Thread: Remote communication

Whilst we probably won’t know what Frodo’s other plan is for a while cos he’ll be off line again... I am very curious myself... just thought I’d mention this.

In remote Outback Aus obviously comms and navigation for us were quite important. We have an EPIRB, Iridium sat phone, UHF radio, GPS and 4G cell phones and iPad. Now terrain there makes the reach of cellular a totally different experience to NZ for obvious reasons, NZ is the hardest country for reliable cellular comms I’ve ever been to, with all the terrain shadows, dead spots and drop outs.

What made a massive difference for us was installing a high quality cell phone antenna kit on the Hilux. Where a handset would maybe show zero or one bar of signal intermittently, plugged into the handsfree and using the antenna you’d get 2 bars and an easy, drop out free call. In NZ this kit is bloody marvellous as it makes a cellphone work in areas our mates’ phones just won’t with the same carrier. Its not perfect by any means, a deep valley is a deep valley, period, but on the road and in marginal areas it overcomes the signal patchiness most of the time. Worth looking at if you’re on the road a lot and getting fed up with drop outs.

Tell me about it... I'm in a rural area with 1 comms tower 17km away. That's the only one for cell and data. So for our site we use a 100mb syncronus DMR link to that tower. It's pricey, but we have a layer-2 connection, so you do indeed get what you pay for.

Originally Posted by Flyblown

Whilst we probably won’t know what Frodo’s other plan is for a while cos he’ll be off line again... I am very curious myself... just thought I’d mention this.

In remote Outback Aus obviously comms and navigation for us were quite important. We have an EPIRB, Iridium sat phone, UHF radio, GPS and 4G cell phones and iPad. Now terrain there makes the reach of cellular a totally different experience to NZ for obvious reasons, NZ is the hardest country for reliable cellular comms I’ve ever been to, with all the terrain shadows, dead spots and drop outs.

What made a massive difference for us was installing a high quality cell phone antenna kit on the Hilux. Where a handset would maybe show zero or one bar of signal intermittently, plugged into the handsfree and using the antenna you’d get 2 bars and an easy, drop out free call. In NZ this kit is bloody marvellous as it makes a cellphone work in areas our mates’ phones just won’t with the same carrier. Its not perfect by any means, a deep valley is a deep valley, period, but on the road and in marginal areas it overcomes the signal patchiness most of the time. Worth looking at if you’re on the road a lot and getting fed up with drop outs.

What's the booster you recommend as wouldn't mind one?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

You could go for something like that? https://marineworldsales.co.nz/node/144

Originally Posted by Flyblown

@mjmatsen what are the speeds like? Any real world experience of the satellite Internet recently? I remember it was rubbish back in the day but like all things I would expect it to improve. We have Vodafone Rural wireless broadband and it is lightning fast but we have a very annoying 120gb datacap.

We use Amurinet and its fast as, only reason we even have internet other than our phones is so wife can watch telly from back home and skype her family etc

Originally Posted by Flyblown

mjmatsen what are the speeds like? Any real world experience of the satellite Internet recently? I remember it was rubbish back in the day but like all things I would expect it to improve. We have Vodafone Rural wireless broadband and it is lightning fast but we have a very annoying 120gb datacap.

I take it your looking for a solution in a single fixed location?
I wouldn’t think genuine satellite internet will be competitive with wireless broadband over the cellular network.
A couple of contractors we deal with use Ipstar and VSAT.
They are much better than they were a decade a go, they do slow down lots after 5pm when everyone knocks off work. The VOIP phone lines on them tend to be shit in my opinion.
The amount of data is very much proportionate to the subscription.
My understanding of BGAN is that up and download speeds are great, but too expensive for browsing. Suits commercial users sending large pre-prepared files and data fast.

Writing emails on a Satphone makes you wonder if it would be quicker hand deliver a hand written note instead.