KEY FEATURES
More and more boaters want access to the internet afloat. Marinas and ports as well as a large number of cafes, hotels, restaurants and service providers offer wi-fi connectivity but you may just miss that vital connection if you’re moored or anchored away from the dock – especially if you’re below decks about to enjoy a movie or catch up on email. The WL70 can provide connections up to about ½ mile depending upon conditions.
The WL70 features a very high performance 15dBm, 1.29m long marine Wifi antenna to suck in the weakest of signals, an internal low noise, high sensitivity modem and a 5m (15′) cable that allows simple plug ‘n play connection via a high speed USB interface. It’s threaded base, fits a standard 1” (14TPI) VHF type mount (not supplied) and being fully waterproof the WL70 can be permanently mounted outside or just taken out into the cockpit when moored for temporary installation.
Even if your computer already has an internal Wi-Fi adaptor, this can be disabled and you can take advantage of the superior range (and speed) that this system will offer.
Wi-Fi range depends on many local factors, but Digital Yacht has seen ranges of up to 1 km with this low cost system. In general, using an internal Wi-Fi adaptor typically found on a notebook, you’ll be lucky to find the signal at the end of the dock, so if you plan to access the internet whilst on board, the WL70 could be the solution for you.
SPECIFICATIONS
- New 802.11n high sensitivity Wi-Fi modem
- High gain 15dBm omni-directional marine Wifi antenna (1.29m high)
- Will fit to a standard VHF type mount 1″ x 14TPI thread (not supplied)
- USB bus powered via integral 5m (15′) cable
- Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 compatible
- Mac OSX 10.4 to 10.10 (Yosemite) compatible
- Not compatible with Mac version above the 10.10 (it works with the iKConnect)
- Compatible with all popular LINUX distributions including Raspberry Pi