Satellite receiver

[Lesliemcj1]

We just bought a new R25. We are thinking of adding a satellite receiver. Is it needed or do you get by with WiFi?
Thanks,
Leslie

 

[Wee Venture]

Welcome, and congratulations on your new purchase!
The answer to your question depends on what functions you want to gain with a satellite link, and where you will be cruising. Many marinas have wifi though they vary greatly in quality of reception and are often congested. You can get a WiFi extender to make a weak signal more reliable. You can also get a cellular signal booster to utilize both communications and data functions in sketchy coverage areas, and even to convert that to a WiFi signal on your own local hotspot. You do have to have at least a marginal signal from a cell tower though. We have found the cellular signal booster to be more useful while cruising than the WiFi extender.

A Sirius satellite antenna and subscription will bring you many channels of news, music, sports, etc. If you subscribe to the marine weather feature, it will interface with your chart plotter and download local forecasts. We did subscribe to this service and found it to be glitchy and not as helpful as we anticipated. The radio feature in remote areas is nice though.

If you are mainly thinking of safety, weather and basic communication, a device like the Garmin inReach Explorer+, along with a satellite subscription, can be a cost effective means for peace of mind and for keeping in touch through email. We used this when we were “off the grid” on our four month trip to Alaska to get weather, email folks back home (email messages do have limitations on length) and leave a trail of our journey for anyone who wished to follow us. It also has a “red button” to call for rescue in case of emergency, and you can communicate with the rescuers in real time through the email function. We also carried an EPIRB, which utilizes a satellite uplink.

We would have loved to have full internet functionality while off the grid but found this to be prohibitively expensive, both in terms of the initial equipment investment as well as the subsequent cost per gigabyte of satellite usage. The cost to benefit ratio was nowhere near acceptable to us for that one. If we were crossing oceans it would be a different story.

You can also buy or rent a satellite phone of course, along with a subscription, which we opted not to do but is a solution for some.

Enjoy your new boat! Hope to hear more from you on Tugnuts.

John

 

[Lesliemcj1]

Thank you so much for all your helpful hints. I think we will consider the WIFi extender, cellular booster. I think we are still tempted to do DTV for when we are in CO. The lake we are on in the Mtn’s has issues with WiFi & cellular. When we want to extend our season & it gets dark early we might want TV.
Thanks again. We can’t wait to come up to WA, get our training & try Poets Cove
Leslie & Jerry MCJ
No name for the boat yet.

 

[Kimberly Dawn]

Leslie & Jerry, congrats on your purchase and welcome to your new family... you'll get a lot of enjoyment from your R25! Looking forward to seeing you at Poets Cove!

John, thanks for a very informative post regarding the options out there to enhance one's electronic reception and usage.

Bob
The Doghouse 2

 

[Lesliemcj1]

Thanks John for your welcome & kind note. Our experience so far with Ranger Tug staff & owners at the show has made us feel like we made an excellent choice & are excited to meet the generous owners.
Thanks for taking the time to reach out,
Leslie &Jerry McJ