CountyWorker
Forum Supporter
There's no cell phone service where I live. Also, I'm trying to get the highest quality images that I can and cellular cameras have mediocre image quality.
There's no cell phone service where I live. Also, I'm trying to get the highest quality images that I can and cellular cameras have mediocre image quality.
A cell repeater may be able to help the signal. Won't do much about the picture quality though. Wireless relay (wifi) works too, but has greater power requirements at the camera. I built one out for my wife's uncle at his place with bad cell reception. But if you're happy with it how it is, then you don't need any of that. Thanks for sharing the pics.
I own a narrow canyon that’s ~1 mile long and the creek you see in the videos and photos winds along the floor of the valley. The only phone service is satellite phone. I wish I could get cell phone service, because it would sure save me a few bucks.
And again, I’m using the cameras to try to capture high quality images. There are a dozen cameras available that have better image quality than the image quality of the best cellular cam.
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You really want to look into trying to get usable cell service? I've helped people with that before. My in-law's mountain cabin had intermittent bad cell service (i.e. bad service or no service, depending on how it felt), and we rigged up an amp and antenna set and it was great. If you want to share your specific location then I can help walk you through it, or I can show you the tools to do it yourself.
Most of it would involve registering at cellmapper.net, downloading/installing their mobile application, and driving some roads around your land to measure cell reception and try to identify and triangulate the towers (the service does all this automatically, you just have to run the application and drive around for a bit).
If this link works, it will show you the data they have for your general area right now:
https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=...Band=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap
After you know where the towers are likely to be and (more importantly) what frequencies they use, you source an appropriate amplifier and antenna set from your choice of vendor (I can provide some example links or help select if you want, but I don't sell them or make any money off it). Then you set it up in a place where you can use one of the antennas to point in the direction of the cell tower of choice. It might need to be set up on a small tower up at the top of the valley or something like that, but they're very light and you won't need more than a couple of lengths of 1.5" pipe and guy wire. Depending on the other antenna, you might point it at your house (if directional) or just put it nearby (if omni).
ATT is practically useless on the central coast. Verizon works significantly better and folks in my area are trying all the latest technologies to try to get usable service and there success is dependent upon where their property is located.
So pick verizon from the drop down under "provider". Or use this link:
https://www.cellmapper.net/map?MCC=...Band=0&showSectorColours=true&mapType=roadmap
Well what you're looking at on the map are towers, not repeaters.I did that, but just because I was already looking at your first link. I already know where all the repeaters are, just like everybody else out here does.
You sound like the young couple that just bought some property in my area a few months ago. They thought they could figure it out, even though they were told they would not have cell phone reception. They currently have no cell phone reception, but they are lighter in their wallets from trying everything under the sun to get it. They also have lost their ability to “game” on the internet. They were going to figure that out too. Lol! Satellite internet leaves a lot to be desired.
Then there are the people that bought a $1.5 million piece of property a little further out than I am, last summer, who backed out of their contract and forfeited their earnest money, because they couldn’t get cell phone service.
Starlink is what we are all waiting for right now.
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Well what you're looking at on the map are towers, not repeaters.
I'm saying it because a lot of people have no idea this kind of stuff is possible at all. I've helped several people learn how to get the information they need to figure out the equipment they need to get it to work. And I'm doing it to help people - it's not like I'm making money off it.
But it is definitely not possible everywhere, as your neighbors have apparently found out. If you don't have a tower pretty close to line of sight from a high spot near where you want coverage, then you are completely out of luck for a cheap fix.
I bet those people who backed out on the property would have liked to know about what to try. They could have found out they weren't getting cell coverage before they put the money down.
Correct, transpose tower for repeater. I'm more used to referring to repeaters, because that's what I'm largely dependent upon for any decent reception for radio stations.
You underestimate the hubris of some people. They were going to be the ones to figure it out, even if they were told that it wasn't possible, because they had the resources to do whatever it would take. I don't know how much their earnest money was, but if you can afford a $1.5M property it probably wasn't all that big of a deal for them. City folk want to live way out in the forest, until they find out their cell phone doesn't work and that satellite internet in this area is terrible. Even if you have a clear view at the southern sky. Starlink promises to solve this problem.
Verizon has made a financial investment in improving the ability of more folks on the central coast to have cell phone service at home, even without the ability to make significant returns on their investment. There are very few people that will ever live here, because Oregon's forest protection laws are the oldest in the nation and are extremely strict about any residential expansion into the forests.