how do I extend the range of a Summer brand baby video monitor to 500 feet?
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There are phones that will do 'sound' room monitoring up to that distance, but you'll never find a video baby monitor to do it and it would be far more costly to figure it out vs. a more professional solution. I'd actually look at a web camera setup in the room that is somehow connected to your PC and can then send through a wireless router to your location 500ft away. I'd say that the best solution would depend on what you already have available to you.
Any kind of repeater/booster is probably going to cost more than double what you paid for the baby monitor in the first place - assuming you have it now. Repeaters are no really 'consumer' products, at least not for 900 MHz.
It might be possible to modify the unit and put a high gain antenna on to get more range. Probably the only way to extend the unit for a reasonable price.
You could get a wireless IP camera with a built in microphone for a more reasonable price. Then you would be able use standard wireless networking gear - which does have consumer range extenders and repeaters available for pretty reasonable prices.
Panasonic have a nice consumer camera with a built in mic that is user friendly, and does not look that much different than a baby monitor.
http://www.amazon.com/Pana
Downside is using a computer to view but if you have a notebook and existing wireless networking its fairly inexpensive to do.
Just run cable along the fance, or else............With RG59 you can go up to 1000", and roll of 1000" you can get on ebay around $60.
Heck with the wireless- it always worst case scenario to deal with- either changing battery, have outlet nearby, have interfirence, loss of signal and so on- endless headache.
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by: stevenb01Posted on 2009-05-08 at 21:36:42ID: 24342260
I don't think this is going to be possible (or at least cost effective). If the monitor receiver had RCA jacks, you might be able to forward the signal on with a wireless A/V sender like this one: http://www.radioshack.com/
However, it did not look like any of the Summer models had RCA out jacks. The only other way I could think of would be to get a device that would extend/relay the 900mHz signal the baby monitor sends out. I have never heard of such a thing but if you do a google search for '900mhz repeater' or '900mhz signal boost' or '900mhz amplifier' there are a bunch of sites out there. You might try contacting one of those companies and tell them your situation. Also, you might try contacting Summer and see if they have a suggestion.
You could always make your own by buying a wireless camera or a regular camera and use the radio shack-style wireless video senders. A webcam might work too if you have internet in both locations.
Good luck!