Another area where we are making significant changes is in our communication gear. With the exception of dual VHF’s at the helm and a command mike on the flybridge, all of our comm gear is in the office. For a more detailed review, you can check out our prior posts on the subject by clicking here and here. For purposes of this post, we will just review things quickly and move on to the changes we are making.
The following are general shots of the office and the com gear.
At the top of the food chain (and most technologically sophisticated), is our Fleet Broadband 150 satellite system which works pretty much anywhere in the world. The unit includes a digital phone handset (visible beneath the Icom SSB) along with an Ethernet data connection that we plug directly in to the IMac in the office when we want to use it. It is not connected to the boat wireless network. Due to the data charges of USD 10 per megabyte we don’t use it often and maintain an air gap between it and the IMac so there are no billing surprises. Phone calls are another story. Calls home on the FB150 are down to around USD .85 per minute which is competitive with many cellular plans. Absent the availability of Skype over 3G or public WiFi or some extremely attractive rates by cell to the US, it is our go to system.
At the other end of the spectrum is our Icom SSB connected to a USB Pactor modem. The modem (which is located behind the panel) is in turn connected to the IMac. We subscribe to SailMail and use it for text emails, weather forecasts, grib files and weather faxes. While it is the oldest technology, it has never failed us and only entails a onetime annual cost of USD 250 for SailMail. The SailMail program has excellent utilities for choosing the best land based station to send to, requesting weather forecasts and grib files and weather faxes. It also remotely tunes the SSB to the chosen frequency. We wouldn’t be without it.
For WiFi, we have been using a Port Networks a,b,g signal booster attached to an external mast on the antenna. This is one of the items we will be changing.
We also have a cellular antenna which we tried to connect to an old Ericcson W35 unlocked modem this past year. Problem being that we were sold a modem by an unreputable source on Ebay and it wasn’t unlocked. Nothing you can do with a locked modem so it met its end in a trash bin – the seller had disappeared. We used 3G thumb modems but they were less than ideal. So changes here as well.
Finally, we are using an Apple Airport Extreme base station connected to the Port Networks bridge to create an on board network. While this has worked fine, it is being changed out and retasked as part of our changes.
The big change is the addition of a Peplink Max HD router – an expensive piece of gear but worth it in terms of its capabilities. It has two embedded cellular modem slots that accept sim cards from local providers. Just about every format and frequency is supported and each slot has an external port to connect to an antenna – in our case the one on the mast. It also has a USB port for thumb modems. Photo courtesy of Peplink.
For WAN interfaces, it has two 10/100 ports. It also has 1 802.11b,g, and n WiFi as WAN with provisions to accept an external antenna. It also functions as an 802.11 b,g, and n access point which will replace the Apple Airport to create our onboard network.
While we have no immediate plans to use them, the Peplink also has a 4 port 100/1000 Ethernet switch.
Among its many features is the capability to prioritize the order in which services are accessed. For example, use WiFi when it is available and then use 3G if it is not. If 3G is not available, then use the FB150 (although we aren’t going to connect the satellite to the Peplink at present for reasons stated earlier). It also has the capability to boost connection speeds by using multiple services at the same time – say WIFi supplemented by the 3G connection.
While we could plug our WiFi antenna directly in to the Peplink, we still like the idea of a boosted signal. To that end, we read about an inline signal booster that mounts to a standard antenna mount on one end and a marine WiFi antenna on the other – very compact. The device is called a Bullet injector and we purchased it from Island Time PC. We learned about it thru Active Captain. It can be powered by the same POE injector cable that worked on our Port Networks booster and will connect to one of the WAN ports on the Peplink. 802.11 a,b,g and n are supported – n was not supported on our Port Networks booster. To establish a link, he unit has a built in web interface that displays all WiFi stations within range. Photo courtesy of Island Time PC
As for the Apple Airport, we are thinking of retasking it as part of our Maretron system upgrades, but that is the subject for another post.
One of the things we hope to do this year with all this improved comm capability is to manage our finances from the boat. Until now, we have been using our accountant with help from our daughter collecting the mail. We are still working it all out and will do a separate post on our system once we have it all sorted.
As far as the new com system on the boat, we will report back on how well things worked once we have some time with it. The only certainty is that we will have lots of chances to get this right as the technology (and the amount of stuff we have) changes by the moment.