4G Internet On Board

[MagicalArmchair]

Tethering on my phone works pretty well on board, however, I do want a hub on board that everything can connect to and an external aerial so that we can get better 4G range at anchor. The boat option is the 4G Connect - Pro model - Internet for boat - Digital Yacht at a frankly terrifying £774.

This offers <5W power consumption, IPX4 , Dual MIMO antennas, up to 70Mbps for that price, however, if you go and source some bits yourself, you get the below:

A separate antenna, that is IP65. KASER 4G LTE Antenna External Mimo Omnidirectional 698-2700MHz SMA Connector with CRC9 Adapter TS9 Compatible with 4G Router Gain Up to 12dBi (Cable 2 x 10M): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories will cost £90 and get a fancy https://www.amazon.co.uk/NETGEAR-MR1100-100EUS-Nighthawk-Downloading-Streaming/dp/B079H2LX8X for £250 with up to 1 Gbps.

Questions then:

1. The total cost of the two items is around half the price of the Digital Yacht stuff and it is more versatile (take it ashore for instance)... is this you buy cheap, you buy twice and I should swallow the "boat" prices? Even if the antenna does rot away in a few years, I could replace it many times over and still be cash in hand. I suppose whilst the NetGear has the internal battery, charging via fast charge 3.0 would take 3 amps, so 36 Watts max? Presumably once fully charged, it would take less.
2. I have a Raymarine e7 and a SeaTalkNG to WiFi thingy: Yacht Devices SeatalkNG Wi-Fi Gateway - YDWG-02R. Could these connect to the router and then could I access them from my iPad?
3. What do you do for Internet via 4G on board?

 

[jordanbasset]

I used to use a mifi and when reception was poor put it in a plastic bag snd hoisted it up the mast. Took seconds to do and sorted out the problems of reception at most anchorages (this was in Greece)

 

[biscuit]

Good analysis. I considered that situation a couple of years ago. As a temporary fix, while I worked out a solution, I bought a tiny Muama Ryoko device ( 4G>WiFi)( is this a"MiFi"?) linked to a Lebara Sim card. Unlimited data top ups @ £25/ month. 2 years later, I'm still using it, both on the boat and when away from home.
It wouldn't be economical for a liveaboard, but my sailing is intermittent, a week or three several times in the summer months. Lebara uses the Vodafone network which has good coverage here on the W coast of Scotland, and as long as I get 4G, there hasn't been a problem.

 

[KompetentKrew]

I used to use a mifi and when reception was poor put it in a plastic bag snd hoisted it up the mast. Took seconds to do and sorted out the problems of reception at most anchorages (this was in Greece)

+1

I find this makes all the difference - if you have any connection at all in the cabin, then hoisting up the mast will make it quite usable.

At one anchorage pages were timing out before fully loaded - the title and some text would come through, but not the pics; I think after some minutes I'd get a timeout error. The connection was totally useless and so frustrating. Doing this fixed it completely.

I use the cord on the spreaders where the courtesy flag is flown, and hoist the phone connected to a power bank. If anyone is coming out to Bruce's in the next few months, I would gladly reimburse you if you would do me the favour of bringing out one of these, to replace my battered plastic bag - I cannot find the same size here in Portugal.

 

[[2574]]

Me too, MiFi with EE sim for West Scotland, generally very good coverage with few blackouts. Put it in a Tupperware container and on the spinny halyard. Job’s a good ‘un.

 

[Daverw]

RUT950, with external aerial, has worked perfectly for that 3 years, also has 4 ports for hard wired, works off 12v, found a couple on eBay for about £90

 

[Graham376]

Plenty of 4G hotspots around for <£50, have been using them for years, TP Link at the moment. No problem streaming live TV or Youtube vids. 4g hotspot: Search Result | eBay

 

[Gumpy]

On our steel boat I have been running a Huawei B535 using a 12v adapter, this couples to a Poynting Xpol-1
Using a Smarty unlimited sim.
Total cost was about £150 the 535 was off eBay.
Yesterday I upgraded the 535 to a Huawei B818 running off the same adapter and speed is up by 25%

 

[Tim Good]

I used to use a mifi and when reception was poor put it in a plastic bag snd hoisted it up the mast. Took seconds to do and sorted out the problems of reception at most anchorages (this was in Greece)

Dito. It is possible to get a SIM card router which will take an external antenna for not so much which we’ve considered but at the end of the day being in an anchorage with no reception we always have a better time.