| Case Study Situation
The nearest cell tower was 20 km. away from the customer's waterfront
cottage.
Most cell towers have an effective range of 5 km. everywhere (inside car,
in house, in woods), or 10 km. maximum (in clear field, with line of sight
view of tower, at adequate elevation, on strongest lobe azimuth compass
direction of tower signal, no local interference).
Customer was 4 times the recommended distance from the cell tower.
The cell network provider told them they were in a "No Signal"
area.
Task
Get the customer a working cell signal ASAP.
Pioneer System's Action
Satellite phone was immediately discarded as jammed circuits,
non-reliable service, and $1.00 per minute bills and huge annual fees made
it impossible. Duplex UHF amateur radio with D-Star, or phone was
considered, but rejected. A PTP (Point-to-Point) wireless link to
customer's nearby farm with POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) was
considered, but rejected due to cost.
Pioneer Systems did the cell signal Fresnel and power margin
calculations, the antenna design, ordered the necessary equipment, and
installed the system in cold, snowy, November.
Results
The customer went from nothing, to 3 out of 4 bars cell signal within a
week. Customer now has good cell signal, in all weather conditions,
day and night, year round.
As the customer is off-grid, the recommended solution required no extra
power consumption that the cell phone itself, no extra drain on the solar
powered batteries.
Paradise Found! |
