Equipment Report......

Happy Sunday everyone!  Here in our part of the world, the weekend has been just wonderful.  We spent the better part of yesterday putting out those 40 bales of pine needles pictured in our last post.  Whew!  What a job!  But it's all done now, and the yard is shaping up nicely.  

Along with all the spring flowers, trees blooming, etc., we have all the yucky yellow pollen.  It is all over everything!  Another week or so should see the worst of it behind us.  Thankfully, we are having some rain every few days to help keep it washed away.

If you go all the way back to a February 2013 post by clicking  HERE, you can read about a wireless internet repeater Rob bought for the pod.  You can also read about a little netbook computer Trisha had which was set up for dedicated pod service.  Here's a picture Rob took today.

And here's a picture of all the repeater components Rob ordered.

They consist of: 
                               Repeater (Long-Range USB Adapter)
                               Repeater Holder w/ Suction Cup & Window
                                  mount   
                               Mono-directional antenna
                                  (the repeater comes with a standard antenna)
                               Connecting cable for repeater
                               5 meter powered USB cable.

Our trip over Spring Break was the perfect time to try out this equipment in the "Real World."   The campground at James Island County Park had a pretty standard WIFI system.  If you were lucky enough to be within about 50 feet or so of either the office or one of the bath houses, the WIFI worked pretty well.  We were further away from both, so while our smart phones barely got the WIFI signal, the netbook didn't see any signal at all.  

After hooking up the repeater, we could normally get a signal strength of 85% plus.  (4 to 5 bars).   The only real problem with this set-up wasn't with the repeater, but with the netbook itself.  It is slow, very hard to type on with fat fingers, and generally made a 20 minute blog posting process into about a 45 minute to an hour process.   Rob will most likely be taking his full sized laptop from now own.  

Rob says if you want anymore information,  just let us know and he'll post all the particulars.  

That's it for now.  This was a busy week, but the one thing good about it is we are now one week closer to Summer Break!!  Thanks for checking by today.  Until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J.