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I have a cabin in a remote location in Norway, and as luck has it, no cell phone reception. There is great reception up on a hill nearby. I could erect an antenna there, and the cable would be about 180m if I were to lay one from the cabin and to the top of the hill, but given the length, the amount of signal loss would make the antenna worthless.

So I need to evaluate some alternatives and the basic premises I have found I need to base solutions upon are:

  • terminate the antenna in a 4G router at the spot to avoid signal loss
  • use TCP/IP to transmit signals down

So a router requires power, so I thought about pulling 220V power and ethernet cables from the cabin and up to the antenna. Unfortunately, AFAIK Cat5 ethernet cables need to be a maximum of 100m. That leaves that option out, but can I transmit the signals in some other fashion, like the "pringles wifi can" directed antenna?

Are there other options worth considering?

oligofren
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  • How's this an electrical enineering question? Use power over Ethernet and put an Ethernet switch in the middle? – Justme Oct 25 '21 at 22:42
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    It would take an EE to understand the question and multiple choices @justme I would use 4G to Wifi with high gain antennae which needs an RF hack. – Tony Stewart EE75 Oct 25 '21 at 22:50
  • There is also Ethernet over Coax https://www.veracityglobal.com/media/155226/veracity_product_guide_2021_dv4.5.2.pdf with POE – Tony Stewart EE75 Oct 25 '21 at 23:27
  • What's an RF hack in this context? Something like a directed antenna? I don't think I can get my current 4G router to work on POE. It seems to require 12V DC. I will have to Google for alternatives, unless you know of a good one. – oligofren Oct 26 '21 at 05:47

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another option would be a passive reapeater, this is two high-gain directional antennae (probably "Yagi"s) on a pole on the hilltop one pointed at your cabin and the other pointed at the cell tower with a short coaxial cable between them.

Jasen Слава Україні
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  • As a matter of fact, I actually have two high gain (11dB) Yagis in spare. That would by far be the vastly less involved option, just requiring mounting, and avoiding to pull power and ethernet over the mountain, adding weather proofing cabinets, etc. Does the signal need to hit at the exact right angle? Not sure I am able to tilt the antenna pole. Or then I would need two. This almost sounds too good to be true, so I guess there's a fair bit of signal loss? – oligofren Oct 26 '21 at 05:41
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    basically I know that passive repeaters are a thing, and I've played with them in NFC applications, I have no direct experioence with far field passive repeaters – Jasen Слава Україні Oct 26 '21 at 06:14
  • "Passive" repeaters... require a 60 dB bi-directional amplifier, when you're within about 10 m of the internal antenna (typical in-home repeater). The two antennas need to be well isolated, so not on the same mast. 180 m is probably just about ok with three high gain antennas. You still need the several watts of power for the amplifiers. – tomnexus Oct 26 '21 at 10:29
  • i'm fairly sure there are unpowered passive repeaters, – Jasen Слава Україні Oct 26 '21 at 11:49
  • this page discusses one passive repeater and liks to another that was used for "terrain miotigation" https://www.radio-workshop.co.uk/g4nsj-passive-repeaters-vhf-uhf-yagi/ no amp[lifier involved. – Jasen Слава Україні Oct 26 '21 at 19:35