Pls halp... I work on a 25k acre ranch. One side of the property gets usable (Verizon only) signal and even 4G. The side everyone lives on gets barely a bar. It's close to unusable and my boss wants me to fix that.
>I need to boost cell and 4G signal it two building far away from usable signal.
Do i just kill myself?
Bamp
They make cell range extenders. Probably not for your exact use case. We used to used them to extend service into warehouses. It would involve you setting up antennas in the area with good 4g and running cables to antennas to rebroadcast that signal on the other side of the ranch. IDK if they exist but it would be much better to find some that don't rely on RF cables to connect the antennas and instead send it over fiber or something.
Ask Verizon. You are not allowed to do it. Search for femtocell.
Dunno how big that is but a couple of options I have seen.
A 4g modern with a directional antenna pointed at the cell tower.
And for a really big place, a microwave link from one side to the other.
Interesting. If I take the man-lift up about four stories I get great 4G and useable cell signal. Do I build a four story tower? This is a big ranch, that's totally possible.
>pick related
Thank you, I'm going to Verizon today
Would it be more effect/cost effect to build a tower with a microwave link or a tower with a wired like that just sends the signal down like in
I'll get useable signal four stories up in the air above the location I need to work with.
Bamp
A raised cell antenna would be lots cheaperv than a whole separate link.
Okay... so I buy a big ass cell antenna of some sort, mount it on a 4story tower, then connect it to some kind of transmitter/booster at ground level that broadcast the signal?
Get 2 directional antennas and point them at each other
Look, if you do it RIGHT you can have a contractor come out and install professional grade repeater equipment. But expect this to cost $$$$.
You may not be able to buy said repeater equipment without verizon/government approval because of FCC licensing.
"useable" signal at 4 stores does not sound good. It could just be the way the atmosphere is that day. Another day you may get little or no usable signal there.
The only REAL way to "repeat" a signal is to repeat it where it offers 100% consistent high speed performance. \
You dont want to repeat a weak signal because it will only get worse at the other end and probably lead to more frustration from dropped calls, etc... '
What I would do is research the EXACT LTE bands being used by verizon there and then buy a nice directional antenna (that would support that band well) that can be pointed in the direction that the signal is strongest. Then connect that antenna to some sort of test device, like a mobile hotspot with TS-9 connectors and see what kind of speeds and service you get. If its acceptable then look for a decent repeater to hook to the antennas.
But im pretty sure you will need some sort of license or authorization for any kind of real professional repeater that can cover the ranges you want. A femotocell is one thing but that only covers a house. This could easily interfere with Verizon areas that are not affected by poor service.
Come to think of it 25k acres is about 40 square miles.
Even at half of that, 20 square miles, you won't even get close to covering 1 square mile with any kind of repeater equipment you can buy.
Realistically, for thousands you can do 20k square feet or about half an acer of coverage.
I mean, come on OP, you are talking about cell tower ranges here and nothing short of an actual cell tower will do what you want unless you need very localized service at a building or something.....
The only way you'd get coverage over all the ranch would absolutely be a cell tower with a microwave link to another one, basically, a giant repeater....
Maybe if you offer Verizon a free lease for 30 years they might consider it, but only if there is enough demand.
This is great, I feel like I'm on the right track now. Let me give you some more specifics.
-I don't need the entire 25k acre ranch covered. Just the two to three acre living area
-the signal 4 stories up is relatable. Every time anyone takes the lift up ALL THE WAY the have great 4G and usable signal (2 bars). Everytime
-this is a big Ag operation. My boss is fine shelling out "$$$$" but if I can do this simply for > $$$$ and knowledge obtained using equipment I can buy/use legally then I'll be in raise city. So let's say my budget is $$$$ for sake of getting this conceptualized.
>I got the contact info for a tower tech worker at Verizon. Besides the exact LTE band for our location what else can I ask?
Thanks mate
Ask fucking Verizon. You are not allowed to use licensed frequencies and Verizon needs to aprove it anyway.
Thanks for your input. This seems to be part of the direction we need to go.
I'm looking into them and they all have MHz and GHz specs... wut do these mean to my scenario?
Verizon needs to approve me setting up a directional antenna atop a 4story tower connected to a repeater so we can use the service everyone already pays for? Do you have a specific question I can ask them? Also if I just built the thing anyway how would they know?
>Verizon needs to approve me setting up a directional antenna atop a 4story tower connected to a repeater so we can use the service everyone already pays for?
Yes. Its a licensed frequency.
>Do you have a specific question I can ask them?
Ask about femtocells
Exactly, the FCC can and actually does send people to buttrape prison for fucking with cellphone frequencies. Something about 911 call reliability.
Anyways, just call Verizon or walk into one of their stores - it's likely they'll put something to receive the 4G signal at the place closest to their towers, and run a cable to a femtocell inside the living space.
The directional antenna is fine, frequencies cell phones use have all been sold off by the FCC to carriers. Of course you can still buy repeater equipment and if you ain't noisily broadcasting outside your property none is going to care.