Third Time’s A Charm
Turns out, the old adage of “third time’s a charm” is sometimes true. But then, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So maybe most things are true at some point, eventually.
In any case, what I’m referring to on the EM front is that we just installed our third cell booster and it appears to be working splendidly. I say appears because, well, if I’ve learned anything when it comes to the science/art/magic of fetching cell signal and 4G where we are in the woods, it’s that invisible air waves be crazy. One minute they can be strong and steady and the next minute: death.
Mike’s been our lead on this one. Thank goodness for that guy! Not only do I not have the right kind of disposition for overly involved techie things, but when it comes down to it, my interest level only goes so far with this kind of stuff. Mike’s spent hours researching our signal situation and what devices exist and testing out different antenna positions for the best signal strength. He has patience for a number of things for which I have very little.
We figured we’d start on the least expensive end for cell boosters, just to see what it did for us. Without a booster, we get one bar of service in a very specific spot in our small cabin. And this is super important, as without a signal of any kind, a booster would do zilch. Ya know, cuz a booster isn’t a miracle worker. You can’t boost what doesn’t exist. So we started on the low price end and went to Best Buy and bought a $300-something booster. And that booster did do a thing, just not very much of thing. So we returned that one and bought the next size up, which was $500-something. And that one did more of a thing, just not enough of what we were hoping for, so we took that one back and ordered a more powerful unit online from a company called Waveform. We managed to get an open box unit for $900-something. Mike just got it up and running a few days ago.
Last summer, we spent time talking through and looking into whether it would serve us better to get satellite internet or a cell booster, which would hopefully allow us to get 4G on our phones and hotspot to our laptops when need be. We landed on trying out the booster. Not only are our wi-fi needs fairly basic, but if a booster worked, it would mean we wouldn’t take on an extra monthly bill. The up front cost of the satellite dish we were interested in (think: Starlink) was about the same cost of the booster we wound up with, so it was comparable on that front.
Pics above: top L & top R show the brains of the booster, which connects to our solar power system; bottom L shows the indoor antenna (the hanging dome-looking thing in the middle); bottom R shows the outdoor antenna, which picks up the signal
The BIG test involves whether or not it enables me to work my part-time remote job from the woods of EM. While there is something comically enjoyable about being able to say that I live too remotely to work remotely, it would be super nice to be able to work from home. Since moving on the land last summer, I’ve been having to find places in which to work from that exist elsewhere. It’s been fine and I’ve found some great work spots close-by, but I’d love to be able to work from where we are in the woods and not have to drive out to fetch signal to hotspot from.
Drum roll please…I tried out my very first session of remote working from home yesterday and it worked great! I still feel like it’s early days to be declaring surefire victory - again, air waves out here be crazy - but it’s now looking more than promising that I’ll be able to work from the woods, which is awesome.
Without going into too much of the technical stuff, one of the minor downsides of this new booster is that it can only boost the signal of one cell provider at any given time. While the less expensive boosters work simultaneously on any/all cell providers that are offered in the area, our booster can only dial in on one specific cell carrier, which is part of the reason why it works better. This means that folks who visit EM can benefit from our booster, but only if they have the same cell provider as we do. However, you can change the provider that the booster operates on fairly easily. My work phone, for example, has a different cell carrier then Mike and I have on our personal phones. So I have to reconfigure the settings on the booster before I start my work session, and then set it back when I’m done. It went pretty smooth yesterday, much to my great relief.
Slowly & steadily, we’re figuring out our living systems here at EM. And every little bit helps us to get better set up for hosting community gatherings, events & retreats here, which is our biggest aspiration. Onward ho!