The Scouts Needed Voice and Network Services Where No Service Provider Could Deliver: At a Camp on the Side of a Remote Mountain

This Boy Scout camp is isolated 30 miles from the closest town and out of range for cellular or broadband services. Using Patton Ethernet Extenders, VoIP Routers, and Creativity, they were able to build their own solution.

Synopsis
There are no cellular or broadband services at this remote Boy Scout camp. It's on the side of a mountain, 30 miles from the closest town and nearly a mile from the closest radio tower and there is no line-of-sight to that tower from camp. How could they provide critically needed connections to the outside world and emergency services?

The Picture
The Scouts Regional Headquarters PBX was equipped with a Patton SmartNode, connecting trunks to the internet. DSL Services in the valley-town were delivered to the 115 foot tower. A wireless line-of-sight Ethernet bridge connected the valley tower to the mountain-top tower. An Ethernet Extender using buried wires, connected the mountain top tower to the camp nearly 1 mile below. A Patton SmartNode connects to local phones and computers delivering data and voice services to the Boy Scout camp site.
The Success
  • Patton's Ethernet Extenders are rugged and able to deliver high-speed Ethernet connectivity to a mountain-top toward almost 1 mile from camp.
  • The mountain-top tower has line of sight to a 115 foot tower in the valley below and a wireless bridge was used to connect tower-to-toward for backhaul.
  • The valley tower could be equipped with DSL services providing Internet Connectivity to the Camp.
  • Patton SmartNode VoIP gateway provides a security telephony link between the Scouts PBX in its regional Headquarters and the camp over the internet.
  • The SmartNode, connected to the remote camp's Ethernet Extender provided remote telephone connectivity and local PBX features integrated with the HQ PBX and delivering extension dialing, breakout dial-tone and E911 services to the camp.
The Story
In the mountains of Wyoming, near the borders of Montana, Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, sits a rustic Boy Scout camp. The camp is only accessible by a rocky, dirt road and the closest town is 30 miles away.

Although the scenery is majestic, communications were a major problem. The camp staff needed reliable secure phone service to call for help during emergencies and to order supplies for campers. Because of the remoteness of the location, cellular service was not accessible at the camp. Perhaps Voice-Over-IP could be a solution for solving the problem, but this required broadband services at the camp.

On the top of the mountain, there was a solar-powered tower. This tower had line-of-sight to a 115 foot tower in the valley-town below. DSL could be delivered to the valley-tower. The mountain-top tower could be used as a reception site for a wireless Ethernet bridge. Now they just needed to get from the top of the mountain to the camp facility, but the camp was almost a mile from the mountain top and surrounded by towering dense trees. Wireless connectivity from the camp to the mountain top tower was not going to work.

A buried cable run from the mountain-top tower to the camp lodge might do the trick, but it was too long to support native Ethernet. The Scouts needed a solution to extend the Ethernet over these wires and way to use it for both voice and data services.

Patton's CopperLink Ethernet Extenders together with VoIP Gateways provided an easy answer. The Extenders can deliver an Ethernet segment 1 mile over a single copper twisted-pair. The Patton SmartNode provided telephone connectivity, local PBX features and router functions for the camp office. The VoIP connection was linked the Scout Headquarters and integrated with their PBX enabling extension dialing, breakout dial-tone and E911 services to the camp.