We just returned from Hawaii doublehanding a Swede 55 which had done the
Pacific Cup race. I fitted a used Icom 706 and a used Pactor IIe, fitted a
wire hoisted up on the topping lift instead of an insulated backstay, and a
ground to the stern pulpit and lifelines, with a copper strap to a thru hull
just below waterline. It worked just fine. As both my wife and I are ham
licensed, we could connect up to twice as long to available on-shore
stations for surface weather analyses, 24 hour forecasts, grib files,
satallite pictures (all provided through winlink), and even cropped
scaterometer files sent by a friend from the mainland. Plus unlimited email.
The winlink organization is exactly the same as Sailmail (written by the
same authors, Stan Honey and Jim Coreman -sp?) but with much longer
connection times and is free as opposed to the now $250/year charged by
Sailmail. This system worked even better than the SkyMate VHF satallite
system the racers had used on the way over.
For WiFi, we too found a useful vendor at RadioLabs, with a twist. We got
their 200 mw DC amplifier and connected it to a flat external antenna (15 dB
gain and 45 degree apature, in Mexico so we don't have the manufacturer or
model with us). It works well at up to a mile (depends on how strong the
shore station is) and accomodates a certain amount of swing at anchor. It's
fixed on a verical mount so we can swing the antenna when necessary. We have
found a large number of "hotspots" open for general (read "free") use.
We have no experience with cell phones so can't make a comparison.
Michael & Elizabeth
S/V Cambria

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Received on Thu Aug 17 20:21:16 2006