wireless on the boat

Hi members,

Can anyone give me info on what to use on my boat to recieve wireless
hotspots.
In my country The Netherlands we have a lot of canals that go trough
towns and citys.
When we stop at the end of the day I allways try to find hotspots .
With my PCMCIA card I some times get a connection.
What i'm looking is a PCMCIA card with a external antenna connection
that can recieve from long distances( about 1 mile).
What antenna will be for me the best that goes with the card.
Cable length is about 3 metres from card to antenna.
The antenna will be mounted in the mast of the boat.
Availble length of the antenna can be about 1 metre.


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"Snorkel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
|
| Hi members,
|
| Can anyone give me info on what to use on my boat to recieve wireless
| hotspots.
| In my country The Netherlands we have a lot of canals that go trough
| towns and citys.
| When we stop at the end of the day I allways try to find hotspots .
| With my PCMCIA card I some times get a connection.
| What i'm looking is a PCMCIA card with a external antenna connection
| that can recieve from long distances( about 1 mile).
| What antenna will be for me the best that goes with the card.
| Cable length is about 3 metres from card to antenna.
| The antenna will be mounted in the mast of the boat.
| Availble length of the antenna can be about 1 metre.

Keep in mind the vertical beam width of the antenna if the vessel is prone
to heel or be rocked by waves.

NotMe wrote:
> Keep in mind the vertical beam width of the antenna if the vessel is prone
> to heel or be rocked by waves.

For that reason, mobile antennas are a low gain (wide vertical beamwidth)
antenna).

> "Snorkel" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> Hi members,
>
> Can anyone give me info on what to use on my boat to recieve wireless
> hotspots.
> In my country The Netherlands we have a lot of canals that go trough
> towns and citys.
> When we stop at the end of the day I allways try to find hotspots .
> With my PCMCIA card I some times get a connection.
> What i'm looking is a PCMCIA card with a external antenna connection
> that can recieve from long distances( about 1 mile).
> What antenna will be for me the best that goes with the card.
> Cable length is about 3 metres from card to antenna.
> The antenna will be mounted in the mast of the boat.
> Availble length of the antenna can be about 1 metre.

You may want to think about a plan B... I tried that on my boat, but when
moving (even slowly), if I wasn't rocking and rolling from waves/wakes, I
was only in the range of hotspots for a few minutes... Finally bit the
bullet and got a tether for my cell phone, quite a bit slower, but a lot
more reliable, and I had the cellphone already, and the cell signal was
usually pretty good on inland waterways. Best part was that could not only
use it for short times during the day, but at night, when docked/anchored, I
had time to putz with it, and that's when free minutes kicked in (after 9pm)
PS, in case you were wondering, tether cable ran me about $10..... When
docked at a marina that had free WiFi, I just used that (WiFi) instead (no
reason you can't have both, my laptop had builtin WiFi, and just use one at
a time)