35-acre
5 year old buck +
What utility is the most important for you?
It turns out Cell connection is the most important thing for me. Here's how I added it to my camp.
My property and my cabin are very remote/rustic. By that I mean:
No electricity
No plumbing (I have an outhouse, shower house and spring water).
It's in a very remote location and I can barely get cell signal (certain times of year with certain weather conditions).
I do have some amenities, that are more basic.
For heat: I have a wood burning stove and a kerosene furnace
For cooking: I have propane stove
For lights: I have propane lights (and motion sensor battery lights outside and flashlights, etc.)
I spend a lot of time there during the hunting season. I use most of my vacation days to go there (I don't work a Friday from October 1 through the end of the year plus I have a bunch of other days off in there). I hunt alone. My dad used to hunt until he got too old to do so. Sometimes he comes with me but not that often. After daylight savings kicks in, you're back in camp by 5:30 and in for the night. You can only read for so long. The one thing that I've determined that I miss the most is cell/internet.
But I solved that! I figured that I would pass on what I put together and maybe it would be useful for someone else in my situation. The links and prices are at the bottom of this post.
I bought a cell antenna booster kit. It's made for RVs and cars. It was rather pricey but I got it from Amazon and I had until January to return it if it didn't work so the risk there was limited. The kit comes with 2 antennas. One antenna goes outside for receiving cell signal from the tower (it's the size of a beer can). The other antenna hooks up to the cell booster inside the cabin (which is the size of a paperback book). The booster then broadcasts cell signal to a very small range inside (only a few feet from the device to avoid interfering with the outside antenna). It sets up something like this below pic (everything here came with the booster including a few other parts that allow you to set this up in you car):
As you can see you need some type of power supply to plug it in. Before I get into that, let me explain a little on how this thing works. The outside antenna is omni-directional (meaning that you don't have to point it) and it gets powered over the cable that is provided to increase it's "listening" capabilities. So where your cell phone might get 1 bar, this will increase the capabilities of reception to maybe get 4 or 5 bars; which is what happened for me. It pretty much works the same way as your OnStar or other cell equivalent in your vehicle. It uses a stronger power source like your vehicle battery thus increasing the reception. The trick to this system is that both antennas have to be as far away form each other as possible. That's because the one outside is listening for the same signal (ex. 4G LTE) that the one inside is sending out (ex. also 4G LTE). If they were too close to each other, they could talk to each other it would just create a loop.
The power source that I use, I've had for years. It's a portable jump starter but it has USB ports, AC and DC power ports, jumper cables, light, air compressor, etc. I charge this thing up at home and I only turn on the ports that I need when I need them while at my hunting camp. Meaning to re-charge my cell phone or to run the antenna (or both). I don't leave it on all the time but I used it for many hours this past weekend and the battery dipped to about 55%. it's charged up again and ready to go this weekend.
Putting these two things together, this setup gave me 4-5 bars inside the cabin. I'm able to call home from inside (instead of driving to town where I can get signal), I can text and I can stream data (music or video). It was a first for me last weekend! I made dinner and watched/listened to evening news and later that night I watched sports and I might have even streamed a youtube hunting video. It made the time go by a little faster and felt less lonely (and I have a dog with me - but he doesn't talk back much).
RV Cell Phone Signal Booster Kit for Recreational Vehicles & Motorhomes, All Carriers 3G/4G LTE ($400)
Schumacher Rechargeable AGM Jump Starter and Portable USB/DC Power Station– 1200 Amp ($100)
It turns out Cell connection is the most important thing for me. Here's how I added it to my camp.
My property and my cabin are very remote/rustic. By that I mean:
No electricity
No plumbing (I have an outhouse, shower house and spring water).
It's in a very remote location and I can barely get cell signal (certain times of year with certain weather conditions).
I do have some amenities, that are more basic.
For heat: I have a wood burning stove and a kerosene furnace
For cooking: I have propane stove
For lights: I have propane lights (and motion sensor battery lights outside and flashlights, etc.)
I spend a lot of time there during the hunting season. I use most of my vacation days to go there (I don't work a Friday from October 1 through the end of the year plus I have a bunch of other days off in there). I hunt alone. My dad used to hunt until he got too old to do so. Sometimes he comes with me but not that often. After daylight savings kicks in, you're back in camp by 5:30 and in for the night. You can only read for so long. The one thing that I've determined that I miss the most is cell/internet.
But I solved that! I figured that I would pass on what I put together and maybe it would be useful for someone else in my situation. The links and prices are at the bottom of this post.
I bought a cell antenna booster kit. It's made for RVs and cars. It was rather pricey but I got it from Amazon and I had until January to return it if it didn't work so the risk there was limited. The kit comes with 2 antennas. One antenna goes outside for receiving cell signal from the tower (it's the size of a beer can). The other antenna hooks up to the cell booster inside the cabin (which is the size of a paperback book). The booster then broadcasts cell signal to a very small range inside (only a few feet from the device to avoid interfering with the outside antenna). It sets up something like this below pic (everything here came with the booster including a few other parts that allow you to set this up in you car):
As you can see you need some type of power supply to plug it in. Before I get into that, let me explain a little on how this thing works. The outside antenna is omni-directional (meaning that you don't have to point it) and it gets powered over the cable that is provided to increase it's "listening" capabilities. So where your cell phone might get 1 bar, this will increase the capabilities of reception to maybe get 4 or 5 bars; which is what happened for me. It pretty much works the same way as your OnStar or other cell equivalent in your vehicle. It uses a stronger power source like your vehicle battery thus increasing the reception. The trick to this system is that both antennas have to be as far away form each other as possible. That's because the one outside is listening for the same signal (ex. 4G LTE) that the one inside is sending out (ex. also 4G LTE). If they were too close to each other, they could talk to each other it would just create a loop.
The power source that I use, I've had for years. It's a portable jump starter but it has USB ports, AC and DC power ports, jumper cables, light, air compressor, etc. I charge this thing up at home and I only turn on the ports that I need when I need them while at my hunting camp. Meaning to re-charge my cell phone or to run the antenna (or both). I don't leave it on all the time but I used it for many hours this past weekend and the battery dipped to about 55%. it's charged up again and ready to go this weekend.
Putting these two things together, this setup gave me 4-5 bars inside the cabin. I'm able to call home from inside (instead of driving to town where I can get signal), I can text and I can stream data (music or video). It was a first for me last weekend! I made dinner and watched/listened to evening news and later that night I watched sports and I might have even streamed a youtube hunting video. It made the time go by a little faster and felt less lonely (and I have a dog with me - but he doesn't talk back much).
RV Cell Phone Signal Booster Kit for Recreational Vehicles & Motorhomes, All Carriers 3G/4G LTE ($400)
Schumacher Rechargeable AGM Jump Starter and Portable USB/DC Power Station– 1200 Amp ($100)
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