I was looking at the specs listing on the booster in the link below. This one has a better rating for boosting ability on this website than some others on the site that claim to operate as long as you are within 50 miles of the nearest cell tower.
Question is this: What would you envision the best base-eliminating setup to be, and what do you think the dollar figure is? This booster is only $250. If used to boost a wifi, would the wifi range be enough to use a rover from (doubt it, but some wifi works pretty far)? Seems one would need to rebroadcast using a standard high-power radio such as the Javad HPT435BT, which would push the range over all of most projects.
Is this not essentially what Javad's JLink does? It is only one watt, though, so I wonder if the separate booster such as the one in the link is the way to go.
I have the Wilson booster. I have not tried it for VRS but in many places it would not work. Some places I would have no service without it but there are plenty of others where I have no service even with it.
If you are in remote areas your own base is the way to go IMHO
You might also want to look at this one. There is an ag GPS place in the area that pushes this one because of the high power output.
Can you explain to me what this does?
I currently am using cell phone but there are times when we're in very remote areas and have no cell coverage and we rely on a Trimble base radio. Is this a radio booster to get further?
Are you out west somewhere? I do most of my work in WV/OH/PA and can't imagine I'm ever greater than 50 miles from a cell tower...
Gets the cell phone much further. You can also configure to rebroadcast VRS over the Trimble external radio. I work in some areas where there isn't really a good location for a base, and this approach works much better as the CORS within the RTN system are obviously sited to have maximum skyview.
I know what you're thinking, if there's no good location for a base, then there's really no good location for a rover, but that's not exactly true. Having an optimum base location (or even better using VRS) will give a significant bump in receiver performance under canopy.
Absolutely the best rover I ever used under canopy was a Trimble GeoXR on VRS. Almost couldn't stop the thing...
What I want to be able to do is go to a place like remote mountains of South America, set up a base and use it for 10 miles radius. Is this that?
No, the standard external 35 watt radio should do that for you.
Before you make any decisions you should find out what, if any, laws and regulations they have in the country where you'll be working. If UHF is unregulated, get a 100 watt amp, throw a YAGI on a 100' tower, you might get 30 miles.
If on the other hand UHF is restricted to 0.5W, you will be restricted to line of sight.
I don't know if anyone still makes VHF data radios, I don't think you can get licensing for them in the US. VHF tends to have better range and penetrating power than UHF because it is a much lower frequency band.
In mountainous, forested terrain your range is going to be severely limited regardless using radios. If there is any kind of cell phone coverage then that's the better solution; some of the boosters listed above are pretty effective but in order for a booster to work there has to be a signal to boost. I had good luck with the Wilson booster in some areas, not so much in others.
