{"id":47361,"date":"2021-10-11T20:29:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T00:29:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=47361"},"modified":"2023-05-06T18:17:16","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T22:17:16","slug":"sailor-friendly-satellite-antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/gear\/sailor-friendly-satellite-antenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Sailor-Friendly Satellite Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"TracPhone <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n KVH V30 TracPhone<\/span>\n Photo Courtesy the Manufacturer<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

Satellite-communications systems are great for \u00adaccessing the internet and staying connected to \u00adfamily, friends and business while cruising far-flung places. The trouble for most sailors is that very small aperture terminals\u2014the dome antennas needed for satellite access\u2014typically require rack-mounted belowdecks equipment and AC power. Until now. KVH\u2019s<\/a> new TracPhone V30 ($11,995) draws 10 to 36 volts of DC power and employs a small belowdecks VSAT hub that\u2019s roughly the size of an \u00adat-home Wi-Fi router, making it an easy fit aboard a wide range of \u00adcruising sailboats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The TracPhone V30\u2032s \u00adradome is 15.5 inches wide by 17.6 inches high and weighs a little more than 23 pounds; inside, there\u2019s a stabilized antenna. Once installed and networked, it transmits data at speeds up to 2 Mbps and downloads it at up to 6 Mbps using Ku-band frequencies on KVH\u2019s proprietary mini-VSAT BroadbandSM network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we started the TracPhone V30 project, the number-one request was for DC power,\u201d says Robert Balog, KVH\u2019s chief technology officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The TracPhone V30 is ideal for making phone calls, running enterprise software, downloading GRIB files, web surfing, streaming high-definition content, and participating in Zoom video calls. However, as with all KVH VSAT systems, it works only on the company\u2019s network. While this eliminates comparison shopping for airtime plans, it also means that a single tech-support call can tackle both hardware and network issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe offer two types of airtime plans: metered and unlimited,\u201d says Jim George, KVH\u2019s director of satellite sales, adding that most customers select unlimited plans. \u201cMetered plans cost 50 cents per megabyte and are for customers who use their boats on the weekends.\u201d KVH\u2019s unlimited plans cost between $150 and $3,000 a month and deliver between 200 megabytes to 10 gigabytes of high-speed data (see KVH\u2019s website for details). Once a customer hits their data limit, the system downshifts to slower speeds, and unlimited-plan customers aren\u2019t charged for slower-speed data use. Customers can change or suspend their metered or unlimited data plans at any time. Finally, the TracPhone V30\u2032s single cable makes for easy DIY installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

So, if you\u2019re interested in making longer cruises but need to stay connected, the TracPhone V30<\/a> could be ideal, especially if belowdecks space and AC power are in short supply.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KVH\u2019s new TracPhoneV 30 is sized for most cruising sailboats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47232,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"David Schmidt","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20211011","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"163","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"The new TracPhone30 brings long-distance satellite communication capabilities to sailors.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"A357YH3IOBGXLDVFDYY67H7IWQ","arc_website_url":"story\/gear\/sailor-friendly-satellite-antenna\/","custom_permalink":"story\/gear\/sailor-friendly-satellite-antenna\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":true,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[1383,184,157,1270,181,1503],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}