I had the external antenna but the cable that came with the kit was so stiff it was hard to run. I ran out of time before our trip to the
Bahamas do do anything else so never installed it. We used it reliably, most of the time sitting on a shelf above the nav station periodically sending out position messages. If I had longer downloads to make I would put it up under the
dodger. I never found it useful for
phone calls, even when I set it up in our backyard with the antenna for testing. It could have certainly been something in my configuration. Texting was adequate for our purposes.
I am somewhat envious of all those starlinks. On the other hand that is a little too connected for my taste.