Have seen posts about Astrax satellite TV and now KVH - any experience with
Follow-Me-TV which seems to be the least expensive of the lot?  I'm
considering them and would like to hear from the group.

Ray B.
m/v MOJO
Bebe Design #112 Passagemaker 49-10 in steel
www.mvmojo.com

They are top of the line horns.  Highly recommend.
We had a set of chrome plated D2 air horns on Yandina that played a VERY
impressive but sweet sounding blast.  About a 3 mile range over water.
Sample sound http://www.kahlenberg.com/audio/model_d-2.wav .  We have a
1.5hp air compressor with air at all times to run it (and other things).
We lost them overboard when we were dismasted off Cape Hatteras a few years
ago.  Story here http://www.yandina.com/dismast.htm .
I had no idea of their value until I enquired about replacements. Enough to
say I haven't yet saved up enough to replace them.
Andina Foster,
tech@yandina.com

is

the

I have a 4 year old TracVision and love it.  It stays on the satellite even
in choppy water and 3-4' seas, but we have a 50' boat and that'll be more
stable than something 20,000# lighter.  We can still rock and roll though
since we aren't stabilized.
We have DirecTV at home and it costs us $5 a month more for our boat, just
like another room.  We had the competitor for a year or so, and when we
finally moved into the house and told them we wanted to add our boat as we
would another room, they told us it would cost us another full subscription.
DirecTV didn't care so here we are and we love it. Better than the
competitor, too.
The only problem is that if we go around in circles it'll sometimes lose the
satellite because it can't unwind fast enough.  Circles like maneuvering in
a marina, fishing, or something like that.  Plus, it can be difficult to
find a statellite with our system but that may be more automatic in the
newer system. I think we have a tracvision II.
Mount the system above or well below your radar or your screen will go
static as the beam goes by it.

Val Trent
"Float Plane"
50' Vista
Seattle

At 05:47 PM 11/3/2003, you wrote:

I am sure there a lots of very strong opinions on these devices.  Some
(myself included) think them akin to snake oil.  The Practical Sailor
several years ago could find no evidence that they worked.

Assume for a minute that they actually kill bugs in your fuel.  Where to
the dead bug bodies go?  They stay in your fuel, ready to clog your
filters.  A much better way to control bugs (and spend your money) is on a
good fuel filtering and polishing system (such as one based on the Gulf
Coast F1) which will remove the bugs from your fuel and remove the water
that is necessary for them to live.

Best,

Steve

Steve Dubnoff
1966 Willard 47' Dover Pilothouse
sdubnoff@circlesys.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark" mark4091@bellsouth.net
[snip]

Algae-X fuel

FPS-500

Hi Mark,

I'm a firm believer in fuel polishing. That said, I think you can do
better than that system for the following reasons:

1. You'll be paying for a magnetic treatment system that is
   unnecessary given the other parts of the system. It's a pretty well
   accepted fact that magnetic treatment does not actually kill fuel
   bugs; what such a unit will do is break up the bio-fouling that is
   associated with fuel bugs. Think of it as a macerator for bug poop.

The thing is, with a regularly used polishing system your fuel won't
have any water in it and fuel bugs cannot live without water. [The
little fellas eat fuel but they live in good old fashioned H2O.]

2. If memory serves, this system uses the Separ filter/separator. I'm
   sure that the Separ unit is well made and does a fine job within the
   parameters of its design. OTOH: There are a couple of drawbacks to
   this choice. First, the last I heard, the Separ uses a 30 micron
   element compared to the 2 micron element normally spec'd for filter
   separators from DAHL or Racor or the <1 micron filtration attainable
   with a GCF. Second, I would have serious doubts about the routine
   availability of replacement elements for the Separ; of course, they
   are available from the folks who sell you the housing but how many
   other channels are available aside from that one? If you go with a
   DAHL based system you can get replacement elements from any Baldwin
   Filter dealer/distributor/jobber; select Racor and you can probably
   get replacement elements at almost any marina chandlery, West Marine
   store, or the aforementioned Baldwin network. In addition Racor and
   DAHL elements can be had from most auto parts stores either from stock
   on hand or on a 1 day special order basis. GCF housings use a roll of
   paper towels as the filter medium - how many places can you think of
   to buy a roll of paper towels?

There is one advantage to dealing with an outfit like ESI (They are
the Algae-X distributors aren't they?). They will put together the
entire system for you and help to insure that you've got all the parts
on hand for the installation. OTOH: You can get similar advice and
packaging from a number of sources. I believe that Gulf Coast Filters
(the manufacturers of the GCF filters) provides this sort of service
as do many of their local and regional dealers. You can also roll your
own system without too much difficulty based on Wil Andrews design
which can be found on the Trawler World website at this address:
http://www.trawlerworld.com/features_06.htm .

I'd like to acknowledge that Steve Dubnoff and Ron Rogers both beat me
to the punch on some of these points. What can I say, I type slowly
and I took a break for dinner.

Alternatively yours,

Alex

I was at the Atlantic City boat show back in February. The Algae-X booth had a large
display that showed dark dirty looking "fuel" going into the device at an apparent high
rate of flow (based on bubbles moving through the clear tubing), and clear clean looking
"fuel" coming out of the device. This setup was similar to the picture Algae-X shows on
their web site at
http://66.175.27.139/LG-X%20Brochure/English/LGX%20Brochure.htm.

Knowing that there were no filters in the device that could possibly clean up dirty fuel
instantaneously as they were claiming, I looked behind the display to see how they were
pulling this off. What I found was that the display was a total fraud! There was no
fluid flowing through the device at all, and no cleaning going on. The intake tube was a
closed system with no liquid flow. Instead they were using a fish tank air pump to blow
air into the low end of the tube containing a dirty colored liquid, and the rising air
bubbles made it look like the liquid was flowing. The same was true with the separate
tube of clear liquid that was attached to the output side of the device. From the front,
it looked like dirty fuel was being magically cleaned, when a view from that back showed
how the phony display worked the scam.

I'll save my money for replacement Racor filters - they have been proven to work.

I'm just about to do a Follow-Me-TV install On Tiger's Eye. I saw the
system in use on another Gemini (one of the owners of the company,
actually) and fell in love. His installation was a bit too Home-Depotish
for my tastes, but it worked great. He was hooked up with DirecTV- but
no data capability :(

The maddening thing is that you can't get local broadcast stations when
away from home. We're planning on the Bahamas this winter, and want to
be able to get weather (and PBS) out of Miami. There's a company that
provides sat feeds and allows you to pick your stations:
http://www.pegsattv.com/ It's based on where the boat is moored, or
registered, or your residence. Yep, confused me too. They won't say
whether or not you can actualy get the channels until you sign up and
then they apply for it. I plan to use an old trailer as my installation
platform, and say that I'm keeping it out in the middle of nowhere.

Doug Barnard

S/V Tiger's Eye
34' Gemini 105 #657
currently underway, Melbourne, FL

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.516 / Virus Database: 313 - Release Date: 9/1/2003

There was a lawsuite from the smaller stations in various markets vs Direct
TV and Direct TV lost. They were complaining that Direct TV was only
carrying the major networks in each major market not the smaller stations
like PBS. In order to comply with this ruling Direct TV put up satellites
that can actually beam the feeds to the individual markets. For instance
the feed to Seattle might use the same frequency as Boston, Miami and LA.
The satellite beams the signal to the proper market.

This is why it used to be possible to just sign up for your home stations
and get them anywhere. Now if you leave your home market you will probably
loose the local stations eventually. I guess if you are fortunate enough to
have your local stations beamed nationally you are ok but I don't know of
any cities that work all over the country.

Frank Burrows

Los Angeles and New York are the "national feeds" and are available
everywhere on both Dish and Direct TV.  If you have an address that is not
served by any of the local satellite feeds, you are in many ways better
off, as you can receive these national feeds instead of your locals.  Many
people acquire such home addresses specifically for their satellite company
<g>.

Best,

Steve

Steve Dubnoff
1966 Willard 47' Dover Pilothouse
sdubnoff@circlesys.com

SNIP:

What do the truckers do? I thought truckers and RV owners could get local
service across the country.

Ted G.
DeFever 44, Amici
Branford, CT

The difference is that if you order it for your home and you are within an
acceptable distance to a major market then you can get those channels as
local channels. If you are not within range of a major market then you can
get New York and LA stations. If you tell them you are on a boat then you
may not get anything but most people leave out the boat part and just give
them their home address and leave out the part about it traveling.

The truckers and RV people had a better lobby than the boaters and they are
able to get the National Channels (NY + LA) regardless of where the billing
address is located.

I hope this makes sense on the other hand it really does not make sense. I
guess I hope I am being clear.

Frank Burrows  79  43' Viking MY  Piney Narrows Marina  Chesapeake Bay

on 11/3/03 8:47 PM, Mark at mark4091@bellsouth.net wrote:

The RV "mushroom" KVH version seems to work as well as any of the more
expensive others...my personal experience...and the KVH service guys say the
same. Should be able to find it for around $2000.

Bob

R C Smith Jr
M/V MARY KATHRYN
Hatteras 58 LRC
Hilton Head
Underway to the Florida Keys

on 11/4/03 12:51 PM, Frank Burrows at fburrows@mail.com wrote:

You can get NYC and LA feeds if you pretend you are an RV...Boat/US was
pushing to get boats included...do not know if successful yet. Check the
DirecTV website.

Bob

R C Smith Jr
M/V MARY KATHRYN
Hatteras 58 LRC
Underway to the Florida Keys

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregory Han" ghan@greghan.com

Algae-x

Hi Greg,

His reported results are more or less consistent with what I presented
in a series of posts in January and February 2001. I do, however,
question some of his conclusions: To wit, he seems to credit the
magnets with improving his fuel economy and reducing smoke. There are
simply too many variables in his procedure to draw those conclusions.
Better fuel economy could be due to the Pri-D additive, the fact that
he was comparing new fuel to old, he may have been running his engine
at a more efficient speed (even though it was a higher RPM), more
favorable wind and water conditions, and probably some other things
that I'm not thinking of. Reduced smoke could also be either the
Pri-D, the newer and presumably cleaner & drier fuel, or running the
engine at a 'happier' speed.

Everything I've seen on the subject of fuel management indicates that
magnets (and biocides for that matter) are used to treat symptoms
while proper fuel usage* and/or fuel polishing will get at the
underlying cause and so eliminate the need to treat symptoms.

*Proper fuel usage basically means - Use it up before it gets dirty.
That works great for trucks and heavy equipment but it's probably not
possible for most trawlerites.

Symptomatically yours,

Alex