Topic 'Re: 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna' in forum 'Millenicom' - dslreports.com

Re: 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:53:51 EDT

dib22 posted :

What could be the reason for that boost?

Loose element on their tower? CDMA Footprint breathing? (larger coverage area the less users) Tower equiptment failure? (I was around 1 sprint tower that stayed 'broken' for over a year before it was fixed ;) ).

If your parabolic were mounted and you had these issues I would have you check all the connections between the card and the antenna... but I suspect your current problem is simply it being too low to focus on a strong point.

Re: 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:47:57 EDT

boondockEVDO posted : Weather & my time haven't allowed me to put the antenna up outside yet.

Out of nowhere my antenna is getting 2 bars of signal (85 rssi, -94/93 db, -4.50 EC/IO)

This is with my card not being attached to the antenna, just taped to the window with a 6ft USB cable.

Any idea what can cause such jumps in my signal? It hasn't been like this for atleast 3 weeks. My tower is in a pretty rural area as well.

**UPDATE** The burst in signal only lasted about 30 minutes. Very odd, it hasn't been like that in weeks/months. What could be the reason for that boost?

Re: 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 19:55:52 EDT

boondockEVDO posted : I am going to first set up a pole mount that is about the level of my window and see how it does outdoors at that height. If that doesn't work I am going to mount it to the roof of my home that is about 20-25ft off the ground. It still won't be anywhere close to clearing the tops of the trees though.

I drove up to my tower today and had -60 to -70 RSSI from about 1 mile with LOS. I noticed though that I still was getting a lot of ping spikes when pinging, staying stable at ~170ms but every minute or so getting a 1-2000ms spike, signal remained high during these times and I stayed locked in EVDO.

I have calculated the exact distance of the tower at 2.81 miles and have an azimuth heading at 319 degrees for pointing the dish at the tower.

I seen Jim's dish LOS and it looked blocked about the same as mine and his distance and terrain looks pretty similar too.

Just not sure what is up with the antenna so far. Maybe my card has a broken antenna jack? I am hopefully going to be able to set it up for an outdoor run tomorrow.

Re: 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 18:47:51 EDT

Lamiel posted : How are you planning to mount it? Do you have a tripod, or are you planning to run a mast up the side of the house? How many feet off the roof have you planned to set it? It very definitely could make an appreciable difference over your in-doors tests, depending on height. Get that sucker as high as you can while still keeping it stable.
--
Core2Quad Q9450 @ 3.4GHz, XFX 780i SLI mobo, MSI GTX 560 OC, 4GB Patriot Viper DDR2-1066, Samsung 20x optical, Samsung F3 1TB HDD, Antec TP3 650 watt PSU, CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case, Win7 Home Premium 64 bit...

2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:16:54 EDT

boondockEVDO posted : Reposting from my original thread based on a suggestion in it to try my luck here since so many have this antenna;

My set up:
- 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid Antenna (N/Fem)
- 20ft LMR400 N/Male
- N/Fem:FME/Fem connector + Pigtail

I currently have my 2.4ghz Parabolic Grid antenna set up in a trial run indoors, facing towards the tower out of my window. The tower is about 1.8-2 miles away. The line of sight is obstructed by forest.

After adjusting it I can get a signal of around -96 to -97 (occasionally hit -94 but only for a second or two)

However the connection doesn't seem solid, it can jump from -96 to -102 every few seconds. I also notice I occasionally get a lag spike around 1000-2000 every minute or so while pinging google.

Testing it with online games makes it extremely laggy in game as well. When I don't use the antenna I can play the game fine with no lag spikes.

Without the antenna I get around -108 to -110 signal but it is much more stable than with the antenna hooked up.

Anyone else experience similar issues with this set up?

I am planning to mount it outside on the roof above this window -- Could a window (double glass) can really cause such issues with performance with this antenna? I haven't been able to deploy it outside to test due to bad weather.

Here is a shot of testing set up I am doing with the antenna; »i.imgur.com/cefdK.jpg

Thanks for any information you can provide