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The perfect boat phone
may not yet exist, but you can see it from here. Last month’s column
discussed the range problems of conventional cellphones on the water and
the use of antennas and boosters to improve coverage. This month we’ll
look at several marine cellular products that together suggest the future
of the boat phone.
Last year Raymarine
rather quietly introduced its Raycom Fixed Wireless Terminal. This unit
is essentially a 3-watt, analog, black-box-style cellphone with the unique
ability to generate a standard dial tone. Thus you can plug in a regular
household phone, fax, PC modem, answering machine, even a cordless phone.
The box will support any seven devices, and when you pick up a phone,
the unit will make a cellular connection and you’ll hear that familiar
tone–no "send" button is necessary. Combined with the sort
of high-gain cellular antennas discussed last month, the Raycom system
should provide the best possible analog coverage for any given area; Raymarine’s
product manager Morten Andreasen reports that solid connections have been
obtained sometimes 40 miles offshore.
While being able to
outfit your vessel with home- or office-style equipment is attractive,
you probably want something a bit more rugged on deck. Raymarine meets
this need with its just-introduced Ray 230 VHF. This high-end unit is
also black-box style and can support up to three full-function handsets,
each of which can be paired with an amplified speaker. The system has
about every VHF feature possible, including full duplex intercom and Digital
Selective Calling (DSC) single-button distress calling. But the truly
startling feature is that you can interface its black box with a Raycom
cellular box. Hence, you can be on your flying bridge making and taking
cell and VHF calls, all with a single, tough, waterproof handset.
Moreover, since the
230 has the particular DSC capabilities known as "MariTEL Ready,"
you can also make direct-dial ship-to-shore calls via that company’s
ambitious new $300 million VHF network. MariTEL has just begun this service
in the Gulf of Mexico and plans soon to have a nationwide marine system
offering what the company terms "better range than cellular, less
expensively than satellite."
Consider, too, that
Raymarine’s phone network can be easily switched from cellular to
a land line when a vessel is tied up. Once you get used to the idea of
one system handling several different communications technologies, it’s
easy to imagine the further integration of satellite telephony and perhaps
even SSB radio and the day when we’ll use one device with whatever
service is appropriate, available, and/or least expensive.
Next
page > Saltwater Cellular II continued
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