Improving Marina Wi-Fi Access

With more and more marinas offering Wi-Fi internet access to boaters, it is very important to understand how you can get the most out of these possibilities. One issue that keeps coming back is the range within a user has access. Improving this range can be done in several (simple) ways. One of them is using ‘high-powered’ PCMCIA cards.
“So… given that a PCMCIA Wi-Fi card is a compromise, one way to overcome its limitations is to increase the transmitted power and receive sensitivity of the PCMCIA card. In the case of the SMC card, the transmit power is now 200 mW instead of 30 mw, and SMC claims “improved” receive sensitivity. My totally unscientific review testing tends to bear out SMC’s claims.”