Sprint_MBB
join:2002-06-25
Tallahassee, FL
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | reply to Sprint_MBB
Antenna location testing- lower is better for me
I have now finalized the antenna installation and wanted to share the results-
I had the omni, then the directional, and finally the parabolic grid at about 12+' up off the north side of my front porch roof using a lightweight mast. I constructed a heavier gauge mast of about 25' in usable length and was able to get the parabolic grid to clear my second story roof (the mast was on the north side of the building about 10' west of the porch mount and did not require the antenna to point over the house). Since I had received the best signal to the north, I started in that direction. On my property, this meant the antenna was pointing over the roof of an outbuilding (it was about 10' above the roof) and into some trees about 150' away. On the porch mount, it was pointed over a driveway to the outbuilding and the same trees at the same distance.
In testing the setup, I noted my signal strength and Speedtests suffered greatly in the higher location. It was much more difficult to stay on the best PN, although in direction testing I did find an intermittent third tower to the west. I went from an average of 1.3 down to a best of around 1.0 down. I had a best RSSI of around -88, but it seemed to vary widely. The results were very different with an orientation change of just a couple of degrees.
I then relocated the parabolic grid to the lower location using a sturdier mast. After using the debug screen again, I soon was back to the 1.3 down speed with a best RSSI of -83 via the Cyfre amp. The RSSI did not vary as much in this location. I also found that tilting the antenna up a couple of degrees gave better results.
I was somewhat surprised that the higher location did not yield a better signal. All I can attribute it to is the roof of the outbuilding since that is the only significant difference in the two locations other than height.
EDIT
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Old setup: Wilson omni, Cellmate 2000, Pantech PX-500 in Linksys WRT543G3-ST.
New setup: Parabolic grid, Cyfre CA-819, Sierra 598U in Cradlepoint MBR1000.
Thanks to Jim_in_VA for the tips! |
