Skip,

Did you build your own antenna? I didn't understand that from the post.
Depending on the height of the antenna from the surface of the water,
you'll get different a different emission pattern ("donut"). If you
really want long range, you can build yourself a directional antenna. I
don't know anything about wifi antennas and the way that signal is
polarized, but you could use either 2 dipoles or a Yagi sort of setup,
minus the parasitic directors. A two-dipole directional setup requires
two identical antennas, parallel and next to each other, emitting in
phase, and seperated by 1/2 wavelength (about 6.25cm in the case of
wifi, unless I'm mistaken about the freq). The emission will near zero
in the plane of the two dipoles, and maximum in the plane perpenticular
to that. With a Yagi sort of setup, you just need a passive (isolated)
reflector 1/4 wavelength from the emitting antenna, parallel to it.
There'll be nearly no signal behind the reflector in the
antenna/reflector plane, and maximum signal in front of the antenna in
the antenna/reflector plane. The reflector is just a conductive rod
approximately the same length as your antenna. For the exact geometry
of the reflector, you'd have to search on the internet.

With a directional setup like that, if you were at anchor somewhere you
could turn your antenna until you got maximum reception. You'd add
greatly to your range. Maybe someone manufactures directional wifi
antennas, though they'd likely be priced out of this world.

-Max Camirand

Skip Gundlach wrote:
> Today was day one of the trials. Motor only, just to get familiar with
> the
> new prop setup, and see what we could break.
>
> Nothing really broke, other than the forward bilge pump switch stuck
> "on"
> and the aft bilge pump switch wouldn't turn on, and some anomalies in
> the
> instruments (no speed on either unit, flaky until it settled down on
> the new
> depth gauge), there seems to be a bit of harmonic vibration in the
> shaft
> (putting my hand on it feels a bump on the opposite sides, and
> depending on
> the speed, it's different points on the clock) and the dripless packing
>
> system isn't, yet.
>
> However the point of this was to report on the wifi setup's first real
> challenge. I got the bridge up on the mast (the end of the Dec06
> gallery in
> the refit section for any who are interested -
> http://justpickone.org/skip/gallery/...c06&start=115),
>
> and the line to it for the POE and data run through the mast (have yet
> to
> decide where to put it and some other downstairs gear, so it's
> currently
> just sitting in the Vee with the ethernet strung on the sole from the
> mast).
>
> The signal is so strong up there that it latches on to a pay site,
> something
> I was afraid would happen (the bridge, in open mode, vs a stated target
>
> SSID, goes to the strongest site). No amount of fiddling in the way
> I'd
> become accustomed, which is to just type the URL of the bridge in my
> browser, bringing up the setup pages, would do anything other than
> bring a
> signup page to the pay site. I grumbled but the other sites we had
> been
> using were a bit less than stellar, so we gave it a 30 day trial, by
> which
> time we fervently hope to be gone.
>
> Initially it was great. Good download and upload, no problem logging
> in,
> great VoIP, and so on. However, lately, I've not been able to address
> it
> through the access point and router which were in between my wifi
> laptop,
> and the bridge.
>
> Happily, however, before that failure, which happened as I went from
> inverter power on return to the dock, to shore power (where it had been
>
> functioning for the last many months), while we were anchored, and
> rocking
> and rolling in the swells, a few miles out in Tampa Bay, I picked up
> the
> phone and called Lydia's Mom in England and my Dad in New Hampshire,
> both
> over the Vonage system which is connected to the bridge (seeing its
> data
> stream as an IP feed).
>
> So, assuming I can figure out what's going on with a system which
> previously, for months, worked very effortlessly, but now is a real
> pain,
> and actually currently won't work at all other than as a
> wired-to-my-computer bridge, internet only for me, no phone, no other
> computers on wifi (because it somehow won't pass data through either of
>
> them), it has proven my expectation:
>
> I expect that I'll be able to see many stations from which to choose as
> we
> cruise, as many as 3-4 miles from shore. If those stations are
> broadband as
> I've been led to believe is usually the case, we'll have internet and
> my
> home number in most ports and anchorages in populated areas.
>
> Now if I can only sort out what's going on to make it not as simple
> (and for
> that matter, not functional in other than a very simple way) as it's
> been
> for the last many months.
>
> We'll probably put up some sails tomorrow; if I can get this working
> before
> then, that will be another test. That is, as one respondent on one
> list
> pointed out, a high gain antenna gets its strength by flattening the
> donut
> of the radiated signal. Our rocking and rolling wasn't enough to be
> trouble
> today; that far out, the donut disk gets pretty broad, I imagine - but
> I
> don't know about when we're heeled a bit...
>
> Stay tuned (so to speak)...
>
> L8R
>
> Skip
>
> Morgan 461 #2
> SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
> See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery!
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>
> "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
> didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
> away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
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