Satellite Internet for sailing yachts. A yacht is like a house: pros, cons, pitfalls. Interpretation of results and diagnosis

Being close to the coast, you often need a stable Internet connection. But what to do if there is no satellite Internet on your ship, and the mobile network is so unstable that it is simply impossible to use it, but you need to be in touch here and now.
What to do in this situation? There is a solution!
We present to your attention the Scout Master equipment complex!

Our complex is presented in 3 assembly options.

Method No. 1:

Connection using Wi-Fi antenna SCOUT KS-60 2.0 and Scout Sea-Hub router.

Scout KS-60 2.0 provides a Wi-Fi connection at a significant distance from the access point. The Scout KS-60 is 30 times more powerful than standard Wi-Fi network cards built into laptops. The solution is designed specifically for marine conditions. Now you can easily and with even greater reliability receive a Wi-Fi signal in marinas, ports and other facilities.

We connect the Scout KS-60 2.0 to the USB connector, which is located on the Scout Sea-Hub. We find the necessary Wi-Fi network, connect to it - enjoy the Internet!
Signal range: up to 2 km from the access point.

Method number 2:

Connection using a 3G/4G/LTE SCOUT Sea-Connect antenna, 3G USB modem and Sea-Hub router.


Scout Sea-Connect is a 4dB broadband 3G/4G/LTE antenna that provides high-speed Internet access for devices. Suitable for installation on all types of ships.

Scout Sea-Hub – mobile Wi-Fi/3G/USB router.

To connect to this device you must have a 3G/4G USB modem. Scout Sea-Connect connects to a 3G/4G USB modem (you can purchase a 3G/4G modem from your telecom operator), and we connect the modem to the Scout Sea-Hub USB connector. We set up the router according to the instructions and rejoice at our results!
Signal range: within the current network of the telecom operator.

More information about the kit

An interesting discussion ensued about life on a 40+ size yacht. User Alloy Boy wondered what it would be like to move from an apartment to a small boat:


“All day long I see yachts from my office window, and it seems to me that life on them is so serene, he writes. - Is it really there? there is nowhere to turn around, as it seems to me (if you live alone)? How quickly do they depreciate? A quick search shows that a “forty-footer” is comparable in price to an apartment or small house, but what are the advantages of living on a yacht (besides mobility)?”

Here are the answers he received:

Imaka

“It's a very relaxed life and quite comfortable, but it all depends on your needs and desires. By the way, in most places you will pay much less for a 40-foot yacht than for an apartment.

Life on a boat is not for everyone. It can be pleasant and relaxing, but it takes some effort to make it so. If you have the opportunity to live on a yacht without buying it, then it’s worth doing.

You must take care of fresh water and emptying the waste tank. You will have to run to the shore for water - sometimes to the marina. In some places water can be delivered to the boat, but experience tells me that this is rather an exception. Personally, I haven't had that much luck. When my husband and I stood in one place for a long time, we had to grab 20 liters of water every time we went ashore.

Need electricity? If so, consider wind generators or solar panels - it all depends on the area where you live. Fridge? The most energy-hungry device on a yacht. There are less voracious ones, but they will cost you a pretty penny. Want to have a hot shower on your boat? Consider whether it is warm enough in your area to get by with a “summer shower” every day or whether it is worth buying a water heater.

What about the cooking? If you have a gas stove, especially a Force 10, two burners and an oven, that's great, some people supplement it with a barbecue grill in the cockpit. With a stove you should have a gas detector in the cabin in case of a leak, gas could accumulate on the bottom of the boat causing an explosion.

If you are anchored, then you will have to get to the shore every day on a tug. Make sure it doesn't get stolen. Is there transport on the shore? So much the better, you won’t have to carry laundry, groceries, etc. on your back. Do you work every day? Keep in mind that there will be days when it will be difficult to get the tug to shore.

Do you want TV and Internet on board? We usually used mobile internet. Sometimes you were lucky enough to get an unlocked Wi-Fi connection. A high enough antenna will ensure reception of free TV channels. Naturally, the picture quality will be “lame” when the boat moves.

Again, depending on the region, clothing may suffer from moisture and mildew. To avoid this, we hid everything in sealed bags.


There are those who prefer to rent places in marinas, they live on board and receive most of the amenities of a regular home. But not all marinas allow this.

I would repeat my experience if the opportunity presents itself and if the right person is nearby."

drwer2

"I'm thinking about it myself. I've been sailing for many years, I'm approaching retirement, and the prospect of having a second home is appealing. If you're working, you probably won't want such a drastic change.

If life in a kennel doesn't scare you, then go ahead. On a yacht moored in the marina, you will get the following: long walks to and from the car with shopping, daily trips to the showers in the marina (a drain bank will save the situation, but you will not be able to empty it in the marina, and paying for it weekly is expensive) or you can go to sea every week to empty it there.

I highly recommend a light (or white) interior. Dark wood is depressing during the winter months. Additionally, you may suffer from claustrophobia in winter. That's why for those planning to live on a boat, I advise not skimping on space. The more space you have, the better your mental health.

In many ways, it’s like living in a campervan... with the possibility of drowning.”

DoH

No washer/dryer. "Interruptions" with water. Everything is modest with the cabinets and cooking. The beds leave much to be desired. Shower from boxes. Everything is damp all year round. The smell of gasoline if you have a motorboat. Rattling on the dock even when the boat is tied up. Many yachts don't have heaters, and none of the ones I've been on have air conditioning. At best, you will simply feel cramped. Entertainment is tight. Having a pet is almost impossible. Straighten up to your full height? Forget it.

This is all true, of course, but I myself would like to live on a boat - but only on a long journey, and not huddle in a marina and travel back and forth to work. Maybe live in the Caribbean in the winter and move to Maine for the summer? I would also like to reach Europe from North America. A completely different life!

Think of it this way: having a boat as a home is like having a motorcycle for every occasion. It sounds romantic, but how convenient is it in practice?

william g

You don't have to stay where you don't want to, you are literally and figuratively the "Captain of your ship" and no one can argue with that.

Based on the technical capabilities of satellite operators and the needs of subscribers, we can distinguish four main groups of satellite communication systems designed for high-speed data transmission.

The Inmarsat BGAN broadband satellite communications system provides data transmission at speeds of up to 492 kbit/s, which is almost comparable to terrestrial networks, high-quality telephone communications, as well as reception/transmission of fax messages. Tariffing is carried out for the transferred volumes of information, and the cost of 1 megabyte is about $6. Compact devices, the size of which does not exceed half a laptop, are used as subscriber terminals.

Thanks to its wide coverage area (up to 90% of the earth's surface), the system is equally suitable for both individuals and corporate clients (land and sea).

ShipSat offers unlimited internet access(over most of the ocean) with a fixed monthly fee, and low cost voice communications in almost all directions.

This is achieved through integration into a single system, on the one hand, of equipment miniVSAT, which operates in the Ku-band and provides unlimited data transfer, Internet access and minimal call rates, and on the other hand, an Inmarsat FleetBroadBand or Iridium OpenPort terminal, which automatically turns on when the ship leaves the miniVSAT coverage area.

The Inmarsat FleetBroadBand service of the Inmarsat satellite communications system was developed primarily for the maritime industry.

It works both in packet data transmission mode at speeds up to 432 kbit/s, and in ISDN mode at speeds up to 56/64 kbit/s. Provides round-the-clock operational communication for a vessel at sea and essentially allows you to organize a remote mobile office on the vessel.

FleetBroadBand's core services include e-mail, secure two-way satellite Internet access and an Intranet. This makes it possible not only to set up a mobile office with Internet access at sea, but also at a remote oil rig, logging base, government agencies, security agencies, etc.

A relatively new service on the mobile satellite communications market (launched in 2007). Data transfer speed - up to 15 kbit/sec for sending and up to 60 kbit/sec. appointment. Tariffing occurs based on the volume of transmitted and received information. When the connection is activated, subscribers can make calls, exchange SMS and e-mail.

Allows you to quite comfortably receive and send photographs, documents, small graphic files, email, as well as view “light” web pages. Suitable for various groups of users who do not need to organize the transfer of very large amounts of data or organize on-line broadcasts of streaming video.

ThurayaIP service introduced in comm commercial operation in 2008, allows high-speed data transmission via satellite channel.

ThurayaIP allows you to work in guaranteed data transfer speed mode: 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or 384 Kbps or up to 444 kbps (peak values) in shared channel mode. Connection to a laptop is carried out via a USB or LAN cable. Having installed and configured the modem once, the user will not have to change any parameters before each new communication session. Registration in the network occurs automatically after the signal level reaches the required level.

To gain access to ThurayaIP, simply connect your personal computer to a special “plug-and-play” terminal (satellite modem) equipped with a slot for installing a SIM card. The size of the satellite modem is comparable to the dimensions of a laptop.

The ThurayaIP satellite communication system is recommended for use both by private users (for example, tourists, travelers, geologists), and for installation on stationary or mobile objects - ships, boats, yachts, cars, etc.

http://www.tecckom.com/inmarsat_modem-rbgan.php technology review and news

Posted on Jul. 31st, 2011 at 03:52 am | |

Our dependence on mobile devices today is so great that we text, talk and see each other using them all day long. The widespread ability to use the Internet in everyday life often confirms our belief that while at sea on board a yacht, a person can also use fast and stable Internet.

NSSL Global, an independent satellite communications and IT support provider committed to providing high-quality voice and data services to customers anywhere in the world, provides satellite communications services to more than 150 megayachts worldwide. NSSL Global recently found that nearly 50 percent of 238 crew members surveyed believed that Internet access was unlimited everywhere. Considering that 90% of crew members have two personal devices on board, and 16% of them have six such devices, all of which use the Internet, demand often simply exceeds available capacity. At the same time, many believe that the quality of Internet services on board should be the same as at home.

To solve this problem, it is necessary to create a policy for the use of Internet traffic on board. But when developing a guide for megayacht owners and crews, it is necessary to first identify the problem and highlight the significant differences between supply and demand in order to develop understanding, adjust your expectations and use, and then obtain affordable and quality services.

Over the past decade, Internet traffic provisioning has had several major technological breakthroughs to enable universal adoption of VSAT service on board "full time", "global" access, and provide increased reliability and stability of services. But... this only increased the complaints. The problem is that the capacity has been increased fivefold, and the demand for services has increased exponentially.

To predict the future, you need to look at the Internet connections on a typical yacht today:

Typical download speeds: 400 - 800Kbps

Typical download speeds: 100 - 200Kbps

Fair use limits: from 30 to 60 GB per month.

The request for the provided power is determined by the type of devices used on board and the regulations for their operation.

On average, two to three devices per person are used on board. These are smartphones, tablets, laptops and multimedia devices that require 4 to 50 Mbps of bandwidth. If there are 21 people on board, then the number of user devices is 42-63 units hungry for bandwidth.

Five years ago, email and voice communications were the primary means for crew members to communicate with home. Internet bandwidth is now used for social and multimedia applications such as Facebook, Skype, Whatsapp, IMessage and Facetime, complemented by media streaming services, Netflix and Spotify for entertainment.

So what can be done to balance crew expectations with the vessel's business needs for Internet communications? The advice boils down to rationing consumption and increasing user knowledge.

Experts give some advice, which are as follows:

  • Implementation of Internet policy.
  • This document clearly defines what a crew member can expect: Internet connectivity, speed and volume of traffic provided.
  • Introduction of technologies capable of monitoring and managing individual consumption of services.
    Prioritizing Internet access to support business processes will optimize the use of the network for personal use and entertainment.
  • Limiting the number of devices a crew member can use simultaneously.
  • Control that crew turn off heavy bandwidth-consuming applications, such as Dropbox, when transferring data from ship to shore.
  • Timely updating of the data transmission control system on the yacht, so that after going to sea, you can easily contact the shore and report problems.
  • Ensuring a transparent policy for the use of the Internet on board the yacht and communicating the need for its implementation to every member of the crew for the benefit of all.

The most important rule is that the best policy should be personal, not technical. Making every crew member aware of the need for optimal use of Internet bandwidth on board a yacht will avoid many inconveniences and problems at sea.

Due to numerous requests from workers, we will tell you how to organize satellite connection for Internet connection in the heart of the Ocean and other wild places.

ATTENTION: The information in this article will help you save a lot of money that you could otherwise spend on satellite communications. Therefore, after reading, we press the “Thank you” button and express our generous financial gratitude to the author of the material. 🙂

Equipment

  • The satellite modem is not even a sea modem, but a land version - Inmarsat Bgan. The cost of a new one is about 3 thousand US dollars. Our used one. Bought on Ebay for 400 Euro. A special marine modem is twice as expensive. When connected to a modem, a regular handset for 12 euros turns into a satellite phone with an outgoing minute cost of 1 euro (incoming - 0).
  • Wifi router. Red port optimaser. Connected to the modem with a LAN cable. In addition to broadcasting a wifi signal, it also compresses traffic by about 10 times (if you have an account and an annual fee for the first year of about 100 euros, for the next 50 euros). When paying for an account, you are provided with a dedicated email address, which we do not share with anyone to avoid spam. The cost of the router is 175 euros

  • Xgate special program. We have it installed on iPad, Android smartphone and Macbook. We used the iPad the whole way. The rest are backup options.

Xgate interacts with Red Port Opimaser and receives and sends ONLY permitted Internet traffic. In our case, this is email. No unauthorized connections, which ALL gadgets that have access to an Internet connection love, such as application updates and other service requests, do not occur.

Weather forecast. Sending and receiving email

We mainly use two services (both without payment):

1. To obtain Grib files – saildocs.com. There it is enough to send a request by e-mail in the prescribed form, which should contain:

  • specifying the coordinates that bound the required rectangle
  • how many days is a forecast needed (we usually take 3 days)
  • breakdown by hour (3, 6, 12, etc.). In the Ocean we took with a range of 6 hours, in coastal sailing - usually with a range of 3 hours.
  • what indicators are needed (we have enough wind/pressure)

The answer comes within a few minutes. Then the resulting file can be inserted into any program that can view Grib files.

2. To receive weather maps (Weather Fax) – website nws.noaa.gov. Here is the same scheme - a request by email indicating the name of the required zone - a response in a couple of minutes.

As a backup option for obtaining weather maps, if suddenly unavailable satellite connection , we use a regular shortwave radio. You need to tune in at a certain time to the desired wave and turn on a special program - in our case, HF FAX on the iPad. Different forecasting and transmitting stations transmit forecasts to different regions at different times, again. You can download the schedule of stations, frequencies and regions on the Internet.

The signal transmitted over the radio, similar to the beeping of a fax, is picked up by the microphone of the receiving device and decrypted via HF FAX. The output is something like this:

Mail

Sending and receiving email occurs through the Xgate program. As I wrote above, an email address is provided when paying for your account. We set up forwarding to this address from our main e-mail address. We allow certain addresses for forwarding - family, close friends. Don't forget to allow the addresses from which Grib files and weather maps come.

Satellite connection. Budget

It is clear that the costs in this case directly depend on the traffic passing through the modem. We tried to reduce it as much as possible.

  • All our megabytes, or rather even kilobytes (!), are just email.
  • The Red Port Optimaser – Xgate combination allows you to compress all traffic passing through it by 10 times!
  • Correctly configured forwarding from the main e-mail address allows you to pass only necessary mail.

On our Atlantic crossing (described here - which lasted 23 days, we used satellite communications once every two days. We downloaded weather forecasts, received and sent several (3-8) letters, and sent a post to the site. As a result, we spent 650 Kilobytes - less than a megabyte, which costs 7 euros on our tariff plan.

 

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