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jcharr1
join:2007-05-16
Monterey, LA

jcharr1

Member

Help IDing antennas

Hi guys. I realize this isn't the greatest pic, but here's a pic of our lonely Verizon tower. I strongly suspect that they've been prepping this tower for LTE for the last few weeks or so (days of very bouncy signals, occasional very weak LTE pops up then goes away, speeds on 3G have suddenly shot up recently, etc). However, it seems awfully bare compared to pics of other towers I've seen. There doesn't seem to be any of the shorter panel like antennas like I've seen in other tower pics. To me it looks like there's only 2 tall skinny anntenas there. I would greatly appreciate if anyone could help ID what kind of antennas are on here. Thanks!


jamesonnorth
join:2012-12-22
Modoc, IN

jamesonnorth

Member

I'm not a Verizon tower expert by any means, but that could very possibly be a lightning rod and not an antenna. I've never seen a Verizon tower that uses an omni antenna, because the actual gain from omni antennas is much lower when staying under the FCC's amp guidelines. Most all cell towers use sector (panel) antennas on all sides. These have a 60 degree or 120 degree horizontal span and do the same job as an omni while providing better range and supporting more wireless clients.

LTE equipped towers should simply have three or more sets of these antennas versus two sets for a normal tower. You have one for legacy 1x, at least one set for 3G, and at least one set for LTE, since they all use different frequencies, amps, etc.