A bit off topic, but I thought I would reach to this group.

I have a remote cabin(fly in only) and am looking to get cell phone service there. A few folks on the opposite side of our lake have been successful with commercial cell phone boosters(weBoost/HiBoost) cell phone boosters. Our side of the lake has less signal and I have looked at the boosters and cannot believe what they want for them.

Most of the purveyors of these devices refuse to take them back if you buy and try them. Apparently there success rate in these parts is low. I am certain we will need a directional antenna and am looking for a low cost booster/amplifier.

Anyone have any knowledge on this subject, or know of a way to amplify the signal with low cost equipment?

I messed with cell phones, amplifiers, and external Yagi antennas for years at my remote cabin 50 miles west of Nenana. Finally they changed the cell tech to exclude any signals over about 25 miles via measuring time for the exchange. Their goal was to allow access to a single tower for road system users to prevent signals from loading two towers and requiring frequent handoffs between them. I gave it up for a Sat phone and continued amateur radio.

I guess if I were in your situation I'd ask my enabled neighbors to try their equipment and see if it works at your location. If it does then get what they have. If not then go mobil on the lake to seek a signal. I had to do that a few times. As far as cost consider it an ordinary expense that goes with remote living. Generally what works does so for improved tech and economic reasons and cheap may not when needed. Your cell provider may have suggestions on equipment and their expected range of coverage which they map.

If you have to install a remote gain antenna also consider that the feed line quality and length is critical as it tends to attenuate signals at cell frequencies so quality amplifiers may be required. Connections exposed to the elements are subject to degradation unless sealed. Also what works in winter when the trees are dormant may not when they suck up water and leaf out..that can attenuate signals.

Gary

Best bet: Buy a satellite phone that operates on the Iridium system. Find the cheapest plan you can, preferably one that allows you to put the plan on idle for a few months if you won't use it.

Cell phones are relatively cheap, but extending the range RELIABLY can be tough.

I guess it depends on how badly you need phone service. If you really need it, go satellite, and don't look back. If it's just a convenience, keep poking at cellular, but don't expect success, or a free ride.

Break a leg, induce a bleed, etc, lots of ways to get hurt at a cabin, so the sat phone can provide a comfort in the event of something bad happening.

MTV

A bit of venting I realize but the LAST thing I want at my get away from it all, fly in sanctuary is cell phone coverage but I'm old and a bit cranky sometimes

Mapleflt wrote:A bit of venting I realize but the LAST thing I want at my get away from it all, fly in sanctuary is cell phone coverage but I'm old and a bit cranky sometimes

For $500 I will sell you a device that stops your mobile phone from working. Half the money will be donated to BCP.

Thanks all for the input.. I could not agree more.. I have been back and forth on whether having coverage is a good thing or a bad thing.. bottom line is that I am not using my property as much as I would like to because I need to be where people can get in touch with me “easily”.

I have an iridium sat phone, have an inReach, have been riding around in the boat to find signal, or poach signal from the neighbor... Unfortunately the world has gotten to be a place where almost everyone expects you to receive the txt if they can send it..

I am about 23 miles from the tower that I am hoping to get signal from, so I am hopeful the distance is not an issue. Since the neighbors seem to be working and they are farther from the tower, I am feeling confident. I have the Uber yagi antenna (900Mhz) and the Super thick cable... just need the amplifier and am having a really hard time spending $900 on the stuff that weBoost and HiBoost sell. WeBoost is what the neighbors have... I have checked it out and it seems so flimsy.. does not have the good cabling, the antenna is tiny and I am confident that the mark-up they have on the stuff is about 1000%

I have also read that there are a couple different freq’s that the cell towers use and that the 900Mhz yagi may not be the right thing..

Probably headed to the same conclusion that Gary reached, but holding on to some hope..

Which lake?
Which carrier?

That matters because of the frequency and because it would be helpful to do a path analysis between your place and the tower.

I put a wilson amplifier in my hangar. The signal was marginal outside the metal box, inside was horrible. It works great for our purposes. I can tether my laptop and watch netflix/youtube if I want. No more missed calls from crew scheduling with a reassignment.

Cost about $500 if I remember right.

I had Wilson equipment and until they changed the cell system to GSM tech could sometimes work into Fairbanks ~93 miles but 50 anytime.

It'd be good to see who's serving that tower with what cell mode and coverage they expect based on terrain and distance. There's changes afoot so maybe find out what to expect before investing: https://www.pcmag.com/news/300986/cdma- ... difference. Here's a coverage map and type of service for GCI Alaska: http://gci.cellmaps.com

Sometimes a nearby tree can be climbed or a simple tower erected from a metal push-up mast or heavy ABS DWV drain pipe to give a better horizon. Having an amp at the antenna can cut line loss depending on design. Pointing at the tower with a gain antenna may not always yield the best signal so experiment.

Service can be self determined from an airplane then see what happens upon landing and taxiing to the sanctuary. Height AGL and vegetation are critical, and weather can affect the signals especially if there's a temperature shift at altitude and precipitation.

Lots F magic involved.

Gary

rw2 wrote:

Mapleflt wrote:A bit of venting I realize but the LAST thing I want at my get away from it all, fly in sanctuary is cell phone coverage but I'm old and a bit cranky sometimes

For $500 I will sell you a device that stops your mobile phone from working. Half the money will be donated to BCP.

A very kind offer thank you but I have a $5.00 hammer that can do the same or I just don't take it with me !!!

They're best kept in a Faraday bag especially if your tracking spouse wonders where you went disappeared to: http://faradaybag.com

Some use them for door stops and weights for fishing.

Gary

In travelling the world, the need for communications seems to have shifted away from cell phones in a lot of underdeveloped areas entirely. WiFi rules, and has made everyone accessible with it for voice and text. People get a phone, pop in a chip for identity, and never use the GSM or CDMA bands at all.

Everyone outside of US and Canada has WhatsApp or Wechat. Europe. Africa. SE Asia. Everywhere south of the border. Most of them will never touch a cellular network ever. The companies know this and charge astounding amounts for texts and voice.

When I travel, and increasingly in the US, I use WhatsApp, Vonage, Wechat, or other methods to seamlessly communicate via voice, text, or "walky talkie" recorded message. I communicate a lot in other languages, and not being as fluent in some of them is no sweat. There are extensions to correct my terrible Mandarin or completely translate from English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, or any other language I might use into acceptable Mandarin, Tagalog, etc.

The point is...it's all wifi. It's relevant because I use a $400 ubiquiti backhaul system to drag 100 kbs internet to my home from 14 miles away. I also have cellular access, but use it less and less since the services listed above have eclipsed the cellular service for convenience and quality even though I live in a tech hotspot.

If you can tap in to decent wifi remotely, beam it to your remote place, you've got it made already. You won't look back. Tell your contacts to use WhatsApp or one of the other services. It's encrypted. It's better. It's more convenient.

That WhatsApp and WiFi protocol is interesting. Perhaps the sound of an incoming munition directed to the cell user's GPS location has had lasting consequences.

Gary

Hsivany wrote:...Unfortunately the world has gotten to be a place where almost everyone expects you to receive the txt if they can send it..
...

Ain't that the truth! People get down right angry with me when I explain that I don't have cell service and their texts won't reach me until my next trip to town, which might be a weak or more, if I remember to bring my cell phone, which I usually don't. I tell them that if they want to communicate with me then call...my phone has a cord and hangs on the wall. But people figure if they send out a group text then it's somehow a sacred responsibility for you to receive it...as though even a fraction of that information is remotely important.

lesuther wrote:... It's relevant because I use a $400 ubiquiti backhaul system to drag 100 kbs internet to my home from 14 miles away. ...

WTF? It's an interesting concept for me since I live with wi-fi but without cell service, but I don't have a clue what any of that means.

The backhaul is just a pair of high gain antennae to link high speed internet wirelessly. The ones I use are on eBay now for 250 or so now. But if you have wifi already, there is really no reason you can't have talk and text in a matter of minutes from now.

lesuther wrote:The backhaul is just a pair of high gain antennae to link high speed internet wirelessly. The ones I is are on eBay now for 250 or so now. So if you have wifi, there is really no reason you can't have talk and text in a matter of minutes from now.

You've obviously never met me... I can crash the system software in a waffle iron by the laying on of hands...

https://www.ui.com/airfiber/airfiber/ ??? Hammer get your head above water and help the rest of us avoid this crap. I should have quit when the string broke between the two empty soup cans we used as kids for coms between tree forts. Now I got $40K worth of amateur radio gear and no sunspot propagation.

Gary

I'll second the advice on using WhatsApp. A younger person suggested I use it recently to converse with someone on the other side of the earth. Worked awesome! Phone calls, texts, pictures, etc. were as good as typical cell coverage I get here stateside. As long as the person has wifi, it works great!

PA1195 wrote:https://www.ui.com/airfiber/airfiber/ ??? Hammer get your head above water and help the rest of us avoid this crap. I should have quit when the string broke between the two empty soup cans we used as kids for coms between tree forts. Now I got $40K worth of amateur radio gear and no sunspot propagation.

Gary

Gary, Have you tried the mikrotik stuff? I manage a large wifi hotspot network all over SE. I've also used their point-to-point radio gear, like this:

https://mikrotik.com/product/lhg_2

They also support nv2 protocol which allows you to get away from the 802.11 signaling, which in some cases helps.

As for Hsivany's issues. He sent me the coordinates privately and I found that he really doesn't have a path until the antenna is on a 200ft pole:



I recommended the multitech rcell GSM modem on top of the pole. It keeps the antenna cable short, and will rebroadcast the signal as wifi. That will allow him to use signal, whatsapp, and if his phone supports volte, he can call/sms text.

Excellent info and references AKSCHU. Never too old to learn new things and this is quite new to me. I can appreciate serving Alaska and other remote locations in terrain exclusive of Satcoms. But Sats are plug and play for voice and text of some form so if mobil that tech and Garmin inReach text can work.

The path plot...might the cell tech support some knife edge propagation over that intervening terrain feature? I'd sure try a pole and see if I could get above vegetation and maybe grab some signal and rebroadcast as you suggest. My knowledge of the rebroadcast method is very limited as mentioned.

I've had some success in my case over terrain with older cell systems when a direct path to the tower has been blocked. And for years I received non-digital color TV from Anchorage to 40 south of Manley Hot Springs off a high reflecting face of a mountain in Denali Park. It's all magic and never give up trying.

Gary