Height is the single best thing you can do to help reception. But on ships, by design, it is difficult to take full advantage of line of sight advantages of height. Getting the ideal spot up high to locate one is probably preempted by lots of radio gear the ship uses. Still, for those outside on deck, the best you can do here is very advantageous. In port, because of the ship’s height, such a location can carry ashore quite a way.
However, it’s difficult to carry a signal very far below deck simply with this height advantage.
Not really, unless they had strategic locations on balconies scattered about or possibly located in windows. The UHF radio waves from the goTenna Mesh travel mostly in a straight line. And ships are made mostly of metal, which tends to block radio waves. A relay that works within spaces inside the ship often has no way to reach a stationary relay directly above them. The openings in the ship’s hull that would allow radio waves to enter are located so that radio would have to go perpendicular to the hull somehow. That’s where a balcony or perhaps a large window can come in handy.
A balcony extends out to allow placing a gtm ti catch the suhiifhelp catch the signal, but a GTM located there can then relay the signal through a door or window into the hull space that is otherwise shielded by the metal of the ship’s structure. A relay located high up on the ship could then link multiple such balconies and the people they serve inside. The extra hops now available help simplify the task.
Before you get too far here with this idea in planning for your next cruise, a cautionary story from my youth is probably in order to suggest the potential pitfalls of secret goTennas all over a ship. While it didn’t ride the seas, the riverboat Admiral sailed from the St. Louis riverfront for many decades taking torurists to see the sights along the Mississippi while enjoying the food and amusements aboard. I had an aunt and uncle plus cousins in St. Louis and around or about 1968 mom and I went to visit them. Mom helped her sister with household tasks while one of my cousins went in for kidney surgery. One of our distractions was a trip on the Admiral.
I vaguely remember being in a game room, maybe pin ball machines, etc. I was bored, so thought I’d try a couple of doors to see what was behind them. The first one was unlocked, so it came right open when I tugged at it to reveal… GIANT PADDLEWHEEL SPINNING!
WHOA! Wasn’t expecting that, it looked like a broom closet from where I was!
As I gazed transfixed by the unexpected and rather awesome sight, a young member of the crew not all that much older than me, began yelling to shut the door before he had me thrown off the ship. OK, I could see it clearly was a place I had no place being in. I quickly shut the door and the crew-kid upheld his end of the bargain by not making me walk the plank.
Moral of the Story: It’s not 1968 anymore. Be cautious about poking around on a ship in this day and age. Some places are clearly off limits and marked so. Some places require a certain dress code or behavior. But there are some places and behaviors that may cause you trouble and it might not end with simply getting yelled at by some low ranked swabbie. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security might warn you about scattering suspicious stuff. Make sure to make arrangement with the crew so they understand what you’re up to. Your gear should be clearly marked to indicate it’s yours as a legit passenger. The last thing you want to start on your vacation is a panic over mysterious goings on that some folks mistakenly think should invoke the T word.