Staying in Touch - Even When You're Way Out There

There are a variety of tips and techniques for communicating for business or pleasure for those who wish to travel as they make the most of their 750,000 Hours. We're happy to pass along the ones that have worked and worked well for us. These are 'income generators', tools which enable people on the move to generate an income wherever they may be. These 'tools of the trade' enable true 'vituality', the ability to communicate from almost anywhere.

This technique enables you to access a wifi signal from a long distance. Now I can't tell you exactly how long a distance because, like the answer to many questions, that depends. It depends on your line of sight, the weather, and the strength of the signal you are trying to access. I will say that this approach enables us to regularly access wifi signals from our boat while it is anchored offshore in an anchorage - far more than a few hundred feet and often the distance is measured in miles (this does depend upon the strength of the shoreside sending unit).

You'll need your computer, a usb wireless adapter which expands the range you can access with your computer, an antenna which expands the range of the adapter even further, and a cable to link the adapter to the antenna. This picture shows both the adapter and the antenna that we use.

The adapter we use is the Engenius EUB 362 wireless USB adapter (there are other types of these adapters too). The cable is 30 feet of custom made LR400. Both of these are connected to an 8db outdoor omni directional antenna. The cable is long because we find we get a better / stronger signal if we run the antenna up the mast. Some folks have their antenna permanently attached to their boats / RVs, we do not - simply because we haven't found a high enough place to attach it where it wouldn't get wiped out by some piece of boat equipment. (And to give proper credit where credit is due, we learned about this from Tom on the sailboat Dream Catcher, www.tendervittles.net).

Just the Engenius by itself expands the range for your laptop considerable and it is small enough to be easily carried. If you have a vehicle to attach it to, the antenna expands the range even further.

While there are often wifi hotspots in many areas around the world, getting to them whilst shlepping one's laptop may not be really convenient. It's nice to be able to access a signal from the comfort of one's abode, wherever that may be!