The video above was captured by my home security camera, which in turn communicates with my home wi-fi antenna, and is solar powered. Having a home security camera isn't a big deal nowadays, and neither is having one that is solar powered; I bought a solar powered security camera (actually, my wife made the purchase) from Swann Security. What I think is cool about my setup is that my security camera is a few hundred feet from my dsl modem/router. In fact, I also have a chicken coup that has a wi-fi enabled camera and light bulbs. All of these nice wi-fi dependent devices utilize a wi-fi antenna that sits on top of my home. ...and this wi-fi transmission setup only required a cash layout of $130 (the total cost of the setup is really closer to about $200, but I only needed to spend about $130 at the time I setup the antenna).
As I said in my first paragraph, my wife purchased the security camera that took the video in this blog (that's me in the video, and that's my dog greeting me in the video). My wife handed me the security camera, and said get this working at the front gate. That wasn't really as tall an order as I just made it sound. My wife also told me a few months earlier that she'd like to setup a home office in our RV. My wife uses a MS Surface Pro as her daily drive (computer system); a wi-fi dependent system - hence the need to extend the reach of our home wi-fi (our RV is a couple of hundred feet from our dsl modem/router). I decided to setup a wi-fi antenna right outside of our home. As things progressed in setting up our new residence (we've lived here for less then 1 year) my wife decided against using our RV as a home office. However, when my wife handed me the security camera, I'd already erected the wi-fi antenna.
I looked up wi-fi antennas on Amazon (I have a Prime membership, so I don't have to pay for shipping). There was an antenna listed on amazon.com as being good for one mile (3 to 4 miles if there were no signal obstructions; e.g., trees) and costing $80, on sale for $50; I bought it. Once I got the antenna, I realized I had no idea on how to hook it up, but the manufacturer's name was on the paperwork that came with the antenna; I called their technical support department. The support guy told me that all I needed to so was hook the antenna up to the antenna port on my router; next purchase - a router with an antenna connection. I found a local company (within my same state) that sells a bunch of outdoor wi-fi equipment; Rokland. I also found out that Rokland normally sells the antenna I bought, for $50. I bought an AP router (already came with a 5 dbi antenna - my antenna is 15 dbi) for $30, and a 5 meter long RG-213 cable (I think it was $30, too) to hook up my antenna to my router. I got a really strong wi-fi signal that showed up at the RV, the front gate, and all the way back by our pond.
My wife was pretty happy about having wi-fi all over our property, but she hated the antenna setup. To get it to work, I put the antenna right outside by the window that's closest to our dsl modem/router, and ran the cable from the AP router's RP-SMA connector, through the partially open window, to the n connector at the bottom of the antenna. My wife wanted the window closed, which necessitated running another (5 meter) cable through a wall in our house to get to the outside. I saw a 5 meter 200-cfd cable on rokland.com for just $15; it totally ruined the signal strength of the antenna. I took a look at the Rokland website again, and it said the 200-cfd cable was only good if that was the only cable you were going to use; i.e., 5 meters of cfd-200 was all you could use - anything in addition meant scrapping the cfd-200 cable and going with RG-213 or LMR-400 or CFD-400.
I decided to go all LMR-400; I have a 10 foot cable going through the wall of my house, and a 15 foot cable outside, that runs up a pole that I put the antenna on, so it towers over my home. The pole is the awning dispenser that used to sit on my RV; I had already torn it off the RV for other reasons, but now made good use of it. I now have a strong signal at the front gate, the chicken coup, and a usable signal by the pond (not as strong as at the front gate or chicken coup, but I can still watch YouTube or listen to Amazon Music while by the pond).