Track It TV® Internet Access
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Marine Satellite TV Tracking
Since 1996 - Just $896.90
Simple, Lowest-cost, Accurate
Dockside, Motoring, At Anchor
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Testimonials
If you have any other questions or need additional information, please
contact us and we'll be glad to help you.
How can I get Internet access on my boat?
Current satellite TV supplied high-speed Internet access solutions
are either not suitable for mobile use, or are too expensive (see
How About 2-way satellite TV Internet systems?
and How About 1-way satellite TV Internet systems?
for details). Better Internet access solutions are now available
for mobile high-speed Internet access.
- Wi-Fi "hot spots" have proliferated, giving free or low cost
wireless broad-band Internet access in marinas, hotels, airports,
and other areas
- Cell phone broad-band Internet access coverage is rapidly
expanding.
- BGAN satellite phone and broad-band internet access services
have been recently announced that provide worldwide coverage, with
greatly improved portability and fast internet speeds.
Depending on your requirements, any of these Internet access
solutions, we believe, can be enhanced using
Track It TV®!
The potential for using Wi-Fi antennas, cell phone antennas, and
satellite phone antennas with Track It TV®
discussed below is clearly emerging, and just needs additional
refinement by our customers and ourselves. We are confident that,
just as a large variety of satellite TV antennas have been shown to
work well with
Track It TV®, so too will these other exciting antenna
possibilities be found to work well with our unit. See details in
the following links.
Can I Use Wi-Fi Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
Can I Use Cell Phone Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
Can I Use BGAN Satellite Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
Can I Use Wi-Fi Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
Regarding Wi-Fi, we have heard that Cantenna appears to be one of
the most popular high gain Wi-Fi antennas (see
Cantenna website), but many cruisers have made their own from a
Pringles can! A resource for better home-built Wi-Fi and cellular
hi-gain antenna designs is the
Wi-Fi Book. The Cantenna system has about a 30 degree acceptance
window, but with data speeds falling off as you move away from the
center of this window.
Reportedly, with a decent antenna you can extend Wi-Fi for miles
(see
Wi-Fi Book and
Cantenna website
for some interesting examples), but the longer the range, the more
accurately the antenna must be positioned, and that's where we
believe Track It TV®
comes in!
Instead of docking at an expensive Marina, anchor out and use
Track It TV® to point your Wi-Fi antenna toward that Wi-Fi
"hot spot" as you swing on the hook!
Can I Use Cell Phone Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
As an alternative to Wi-FI, there have been dramatic improvements in
broad-band Internet access coverage at a reasonable price using new
model cell phones. For example, we have tested the Verizon offering,
at just $60 per month for unlimited Internet access, and have
obtained almost continuous Internet access (with the exception of a
few "dead spots" in North Carolina) on a cruise up the ICW from the
Florida Keys to the Chesapeake Bay. Signal strength did get low at
times and transmission speeds do vary with signal levels, but there
are various Omni-directional antennas that can sometimes extend cell
phone range adequately.
But there are also more powerful Yagi and Panel directional type
antennas that can vastly improve cell phone signal acquisition (both
for voice and internet access). See the
CellphoneSolutions website for pictorial representations of
several typical setup configurations and supporting equipment. See
the
CellaAntenna website to get an idea of the variety Yagi and
Panel directional antennas. For more information do a
Google
search on "Yagi Cell Phone Antennas".
Using such directional antennas is where
Track It TV®
again comes into play! In "dead spot" areas (or areas where the
signal is weak) there's a good chance you can anchor out and still
be able to get a good signal from distant cellular towers by using
Track It TV® with a directional antenna to track the tower
while your boat moves around. Then enjoy your cell phone or surf the
web in the remote anchorage! If you can point to it, we can Track
It!
Can I Use BGAN Satellite Internet Access With
Track It TV®?
Regarding improved satellite phone equipment and services, with
broad-band Internet access capabilities, the new BGAN (Broadband
Global Area Network) systems by Stratos are an example of this
emerging technology. The BGAN offering is designed for individuals
to use almost anywhere in the world, with small and light portable
antennas that can be set up by hand on almost any surface, such as
on a table or the ground. See the
BGAN website for a great movie and brochures about what they
offer.
See the renowned sailor Steve Dashew's comments on
BGAN's potential
in general and for use with Track It TV®
in his website's "Sailors Logs" on December 3, 2006. He follows up
with additional comments on December 19, 2006 in a
BGAN update. See our own
BGAN test discussion of an on-the-water
evaluation of a BGAN terminal/antenna mounted on
Track It TV® dated April 30, 2007.
While BGAN equipment and services are more expensive than the Wi-Fi
or cell phone alternatives (between $2200 and $2595 for equipment
plus per minute and per megabyte charges for voice and data), you do
get worldwide coverage (the Pacific area is scheduled for coverage
by mid 2007) in areas where Wi-Fi and cell phone solutions would not
work. BGAN with
Track It TV®
will let you enjoy Internet access in areas with no possibility of
coverage by Wi-Fi or cell phone broad-band Internet services.
How about 2-way satellite TV Internet systems?
How about using
Track It TV® with either of the 36" x 24" Starband (DishNET)
or DirecPC (Hughes) dishes that provide both TV and and "2-way"
broad-band Internet service? Unfortunately, these dishes are really
too big and heavy for
Track It TV®. But in addition, no tracking system to date,
including our own very accurate
Track It TV®, can keep these dishes aligned well enough with
the satellite for high speed data transmission.
Professional installers tell us that absolutely NO movement can be
tolerated. And electronic tuning for each location is required as well
for these systems to work on land. Several customers have tried without
success to use
Track It TV®
with both of these systems for 2-way Internet tracking on boats.
How about 1-way satellite TV Internet systems?
These services only handle 1-way responses from the Internet via
satellite. They have been around for years and have not been
popular, because requests to the Internet must go via a slow
landline (or possibly cell or satellite phone), with fast responses
coming back via satellite.
For mobile applications the per-minute charges for cell or satellite
phone service make this an expensive and potentially slow solution. One
manufacturer packaged a satellite phone and 1-way Internet system for
mobile use for about $6000. We sold only a few
Track It TV®
units for the 1-way Internet solution several years ago, but are
unsure if it is even still available for use with separate user supplied
components to an individual as it was in the past.
Do I need a phone line to use my home DSS Satellite TV
receiver?
No, you do not need a phone line to use your home DSS receiver on
your boat.
How do I get additonal information?
If you have any other questions or need additional information,
please
contact us and we'll be glad to help you. For additional product
information, you may also want to check out our
product literature.