Topic 'Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?' in forum 'Millenicom' - dslreports.com

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 22:26:43 EDT

anon posted :

Make sure you put on a ferrous metal surface ( for a ground plane ) by a window . Even better if you can get it outdoors . That eliminates the chance of interference you might be getting indoors.

ok, i tested it on a metal generator and tbh i didn't notice much signal gain - probably not the kind of "ground plane" that you would recommend i guess as its kind of thin metal.

i could pick a few of those solid iron things (roughly 8 x 8 i would guess) by the railroad track that they use to connect the rails to the wooden railroad ties or maybe i should to go to a scrapyard to get an thick iron plate(?)

i guess there's a possibility that the antenna connector on my modem is faulty.

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:49:30 EDT

Max Signal posted : bars mean nothing ! It is the RSSI reading that is important

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 04:11:05 EDT

anon posted :

said by Max Signal:

-80 to -84 is an acceptable signal , the antenna Millenicom offers should get you in the -70 - -75 range . Make sure you put on a ferrous metal surface ( for a ground plane ) by a window . Even better if you can get it outdoors . That eliminates the chance of interference you might be getting indoors.

thanks. -80 to -84 is only getting me 1 to 2 bars out of 6, fwiw. will follow the rest of the advice. i never knew about the ground plane.

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:22:27 EDT

Max Signal posted : -80 to -84 is an acceptable signal , the antenna Millenicom offers should get you in the -70 - -75 range . Make sure you put on a ferrous metal surface ( for a ground plane ) by a window . Even better if you can get it outdoors . That eliminates the chance of interference you might be getting indoors.

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:23:19 EDT

anon posted :

said by Max Signal:

The antenna that they sell at Millenicom works great on 2500 mhz , It gives about 14 DB gain on WiMax frequencies.

If I'm AT -80 TO -84 what kind of numbers should i expect, -72 to -76 or so?

if i can just get decent signal i think there's plenty bandwidth available. seemed to be getting up to 5-8 mbps a few times when downloading a file but usually less than 1 mbps with the current setup.

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 12:22:31 EDT

anon posted :

said by Bill00:

said by fred_132453 :

...the connector that attaches to the modem is so loose that it just falls out from time to time...

I'm not familiar with your specific equipment but it appears to me that the first thing you need to get sorted out is your connectivity.

Without a good, solid physical and electrical connection, I doubt you will ever get your system to work right. Were it me, that is the FIRST thing I would look into...

Best of luck.

Bill

thanks for response. its this antenna:

»www.ebay.com/itm/Sierra-Wireless···e4883e67

and they(Cellgear - USA) claim its approved by verizon, sprint, alltel, etc. and supposedly its designed to fit Sierra modems. i got this thing in the mail and i thought it was a joke. paid $35 for what looks like a cheap POS one dollar knock-off from China. and if i look at the signal thru Sprint SmartView it just doesn't change no matter whether i plug it in or not or even remove the antenna from the area, just doesn't do anything. signal strength is -80 to -84

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:54:31 EDT

anon posted :

said by Jim_in_VA:

WiMax (ClearWire) uses the 2.5 Ghz frequency, so if you are looking at dual band antennas that only use 1900/800 Mhz it won't work with WiMax. Whatever you get make sure it covers 2.5 Ghz as well.

ok, thanks Jim.

i was also gonna ask if there was any use trying Clear 4G service for possible better signal but sounds like you're saying Millenicom wimax over Sprint is just using the same cell towers. :(

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:53:55 EDT

Max Signal posted : The antenna that they sell at Millenicom works great on 2500 mhz , It gives about 14 DB gain on WiMax frequencies.

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:41:11 EDT

Bill00 posted :

said by fred_132453 :

...the connector that attaches to the modem is so loose that it just falls out from time to time...

Re: Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:07:20 EDT

Jim_in_VA posted : WiMax (ClearWire) uses the 2.5 Ghz frequency, so if you are looking at dual band antennas that only use 1900/800 Mhz it won't work with WiMax. Whatever you get make sure it covers 2.5 Ghz as well.
--
... need help? »evdo-tips.com/

Recommend a 4G WiMax Antenna?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 10:28:19 EDT

anon posted : hi,
i have the Sprint Sierra 250u 3G/4G modem and only get 1-2 bars at the moment. i bought one of the blade antennas off Ebay for $35 that was supposed to be OEM or Sierra approved or whatever but it doesn't appear to help at all and the connector that attaches to the modem is so loose that it just falls out from time to time.

so was wondering what i could do from here. i notice Millenicom has a $49 antenna that looks ok and i asked the chat person if it would improve the Wimax signal and he seemed to think it would but idk.

i use a netbook only so would be good to have an antenna that is somewhat mobile and does the job but if i have to attach it to some kind of structure to get better speeds i can do that too.
i can spend $50 without any problem and if i have to up to $150 or so if i have to. i would buy an amplifier but i would guess those need constant source of power, which i don't have at this location for now - maybe in a few months though.

suggestions?