Necessity is the mother of invention. We pulled into to
Noumea, New Caledonia and someone was offering free wireless internet for a
month. Now that sounds like a great deal ANY cruiser would love, but the problem was that the signal wouldn’t reach the boat. I
had to
go to the grassy spot at the end of the dock, where I could get a spotty
connection. My battery life wasn’t very good and the dogs seem to be using
the same area to take care of their business, so the environment wasn’t
conducive to a good browsing experience. I thought about a satellite dish
and imagined that if I could focus the incoming signal at the antenna I
would have a much better connection. A solid metal bowl would reflect
the sun and melt my antenna so I used a stainless steel mesh pasta strainer
(with a plastic handle). The
stainless mesh reflects hi-frequency WiFi signals but allows the sun and
breeze to pass through - Whammo, instant WiFi range extender! You can’t focus
the beam at the computer but you can focus it at an
external USB wireless adapter.
I put
a swivel at the base of the strainer and centered the adapter
in the middle of the strainer portion. Focus the WiFi extender at the
transmitter and you’ll get a much better signal. Use a
USB extension cable to get the antenna
on deck and keep your computer below. Within a day most of the
boats on the dock had one, the French must have thought that we all eat a
lot of spaghetti! The best range we’ve ever seen is five miles
(Bums Bay to the Yacht Club, Australia), but I think that was a strong signal to begin
with. Beware that if your boat swings at anchor and your access point is far
away, you’ll be in and out of service.
