Good information. One small comment though — in many places in the world Wifi data is capped too. New Zealand is a good example of this; you can buy a month of Wifi access, but it expires when you use a set amount of data such as 8GB. Which, with two teens on the boat using laptops and doing school might last a week… YMMV by service provider, but there is very little free or unlimited bandwidth. John, thanks for the great links and your fine technical writing. More thanks to Jay; field test dBm values are way better than bars!
Would not be appropriate for a boat in motion, without a computer-controlled antenna aiming system single axis, azimuth only. A secondary benefit is that a directional antenna excludes interference from unwanted directions. Of course it was ideal situation where onshore Hotspot was on high location probably with good antennas too.
Great article. They do not use the native firmware that comes with a Bullet as suggested in the article. A look at their sample screen shots from online product manuals shows this. Bitstorm products are available through retailers in the Caribbean Budget Marine and Island Water World and throughout most countries in Europe with North America sold directly.
Thanks, Mike; I definitely missed that. Also, with easy software like that, I agree with Practical Sailor that these systems are a good value. To be able to do this, the cable must turn freely about 4 complete turns.
It might work with an antenna adapter screwed onto a flat section of a motorboat coach roof but only if the antenna if screwed on before the cable is routed and connected inside. If the unit would ever have to be removed, the whole inside cable run would have to be redone or else an Ethernet direct coupler used inside near the antenna. To use this unit in my installation situation, I would have to do the same as I did with the Rogue Pro: remove the inside thread in the antenna base with a lathe and then put 3 set screws into the base from the sides.
This is not as secure and harder to waterproof as the ideal solution with a 1. So we now have a choice of two poorly designed marine WLAN bridges rather than just one. Not exactly what I would call progress. If it is not from AL4MG seawater resistant aluminum, it will not age gracefully. After two years up there, my steel Rogue Pro has developed some serious rust stains. The cable ends up close to twistless. The last step is refastening the mount, no cable twists.
Another useful trick is using a thin nut to tighten the antenna when you have more mount thread than you need to use. I find this a bigger issue when trying to install an antenna with a long fixed length of coax cable attached, or a big N connector in its base.
The Xtreme MJ does not suffer from the cable issues described. That is because the base portion of the housing has a reverse thread. When attaching it to a mount, you simply start the base onto the main housing with a partial turn, place it onto the , hold the housing steady and rotate the base which then works like a turnbuckle.
Therefore, no twisting of the cable occurs. The base rotates about the same number of turns onto the main housing as the threads so both ends will snug up at the same time. For masthead installation, a flat surface mount is provided and fitted between the Xtreme MJ transceiver and the antenna portion at the N-connector.
This results in only the antenna portion extending above the mast thereby reducing both windage and total mast height above the water. Xtreme MJs casing is made of anodized aluminum which has far better thermal properties and is much lighter than stainless steel. Regarding using a hacksaw for removal: You are correct. Without protection, all dissimilar metals will cause metal deterioration at contacting surfaces over extended periods.
Bitstorm recommends the simple solution of using a non metallic mount i. So no hacksaw needed. This lets me mount the antenna directly to a folding SS antenna mount after re-threading the adaptor on my radar arch, takes the stress off the connection, and lets me more easily get at the bullet reset button. Bill Lentz. I saw this happen several times when in The Bahamas last year. At Treasure Cay, for example, I had a good solid connection to the WiFi hotspot on shore from the anchorage.
The next day, they left and when they were about yards down then channel my connection was back. A fellow out at the end of the dock turns on his booster and no one else can get a connection. Yours aye, Bill. One could compare this to using a megaphone when speaking with a person only a few feet away.
The problem may be that the booster boat with its strong signal causes AGC circuits in nearby receivers to turn themselves down as they get overdriven. Then after its packets are sent and the transmission ends, the AGCs starts increasing the gain again but not before other packets from other stations are lost. These would then need to be retransmitted and results in overall performance reduction.
Some Wi-Fi boosters i. Bitstorm Xtreme series have a power adjustment control built into their software with operating recommendations to only use the minimum output power necessary.
Using it will make you better netizen and not get the ire of your fellow boaters. Hopefully, some folks who know more about WiFi nitty-gritty will speak up, including maybe some booster manufacturers. My feeling is that folks who have boosters as we do on Largo , use them, and likely stream data, using up bandwidth.
If we are paying for it docked at the marina or otherwise , I fault the marina for not supplying enough service or setting a policy. I do understand the previous comment about signal interference, just not intelligent enough to speak to it. There can be a few issues that cause these sort of interference problems.
If someone has a high powered access point either on the same channel or nearly the same channel as the wifi hotspot you are trying to connect to, their radio may cause you interference. This is an inherent problem in unregulated spectrum. The other issue that can cause problems is someone who has created what we call an aligator — Big mouth, little ears.
Someone may have gone into their settings and boosted their radio output to a higher wattage. They would be much better getting a higher gain antenna or a more sensitive radio. The worst part of all this is that a properly configured booster setup such as those Ben has diagrammed does not need to cause either of these issues. The onboard wifi network of the subject yacht does not need to be high powered as it only needs to talk to the devices on the small area of the boat.
Similarly, the bridge portion of the network, that connects to the shore based hotspot should have a good antenna and a sensitive radio, and should not cause undo interference with other boats in the area. In fact, depending on the setup of the hotspot network, it is possible for the yacht to configure their network as a WDS wireless distribution system access point and actually help the reception of other boats in the area by repeating the shore based connection.
In New Zealand while shore based for an extensive refit after a fire, I set up a series or radios to provide internet to both the project boat on the hard, and the yacht I was living on in the Marina, all from a friends house that was nearby.
This was complicated by a large hill between the house and the boat I was living on in the marina, but I was able to get line of sight from the house to the project boat on the hard, and then relay the signal to the marina.
Could also connect on the golf course across the harbour. Reply 5 years ago. Question 2 years ago. Can anybody post a source or buzzword so I can study the theory to dimension the antenna accordingly to my providers frequency? Answer 2 years ago. You can look up biquad antennas for reference. Reply 24 days ago. Choose antenna type maybe arbitrary.
I don't know the name of the one s in this article. Google an antenna calculator. Is there any source or science behind this , i meant you didn't got a dream right that 8cm here 9cm there. Whats the science behind this. Reply 11 months ago. Question 1 year ago. Answer 11 months ago.
I tried but it's not working. The internet strength is still the same poor dbm. The network is good in the western part of my home dbm as there's no obstruction there.
However, my room which is located on the opposite end in the east has very poor network due to the walls of my home that sits in between my room and the network tower. I have raised the antenna on my roof where thee is no obstacles and the other end of this thing right close to where I sit in the room. Anyone please enlighten me, what went wrong with mine. Ok I made the unit as per instructions and I have now no signal where before I had 1 to 2 weak bars Now nothing what can I do????
Question 1 year ago on Step 4. I am looking at these "extend electric cable connector block, 20amp" and the only ones I can find that look similar are termed "terminal" cable connector blocks rather than "extend". What I wanted to know was if all 5 wires in the middle, where the block is, are connected and extended into each other, or if they terminate their ends in these blocks and are electrically un-connected, as whether or not they are connected seems key to this set up.
I could probably rig something up alternate if I knew what was happening in that block. I like the blocks, but I don't have 'em. I am an idiot novice, please help. Answer 1 year ago. It looks lke it just makes things convenient. By Lau Han Ching Follow. More by the author:. Use the phone as usual, not wired. No wire connected to your phone. Or you can get iron wire without paint coating to improve efficiency.
You can found all this items at your nearby supermarket, hardware shop. Then measure 8cm from the bend and bend inwards at 90 degrees. Then measure 9cm from the bend and bend inwards at 90 degrees. Last bending is same as the first bland 4cm about 45 degree where install extend electric cable connector block, insert the connector block to the ends of the both end of the wire and tighten it.
Completed assembly, both end of the TV cable have a finished LauC2 antenna like the photo. The antenna no insulation part should not touching the wall or electric conductor. Assembly 1, step by step guide straiten the iron wire coat hanger. Last bending is same as the first bland 4cm about inwards 45 degree, and remove the paint coating.
End to End 4cm iron wire fit into the connector block and tighten. A yagi antenna is basically a telescope for radio waves. I tired the pringle can antenna and the Yagi beats it hands down. The first thing you must do is get an antenna template. These are diagrams and are widely available on the Web. You can download them for free and print them out.
If necessary, resize the pictures before printing them. Glue the printed paper on the construction paper. This will give the antenna some stability. Cut along the patterns. Make six incisions and stick the aluminum foil on it. Enfold the rectangular piece in glue and foil. Take the other part and bend it at the halfway point.
Insert the tabs in the holes. Staple them. Set this on your wifi antenna. If the bowl has a handle, take it off. Run the antenna cable in the resulting hole. Use a drill to enlarge the hole if needed. Get the wifi antenna. Place it in the center of the bowl. Placing it in the middle forces the wave flow in one direction. Put this homemade wireless signal booster in the desired location.
If necessary tape it there. Now try the device to see how much the signal improves. There are two types of antennas. The directional antenna is best suited for long distance usage.
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