I agree...
Its awesome to get away and disconnect, but at the end of the day unfortunately in my Business someone has to be available 24/7. Back when signal was sketchy at best out our way..Have them hit a 6" abandoned Natural Gas line and your blowing a Flume of Natural Gas 40' in the Air and I am getting texts' calls and emails saying hey...Your on the News
And the Mayor of Southlake is calling because you have a 6 lane road shut down and House Frows can't pick up the Tricycle Motors and the Director for DFW is calling say hey I can smell Gas at the Airport

Trust me, you crawl up on a stand and stand on one leg and hold your fillings in your teeth just right to pick up that one little bar to ease the tensions and scramble the masses...
Our Partners and I know where we are and how to reach each other in a absolute MOMENTS notice..

There are 3 numbers in my phone that if I call...Unless you have Paddles on your Chest or Kate Upton applying a Sponge Bath I highly recommending picking up

I switched from Sprint to AT&T so I would have service at the ranch and at the lease. My wife and I text constantly while hunting, she likes to set in her own blind.
"I have two does"
"A pig just ran by"
It is non-stop but it helps pass the time.
I was always known by family and friends as the "lucky guy" that always got a bobcat or a coyote, that has stopped. My eyes are no longer on nature and they are on the phone.
I was turkey hunting in the dead zone area of the ranch a few weekends back, with no cell service. I enjoyed my hunting more than I have in months. I made an effort to put down the phone last weekend, it was awesome. I saw things happening around me again.

I am with stx, I go hunting to get away from life for a bit and enjoy nature.

I have WIFI at the cabin, and 4G service in most places. I planned work accordingly, and no one bothered me while hunting last week. I will do this more.

It's 3G and 4G more-so than WiFi; a necessity for me as even if I'm not in the office, I have to be 'connected'.

But for WiFi specifically:
- I've been 'experimenting' with the sandisk EYE-FI sd cards; namely putting them in regular game-cams to 'go full wireless' on pic collection.
Got 'em to only work in 1 camera so far; really really really neat, and it was an inexpensive camera too.
Lotsa drawbacks though - very limited range, eats batteries (really have to have solar& a big SLA battery), and works in very few cameras.

Hey Dan, I totally agree. The problem I ran into was my wife is an amputee and the only real cell phone reception was up the hill or 2 miles away at the windmill. Her uncle, who owns the ranch next to us but never goes out there, said he would pay for the telephone service if we got it so that she could have a phone at the ranch. Once you talk about that aspect, Internet is inevitable.

I optd for just internet service and an internet phone so we would not have the DirectTV and thus the TV. I prefer a nice radio game or music... heh

Then came the "man.. we only get out there 1-2 times a month....sure would be fun to have cameras to watch the deer when we could not get out there..

When I get out there, I listen to music via the Internet, but that is about it. I DO have to get texts and emails at times, such as now when we are selling our house and need the text service to tell us a showing is needed, but we really do not use the internet for anything else.

It is about being able to control the urges to spend all your time on the Internet, and we do that pretty well. Some of our guests' kids do not.. but that is not my concern :P

I like being away from it all when I go out to my place but I feel wifi will allow me to watch over the place when I am unable to be out there everyday or weekend so I am planning on putting wifi to every stand, feeder water trough, the cabin and gate.

I am going to add sensors to feeders and water so I know if they are getting low and sensors to gate, cabin and blinds to alert me if the door or gate has been opened and closed.

I am planning on putting cameras out to see what is coming in to the feeders and who has come onto the property so I can send out game wardens or the sheriff while the trespasser is there and not call and report about it weeks later.

The minimal cost for the wifi and equipment is well worth the security and just because it is there doesn't mean I have to get on the internet or watch TV.

Peace of mind is part of the relaxing to me, good luck Sir

Absolutely.

I am a "get away from it all" kinda guy I guess. I turn the cell off in the blind and enjoy the peace.

My wife and I have been dis"cussing" my upgrading my phone and possibly my service for just such a situation. I have 2G sometimes at the lease. And even though it says I have three or four bars I may or may not be able to get a phone call out. If I can it often gets dropped. I can text until the cows come home.

I have conceded this battle to her.

On the 19th of last month I had a mild heart attack. The morning after returning from the lease. I was fortunate to recognize the symptoms quickly and dropped an aspirin really fast. My wife did the Mario Andretti getting me to the hospital. By the time I hit the hospital it had started working and I had a small Troponin T dump but avoided any major damage.

I started thinking, what if I had been at the lease alone, three miles from the county road, six miles from the nearest recognizable community and nearly forty miles from the hospital. Not good if you can't even get a call out or easily connect with anyone. BTW has anyone ever tried texting with 911?

I agree it could be a bad thing if the young folk want to stay in the cabin and play on their devices instead of enjoying the outdoors but for some it would make the difference on whether they can enjoy the whole experience. After all most teenagers want to stay connected with their friends and girl/boy friends while out. And in the evening there is often nothing else for them to do and they don't like being bored. So if it helped to get them down there then you have a better chance to keep them interested.

As far as working at the lease well . . . There is a reason I enjoy being retired.

I don't think anyone mentioned this, but your typical texts do not go over wifi. That's over the cellular network.

Something to think about if that's one of your main reasons for installing wifi.

Something like Facebook Messenger will go over wifi.

True but I have found if I only have cell service with no data service I cannot send a text.

i have a 3rd party app that lets me text over wifi and the androids do it fine.

We use Google Hangouts for most of the texts.

I am adding a cell booster so I can send "normal texts" at least at the cabin.

The point, as stated, is to have all communications in most places for emergencies, not to play games or whatever. The deer cameras are just extras

I HOPE to eventually set up a couple wifi capable hog traps.. lol

Russ

I got it so I could remotely work there in the fall and still hunt the morning and night. I had to hook the MiFi to a Yagi antenna to get service, but it works like a charm and allows me to email the owner trail cam pics of big bucks when we get them.

Not western Throckmorton County. Drive up 222 and you will definitely lose AT&T reception.

My phone is most always more than what I care to have when at the lease but for the few times I want/need Internet access from my laptop I turn on my phone's hotspot service... wireless from laptop to phone, out to the Internet on my phone's data service. No additional cost, setup, etc.

As a bonus, I can also Mini HDMI (phone) to HDMI (TV) to stream Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Dish Network (access to live TV *and* my DVRs at home) and HBO Go - all via my phone's data service. I don't do this often and there have been occasions where poor signal prohibited the setup from working. Also no additional cost, setup, etc.

Boom.

I have to say there aren't reading glasses powerful enough for me to watch tv on my phone. What's worse I do not now, nor have I yet, to own a lap top. I can't justify getting one for reviewing my camera cards. Because that's all that I would use it for.

Western Mills sitting in our blinds looking south we have an AT&T tower in line of sight about 5 miles. Can't see it until almost dusk and at night but it lights us up pretty good.

Getting away from it all and being disconnected is great, but I don't have to be disconnected by being at some remote location. I just turn off the phone. BOOM-disconnected.

Having access to coms is critical for safety, IMHO. A couple of years ago, a buddy of mine had a heat stroke on his hunting place and if it wasn't for his phone, he likely would be dead.

With most smartphones being GPS capable, the ability to call for an air ambulance is something that would be unheard of in years past.

I'm seriously considered signing up for ambulance (including flight ambulance) insurance for the program that ETMC offers in East Texas. For about $60 a year, you and your entire family are covered should you need the service.