[JANDY]

Long Range-High Speed Marine WiFi As a Mac developer from nearly Mac day one and life long boater, I thought I would join a sailing forum, actually 2. It was a pretty ugly experience. I am not sure, but I think they were all die hard WINDOWS users with that common mentality I think we all know quite well and I will not bother saying anything more on that other than, "I unsubscribed" after a lot of abusive treatment due to my open discussions on all things technical, hardware and software. I am deeply involved (for years now) with long range WiFi and WiMAX equipment development for marine applications and I found and do continue find, there is a lot of seriously bad and mis-information AND outright lies out there in the real world on this subject and that people are down right starving for straight talk on hardware, software, RF, WiFi, WiMAX and, range, data rates, a simple education on AP/Gateways and the different systems, log-ins, code systems, gear and the such and wondered if anyone may have an interest?? I have a lot of knowledge on that subject matter due to my involvement in it and thought this may be a better place for such discussions and a good place to seek shared knowledge on MacENC and GPSNavX, which I need to learn A LOT more about. I have the software, but although a techy/prop head in other fields, I am a paper chart, pencil, dividers, parallel rules guys - old school navigator and need to use it more (MacENC and GPSNavX) and definitely learn a lot more. Anyway, thought I would see who is around here in the world of sailors with Mac's. I am guessing, it is a different experience and certainly hope so. AND, can anyone tell me how to put my vessel pict on my profile? She's much better looking than I, so . . . . . . Safe sail all, JANDY clear PS: I am also working on SAT WX receivers and Quadrafilar antennas to work with WXtoIMG reading GRIB files, wondering if anyone looks at that app or has interest in the subject and Celestia too. Time to dust off the old sextant I guess . . . . cast off

[georgelewisray]

Nice to read that someone knowledgable in wireless comm is looking to share info. Wish I had intelligent questions and not just a desire to understand more. I am a OSX and IOS fan and user and am even working on learning IOS development but it is a long steep uphill slog for me on that. .... Except for iNavX and AyeTides and Starpilot on IOS, .... and GribView on OSX I tend to do most digital nav stuff on windows XP either w/ parallels on the macbook or on an ASUS 1000HE netbook w/ 12VDC output from pwr brick. (1) Coastal Explorer ( I am a beta geek for them) does lots of handy stuff and uses raster and vector chart (with auto updates from NOAA) and does coast pilots and sailing directions and also the Active Captain database, and Brazil has made it's raster charts available. (2) OpenCPN (OSX version is not up to speed yet) to use some of the CM93 world charts. (3) Visual Passage Planner that utilizes pilot chart data for wind, current, gale%, temp, etc and the boats polars to estimate trip performance. (4) uGRIB and viewFax for Wx data stuff, (5) Assorted tide programs, (6) Assorted celestial, astronomical progs... (6) interesting free prog NAVMONPC.

I am very excited about the potential to using ourPhones and iPad as remote displays. All it takes is a freezer weight ziplock bag the IOS unit is darn near IPX 6 waterproof. ..... The whole thing with peer-to-peer networking and/or the need for wifi ?router? has my head spinning.

Big fan of using paper charts !!

[svplainjane]

I have just register to this forum but have been reading posts on it occasionally for some time. I have a several years experience living aboard in a Mac environment. I have been using GPSNavX and then MACENC for years and love them. Just got an iPad and iNavX and barley have but a few miles of use underway with it but looking forward to much more.

I am very interested in discussing long range wifi for cruising liveaboards. I use a paid wifi service in the Puget Sound area and have a wireless network within my sailboat. It all works pretty well most of the time but when it fails dealing with the service provider gets frustrating. And when it comes to trouble shooting most of the time the service providers tech support want to blame my Apple equipment before listening to much of what I think.

Where ever this discussion heads I look forward to it.

[gmonacelli]

From a "packaged product" perspective, Bad Boy Extreme seems to be one of the better and affordable Long-Rang WiFi systems for a boat. The complete kit, with antenna, receiver/amplifier, wireless AP, and cabling runs just over $400.

I just order the individual components from Amazon, and saved about $50:
1) Bullet M2HP (Receiver/Amplifier)
2) Bullet PicoStation 2 - Wireless AP
3) Shakespeare 2' 2.4 Ghz Marine Antenna
4) 80' Outdoor RG Cable.

Plan to install over the next month.

[gmonacelli]

oops....4) above is CAT5E cable not RG.

[JANDY]

Well Plain Jane, sounds like that would be BBX. Sorry about that (so is everyone else in the Pac NW). The main problems are: AP/Gateway equipment is NOT MAX power - weak stuff and lousy antennas and poorly placed, on top of it all. This is a very problematic configuration/combination, in both directions; Rx & Tx, over 802.11, 2.4gHz band, in b, g and or n. Also, the AP/Gateways are "Scaled" - As in, the users are all restricted to a specific speed/bit rate. The "valve" is turned way down. AP/Gateways, regardless of the type/location, etc., most of which, all run on a system that puts people "in single file line" So, this is also problematic when you combine that with weak transceiver and antennas and placements. As well, there are extreme issues with their system embedding "COOKIES" on your machine, which locks you out of other services in other locations, fee or free based. Most people are extremely frustrated by this and literally "give up" If you run in to this problem, you must clear your cache and "Remove All" cookies in your browser prefs. In SAFARI, go to Security and hit "Show Cookies" and "Remove All" You may need to quit and relaunch SAFARI or FireFox, etc. When it comes right down to it, it is a good idea to remove all cookies on a regular basis and also have it set to accept cookies from site that you navigate to only. This will cause you to re-enter user name and passwords from sites you ask to "Remember Me" but as a security practice, it is vital. I do it all the time. Customer Service?? What's that? You are usually talking to NNU, the network admin contractor out of Austin Texas. They refuse to even acknowledge Mac's exist, let alone know anything about them or the OS. I sure would like to know how Bill does it, what an art. He must have gone to school with Rupert Murdoch. As far as BBX, if I had a dollar for every time someone that knows me asks me to replace the BBX Ap/Gateways with my network stuff - the SEAPORT802â„¢ gear, I would have $80 more than I have. We do not scale any AP/Gateways, we let the units run wide open to the maximum bit rate of the pipe and use the biggest pipes we can get. AND NO COOKIES !!! AND NO SCALING !! You are FREE to come and go . . . . . . ahhhh, fresh sea air. . . . . . I am on the peninsula and doing average 6 meg in and around 2 to 3 meg out. I am very happy, to say the least. Right now, I am doing a network design now for the entire Caribbean region (14 AP's throughout the region) and going to roll it out with a full network build this year. Sorry, although Seattle based, we will not be doing anything locally, or in Canada. If someone were interested in taking 100% of that business, it would certainly be instantly successful and pretty easy to do and the investment is not that much actually. I would certainly be able to set anyone up with turn key equipment and I know all the locations and big pipe ISP's and what deals can be made in bulk purchase/multi location cloud interface networking. But I have no interest in doing anything here, except preparing to leave for the Caribbean via the canal. (50 foot S&S slop) On another note, as an authorized Apple/UNIX Developer since 1985, I have entertained several app titles for the marine/blue water sailing industry, but I am basically sticking with marine based wireless data hardware and network builds for now. I am going to the Miami Boat Show where I will be debuting the COASTAL802â„¢ b/g/n 2.4gHz Hi-Bred transceiver (12VDC), OFFSHORE802â„¢ a/n 5gHz MIMO Hi-Bred WiMAX transceiver (12VDC), the SEAPORT802â„¢ b/g/n 2.4gHz/a/n 5gHz dual transceiver AP/Gateway (2.4gHz side - 10+ miles/5gHz side - up to 62 mile data tunnel repeater) and the SHIPMATE802â„¢ b/g/n On-board WLAN w/4Port Switch (12VDC). Let me know if you have any interest and I'll send the pdf's. Today, I am shutting down our on-line store, as we are moving to the "authorized dealers" phase of life and we're in final prep for Miami. Hope it's a little warmer there. Safe Sail, JANDY clear to 16 Here's my hole in the water; www.jandy.eu

[JANDY]

Fantastic on the Brazil charts georgelewisray . I am going there right away (upon logout). I am seeking all the charts I can get, for the whole world, digital and paper (I collect them, I love maps and charts since early childhood - I have never been lost lol).

I do actually think that the NAVIONICS for MacENC, from Fugawi are pretty reasonably priced though. I have the entire Med out in to the Atlantic one and looking at getting the whole North America, Central Am. and Caribbean one, very soon and even more as time goes on. I have just been pretty busy on network stuff. What I really NEED, is a program that works with and educates on, using sextants. I got a real good deal on one about 40 years old, in new condition and complete, etc. and have the books, and have actually shot the seminars at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival, with my broadcast TV kit to make a show of it. In a large class (50 to 60) we're all glued in on the instructor and it starts out great and all sounds do-able and easy and suddenly, 10 minutes in to it, he goes over our heads and every ones eyes roll. It IS a very deep subject and I do look forward to getting in to to it deeply, and feel there will be a little time to do that, doin' 5 knots for 4,000 miles 24 hours a day . . . . . I have a lot extremely interesting sites marked in SAFARI and certainly willing to share any/all of them. I seek anything "sail" for the Mac. The new SAT product I am working on now is a SAT WX receiver with Quadrifilar helicoidal antenna for free SAT WX GRIB downloading worldwide (like the SkyEye only MUCH less expensive) I really like the WXtoIMG app and will pay the fee to get the top level version, soon. I bought the Raymarine hub and have done some wiring to network the coming hardware. Raymarine thinks their manuals are easy to understand. Oh well. I wish everyone would just go USB2 interface ready and get it over with. The SIMRAD NSE series is - they are way ahead of the game and I now looking at leaving FURUNO for my next large $$$ purchase and going with the new SIMRAD stuff. It's pretty impressive and USB2 "network ready" Just add it to the "ENDLESS LIST" for blue water journey prep. Safe sail, JANDY clear to 16

[georgelewisray]

Sorry about thread hijack .....
Few Celestial Suggestions:

(1) Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with H.O. 208, ( John S. Letcher, Jr. ) ,out print but see note below.

(2) Emergency Navigation, ( David Burch)

(3) Long Term Almanac, (Dr. Geoffrey Kolbe)

(4) Starpilot app for IOS, by Luis Soltero.

For serious practice...... spring for a aircraft bubble sextant and you can practice in your front yard or on the roof of your apt building. Artificial horizons work, but are a royal pain and dramatically limit the sights you can take. Air sextant won't work in bubble mode on the boat unless it is dead calm but there are a few models that have 'horizon mode and can be used for land/air/marine. (e.g. Navy Mark V, // note: units, parts, service avil from Celestaire)

Look for most any book by 'David Burch' who is the founder of the Starpath navigation school. He is a great writer/navigator/teacher. Particuraly "Emergency Navigation" really is => most of the possible pathfinding techniquies for the prudent mariner. David Burch is a prolific author and his text on navigation and weather are among the best.

The wonderful thing about John Letcher's book is (a) he is a very good writer, (2) included EVERYTHING needed to navigate in that book. The sight reduction method HO 208 requires a little bit of math but is VERY compact. Most others such as HO 214, 229, 249 do most all the calculations and you just look things up in tables BUT there are expensive and very very big on the book shelf of a small boat. If you have a 70' schooner then 'no worries mate'. The only thing that is out of date in the book is a 25 year nautical almanac (1975-2000) that was good until 2000. It can be reconstructed from information in Bowitch. Such an almanac is limited to Sun and stars but is cheap and easy to obtain. Not bad to have it all in one book. As of Feb, 2011 there are 6+ copies on AMAZON for under $20, you need to add, $3.99 media rate shipping, of course. Also, Letcher wrote the incredible book, "Self Steering for Sailing Craft", he was an aeronautical engineer and is the chairman and principal shareholder of AeroHydro, Inc!
https://picasaweb.google.com/georgelewisray

Luis Soltero the founder of www.globalmarinenet.com is an impressive global networking someone you may already be familiar with.

Long term nautical almanac data for the sun and selected stars valid until 2050, plus easy to use, concise sight reduction and altitude correction tables. Plus work forms to make the process even easier. A concise one-book solution for celestial navigation. It takes a few extra steps to get GHA and dec with the Long Term Almanac, since it does it without the usual 10 pounds of reference books, but with practice it takes just a few minutes longer than normal almanac look up. http://www.starpath.com/catalog/books/1882.htm

[mork]

Hello everybody, I was looking for help about long range WiFi data transmission and I found this helpfull forum. I make my answer to Jandy, but any advice is well accepted. I work for Physics Dept - University of Genova (Italy) and I'm now involved on a European project whose aim is 3D real-time tracking of bottlenose dolphins in Portofino Gulf by a passive underwater acoustic acquisition system (hydrophones). The detection unit support is a buoy positioned at about 1 Km away from the coast. The output signal of the hydrophones is digitized by a 200kHz/16 bit ADC and must be sent to a receiving station on the coast. The idea is to create a point-to-point wi-fi link between the buoy and the on-shore station. The transmission bit rate should be:
bit rate=200kHz * 16 bit * 3Hydrophones=9.6 Mb/s
My question is: up to your experience, is it possible to reach this kind of bit rate (not ideally but realistically), supposing that the buoy has a remarkable stability and that the receiver sees the transmitter (distance about 1 km)?
Do you have any advice about the particular device I should use? ( my choice could be CISCO AIRNET 1300). Thanks in advance for any helpfull answer. Best regards Marco

[JANDY]

MORK, I have authored a rather lengthy reply to your post and emailed it to you. It covers 2.4gHz WiFI and 5ghz WiMAX gear, abilities and specs, etc., and also, extreme range data tunnel stuff and a lot more. Let me know if you receive it OK. Anyone else interested in the subject matter of Internet on-board, wireless systems and SAT WX stuff, etc. feel free to ask for a copy via email: navstation@jandy.eu Safe sail all . . . . . .

[JANDY]

Additionally: "georgelewisray" thanks a bunch for the info. My question is, do you know where I can buy more time on this planet !!! I NEED MORE TIME !! Great info. I will have more questions on this and other stuff. Thank you very much. JR JANDY Safe sail . . . . . .

[JANDY]

MORK, I guess my reply went to the webmaster of macsailing.net, so if you would like a direct email with my reply (a technical doc), send me your email and I will forward the document addressing sea based wireless monitoring and UW 0kz to 100+kHz capture and streaming protocols, etc. Safe sail, JR navstation@jandy.eu

[JANDY]

Well Marco, maybe we were just meant to meet up over this. This may be a long note, but I think you'll like what you hear. I will proceed "digressively" but hopefully cover it all.
<p>
It just so happens, that my background not only includes film, television, radio and sound production, but electronics engineering and manufacturing for the same, besides being a life long sailor and having worked for groups in ocean conservation and whale research. With that said, I work on pretty much everything you are talking about and have been on it for many years for; Killer, Orca, Right and other species, of whales, dolphins, etc. - not to mention "other things" going on, under the sea's surface. I have designs of various monitoring and observation systems, of which, some, I have built in to JANDY and her on-board computer systems.
<p>
Specifically, my systems/designs involve gathering sub-sonic, sonic, and ultra sonic waves from 0kz to 160khz and; HD & IR video/imaging at various sub-surface depths as well as above the surface-mostly below the surface though. The most common use is at: 0hz to 48kHz.
<p>
As whales, dolphins and other cetaceans communicate at frequencies; in, below and above the human audio spectrum, the data achieved from sub-sonic and ultra sonic, can be acquired and analyzed using my system, for specific positioning will provide the ability to find "direction and distance" via "Doppler" comparisons. Additionally, I also created a system by which the sub-sonic, sonic, and/or ultra sonic wave data retrieved, and can provide specific direction and distance, to the source. This of course is derived from valuated data gathered over time.
<p>
The unit to use is definitely not the CISCO 1300 or any other product they make. CISCO, is just "not in this game" and trying to make non-applicable solutions work, is a dead end journey.
<p>
The OFFSHORE802â„¢ transceiver has a second RJ45 interface with PoE (powered port) to allow the connection of additional devices allowing for HD or IR camera, mics. etc. These are also, fully controllable from the shore base station and SOLAR battery capable with a range of 32 miles with dual antennas (MIMO)
<p>
Feel free to contact me for a full system breakdown. Safe sail all . . . . . . JANDY clear to 16

[JANDY]

I lost the .eu URL for jandy.eu website The updated JANDY site and new address is; www.sailingjandy.com eMail address is; navstation@sailingjandy.com

[danieljenkins]

Seems like we're all pretty tech savvy here. Great bunch to learn from. I'm fairly new to the sailing world and loving it. I too am a mac user.

For data access, I've had pretty good luck from tethering my phone, however been coastal cruising perhaps a few miles out.

Anyone ever consider the options of rigging buoys as a repeater?

[JackConnick]

Anybody have any local experience with hardware hotspot cell connections here in Puget Sound/SJ islands? We're out on the weekends and could go another day or so if we could remote in.

Jack

[iaanhayden]

It all works pretty well most of the time but when it goes wrong considering with the service provider gets frustrating. I have the whole Med out in to the Atlantic one and looking at getting the entire North America, Central Am. and Caribbean one, very shortly and even more as time proceeds on.