Rambling Cell

Getting Out of the Office

Summer makes it hard to stay in the office.  While a true vacation may not include staying connected, there are times where I can get out of the office as long as I am available by phone.  Often getting out of the office means spending time with my family at a lake or on an outing up into the mountains.  I found I can even get away to places like Lake Powell for somewhat extended periods as long as the office can get a hold of me.

The problems, many of these places have limited cell service and or I don’t want to have a phone stuck to the side of my head.  The answer, the 2 B’s.  Bluetooth and Boosters.  Dual Band signal boosters have become readily available in the last couple of years and prices are becoming more and more affordable.  In the last year or so many companies have introduced boosters that do not require any connection to the phone.  One of my favorites is the Wilson Cellular dual band booster.  It works great and is fairly inexpensive.  I couple it with an Arc Wireless Freedom antenna in the car and use a mag mount antenna on the outside of the car or a stubby cellular marine antenna (has a built in ground plane) on the boat.  A neighbor scoutmaster needed to have his phone available while at scout camp for business reasons.  He took a booster and checked his messages a couple of times a day.  Worked so well he will also be spending more time out of the office this summer.Bluetooth headsets have also became a favorite.  The newer headsets are small, lightweight, and provide excellent sound quality.  Many have built in wind and noise cancelling features allowing me to talk while moving in the boat.  Now if someone would just come out with a Bluetooth throat mic the office would not even know I was out playing instead of working.