipating a lot of open-ocean sailing, we broke down and bought a Class-B AIS transponder. After much agonizing, the unit we bought was the Vesper Marine AIS Watchmate 850, which retails for around $1000 ($1500 with accessories). The other unit we carefully considered was the AMEC 'black box' unit sold by Milltech Marine for $500 (accessories included). Huge price difference! But we opted for the Vesper with the display because the display will allow us to monitor and see our targets WITHOUT having our computer running. And the Vesper unit was designed by a sailor for sailors (lower power consumption than most powerboat oriented units). So far we have not been disappointed in the choice.

With our normal VHF antenna at the top of the mast, using Vesper's VHF/AIS splitter, we can 'see' ships with Class A AIS up to about 25 miles, and yachts with a Class B transmitter about 5-7 miles away. Having immediate notification that there's a ship in your area is just invaluable, and knowing that he can 'see' you too is even better.

After a heated discussion about cutting another hole in the bulkhead (I wanted the Watchmate mounted in the cockpit), we decided to mount it down below at the nav station. We flush mounted it rather than use the supplied bracket, which is designed for console mount. The flush mount made the internal patch antenna unusable, but we had, as a precaution, bought the external antenna with the unit too. Again after a discussion about where to mount it, we found that mounting the external antenna INSIDE the nav station, worked fine, and solved the issue of where to mount it outside and cable runs, etc. We moved the antenna around until we found a convenient spot where it was getting good reception. So far that has worked fine.

We have hooked it up to our computer using the USB cable and played with it with the Maxsea software (our current charting standard). This works fine, but the only quirk is that OUR vessel shows up as an AIS target on Maxsea as well as other ships. Maxsea (an older version) doesn't seem to have the ability to filter your own vessel from the targets. Because it has a display, we don't normally run it on the computer too, though we could if we were in 'traffic' situation and wanted to be able to view CPA information in the cockpit.

2009: We have recently acquired an Automated Information System (AIS) receiver from Smart Radio. AIS is a relatively new technology whereby ships equipped with AIS transmitters periodically broadcast their position and ship information via VHF as data. With a receiver and a little bit of software, we can receive and plot these transmissions. The results is somewhat like a radar display showing shipping traffic in your area. However, the software also predicts 'closest point of approach' (CPA) and will throw up a warning when a ship is coming within your CPA limit.

The hardware we have is The Smart Radio SR-161 ($189) with a Smart Radio VHF splitter ($119). Some people install a separate VHF antenna for the AIS, but since we already have 2 antennas, we chose to use the splitter and our mast-top antenna. Installation was easy.

For the AIS target display software, we primarily use a $40 product called Ship Plotter. This is specifically designed just for AIS purposes. We also use a second piece of software called GPSGate. GPSGate allows us to take one GPS connection into the computer and allow more than one program to use it. It will do the same with AIS input.

Late 2010 Update: Milltech Marine now has a great AIS Receiver Comparison Chart--it helps to sort through the costs and options. The Smart Radio SR-161 is still the lowest cost option.

We have found AIS so useful at sea that we want to make sure we are visible on THEIR AIS too, so we're in the market for a transmitting AIS. Currently favoring this AMEC Camino-101 Class B Transponder from Milltech Marine. This unit is a 'bring your own display' unit, so you have to either hook it to a PC, a Chartplotter, or a Vesper Marine WatchMate type display unit.

I have (almost) converted Dave from his Yahoo account to using the mailboxes we get as part of our website. Both Dave and I still keep our old Yahoo and AOL accounts and check them occasionally, but our primary email is now using Outlook.

With Outlook and Pop3/SMTP mail mailboxes, we can download our mail in a matter of minutes and then browse our email (and answer it) offline. This is critical in places where we have to borrow or pay for internet access by the hour. It is also important to be able to access old emails while at sea ('what day was so-and-so leaving?')

Also, with our own mail server, we can set up many different email addresses and even add an 'auto-responder' to our mailbox ('sorry we are at sea and will not get your mail until xx/xx/xx').

For our 'at sea' email, we are currently using Winlink and Airmail, the ham email system, as well as Sailmail, for our limited amount of 'commercial traffic'. While at sea, we can check our email and request and receive weather forecasts via HF radio.

Though it costs $250 a year for Sailmail (Winlink is free), Winlink CANNOT be used for 'commercial traffic'. And, in the middle of the Pacific, we have found the Sailmail coverage to be much better than Winlink, so we were really glad we already had Sailmail access set up.

Also, with Sailmail, we can also use the EXTREMELY handy 'Shadowmail' feature, which lets us monitor our shore email while at sea... Shadowmail sends just the email headers... to/from/date/subject, and you can select which messages you want to retrieve and actually read. The original email stays put on the shore mailserver, where we can download it into Outlook when we have normal internet access.

Airmail can also be set up to access your Winlink and Sailmail mailboxes via an Iridium phone. Though we never felt the Iridium was necessary while closer to the great HF coverage in the Americas, in the middle of the Pacific, we have used it frequently for weather access when we couldn't get through on the HF system.

Finally Airmail can also access Winlink and Sailmail via any internet connection, so while you are in port, it's easy to keep using your fast/easy Airmail email.

Cell phones seem to be a fact of life these days in the U.S., and a fantastic way to keep in touch with loved ones while you are cruising. Amazingly, they are also prevalent everywhere in South and Central America now too (and, I suspect, the rest of the world). If you have the right service in the states (Cingular/ATT or T-Mobile), you can roam the world with your phone. It 'only' costs $2-3/minute. Or you can, like most cruisers, buy a new cheap phone in every country, and enjoy local and 'back to the States' calls in the 10-20 cents a minute range.

But, better yet, with a little research and prep, you can just buy one phone and purchase only the 'sim card in each country.' ($5 expense vs $25 expense) and be able to stick with the same phone from country-to-country (in most places).

1. A GSM phone (Cingular/ATT and T-Mobile use GSM in the States)
2. To get the phone UNLOCKED
3. An understanding of the cell phone frequencies in use in your cruising area.

There are 4 frequencies in use around the world. To get a phone that works world-wide, you need a 'quad band' cell phone. (Motorola Razr, for example, is a quad band phone).

But if you already have a simple dual-band GSM phone from Cingular or T-Mobile, it is likely that that phone will work everywhere in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. (if you go to your home provider's website and look for 'international roaming' and see what countries you can roam in, that will tell you whether your phone will work in that country). However, to use the cheap pay-as-you-go chip in each country, you will need to get your phone 'unlocked'.

Cell phones provided by cell phone providers are 'locked' so that you can't use your phone with other providers.

See our additional notes on using cell phones in Colombia, we have added similar notes specific to cell phone access in the various countries we have visited, on their respective travel pages.

We have found an electronic fax account invaluable. After a little research, and a bad experience with a free account at efax.com, we settled on using Trust Fax as our eFax provider. For only $25/year, we keep an 800 number for inbound faxes, and can send and receive faxes all over the world via email or web interface.

This little gem was inexpensive and really helpful in checking our engine RPM versus what our RPM guage was telling us. You put a reflective tab (supplied) on your rotating item, and then just 'shoot' it with the gun. It is very accurate. We found a friend's tach that was reading 25% high! He was just about to get re-propped, because he thought he wasn't going fast enough for the RPM he was turning.

You can buy a $120 adaptor from the computer manufacturer, or you can buy a really cheap one with a multi-tip arrangement for $15 on eBay. We have found a compromise... custom adaptors from Priority Electronics. These are ordered by computer model number and are well-made. They have a device that boosts the 12v to the 15-19v that today's laptops want for an input voltage.

September 2009: We never used the LCD TV that we had onboard, and with the changeover to digital TV coming up, we sold it at a cruiser's flea market earlier this year. But while we've been 'on the road', several times we've wished we had television capabilities. So I researched what might be available to get TV on my laptop.

After doing a bunch of online research, I ordered a Hauppauge USB WinTV-HVR-950Q. It only costs $70 from Amazon.com. The package includes the tuner, which is a USB device a little fatter than a memory stick, a small antenna, a remote control the size of a PCMCIA card, and a USB extension cord (in case you are trying to squeeze it in with something else in 2 side-by-side USB slots). Plus a connector to feed an external video source into your laptop.

Once I got it set up, I was impressed! Sitting at my dining room table on the ground floor in Satellite Beach, with the supplied mini antenna, I'm getting about 10 digital channels out of thin air (most from Orlando and Daytona). You can also hook a cable feed to it, but that's not what I'm after. It will also pick up old-style analog signals, and I THINK it will do the European PAL format too (will let you know after we go to Europe).

Not only does it tune TV channels on your laptop, but it can also function as a DVR (digital recorder), so you can record shows for later playback.

In about 10 minutes, the supplied software had scanned for all available Analog and Digital channels, and from then, to change channels, you just up or down arrow on your keyboard. (There's a remote, but I haven't played with that yet).

It seems to run fine on my Eee 1000 laptop, as long as the signal is strong enough. It can run full screen or in a smaller window. I've got 3 Internet Explorer sessions, Outlook, and the Windows Performance Monitor and I'm using up less than 50% of the CPU.

The software that comes with it (WinTV) is a little klunky, but an update to Version 7 solved most of the klunkiness.

I'm also tried a 21-day free trial of a $99 software product called BeyondTV. With an internet interface, it effortlessly provides the on-screen programming content that we've all become used to with Cable TV Smart Boxes.

This is a great option for 'road warriors' who want to get local news and weather on their laptop.

And for a boat or house 'installation', before you go out and spend big bucks on a hyped 'digital TV antenna and amplifier' (in the $100-$200 range), check out this video on how to build your own TV antenna out of coathangers. I haven't made one (yet), but it looks like fun and supposedly does a great job.

May 2009: I bought a new Eee PC for only $379. The model I got is the ASUS Eee PC 1000HE 10-Inch Netbook. It is small, great for traveling, but not too small to be usable as a laptop. It has built-in microphone and speakers, AND a webcam. So great/easy for doing Skype on the road. AND it has an 8 hour battery, for those long bus/airplane rides, and a really solid case, necessary for the abuse that my laptops take. This model comes with XP.

It doesn't come with a CD/DVD, so you have to buy that extra. I bought a Samsung from Amazon for about $49 that will run totally off the USB, without having to plug it into external power.

I also bought a copy of Microsoft Streets and Trips 2009 and a cute little USB GPS. Though Streets and Trips has a version that comes with a GPS, I chose to get an alternative GPS because the reviews on its receiver were much better than the MSoft one.

This makes a great package for mobile use--we used it while driving all over the SE U.S., and it is now our primary navigation computer backup.

We use our Raytek Mini Temp Non-Contact Digital Thermometer Gun all the time onboard. It is useful in the kitchen (checking the temp of your yeast water, to make sure you don't kill your yeast while baking), in our refrigeration toolkit, and in our engine toolkit. With this little hand-held device, you 'shoot' any surface you want to take the temperature of, and it immediately indicates the surface temp of whatever you are aiming at.