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Sprint_MBB
join:2002-06-25
Tallahassee, FL
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| My saga: Thank you Jim_in_VA & Broadband DSL Reports!
First, some history:
I'm a relative "noob" when it comes to mobile broadband, but like to learn about new things.
We moved to a small town near Tallahassee, FL a couple of years ago. We're between a small town with one cell tower about 4 miles away and a larger town with several cell towers about 8~15 miles away (more on this later). We had high speed cable Internet in south FL and were spoiled. I found we could get a wireless signal through a local carrier, but our house sat too low for an antenna to work even on a 60' tower (since removed).
I ended up receiving the signal at the front of our property (high point) and making a Rube Goldberg setup to beam the signal back to the house over 1/4 mile away. This had drawbacks since it drew too much power for even 4 x 15W solar panels to keep up with, and I eventually trenched a power line out to it.
A month later the carrier stopped service.
I was about to go with satellite service, but luckily found out about MBB. We signed up under the Sprint unlimited plan last year. My initial setup was a Pantech PX-500 card in a Linksys WRT543G3-ST router. Since I had little to no signal inside the house, I ended up using an external antenna (Wilson omni) and amp (Cellmate 2000) via 20' of LMR400 cable. The antenna was attached to my roof about 15' up.
In hindsight, I failed to do enough research on this setup before getting it, and it never worked reliably. I finally got fed up with it in the past couple of weeks since I was having to power cycle the router daily to get service.
I was fortunate to find Jim_in_VA's website after he replied to one of my posts here about adding a cooling fan on the CM amp.
I began a lot of research, and ordered a Wilson directional antenna, a Sierra 598U modem, and a Cradlepoint MBR-1000 router.
I was initially disappointed since I did not see a marked improvement in signal with this equipment. My RSSI numbers with the old setup were around -95 to -100. With the new equipment, they were around -104 with the 598U in a laptop in my front yard and no antenna. Even with the directional antenna and amp, I was only seeing -97, and this kept jumping around, sometimes as bad as -112. The antenna was pointed towards the closest tower.
I spent a couple of days reading Jim_in_VA's EVDO tips website. I learned how to use the debugging screen on the Sprint Connection Manager software and the 598U in the laptop.
According to the debugging screen, even though I was pointed towards the closer tower, I could get a better signal from the one farther away. The omni antenna did not help in this respect since I suspect it was seeing both and jumping around. When I used the debugging screen, I could see the results as I turned the antenna:
If I turned it south towards the closer tower, I was on PN 75 with a RSSI of -90 to -97. I turned it in increments, and by the time I was pointing east, I was on another PN but jumping back to 75 with a similar -90's RSSI. When I turned it pure north, I was on the second PN and the signal improved to -83. I've since fine-tuned it to NNW.
I have not tried to go mobile to locate the towers, but just one night's work really paid off for me.
My Speedtest numbers before on a good day were around .3 down and .03 up with 260 latency. Tonight I hit 1.4 down, .24 up with 170 latency (see below). After so much time, expense, and effort, I'm really excited to have a fast reliable connection for once.
Based on Jim's website & research, I'm getting a Cyfre CA-819 amp and a parabolic grid antenna. This should really lock in a great signal.
Thanks again Jim & Broadband DSL reports!
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Old setup: Wilson omni, Cellmate 2000, Pantech PX-500 in Linksys WRT543G3-ST.
Current setup: Wilson yagi, Cellmate 2000, Sierra 598U in Cradlepoint MBR1000.
Pending: Cyfre CA-819 amp & parabolic grid.
Thanks to Jim_in_VA for the tips! | |
Jim_in_VA
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA | hey thanks MBB, I appreciate it. Glad to see things are working better for ya.
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... need help? »evdo-tips.com/ | |
Sprint_MBB
join:2002-06-25
Tallahassee, FL
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| reply to Sprint_MBB
I just got the parabolic grid and the remainder of the parts today. I'm seeing a slightly lower signal with the Cyfre amp (-88 vs. -86 on the CM 2000), but the grid antenna is really doing the trick. I need to remount it a little higher and tune it like I did the Wilson directional once I get it in place.
-86 must be the cutoff for the MBR1000 router signal strength meter- it shows 80% and 4 of 4 bars there, and 60% and 3 of 4 bars for -87 and below.
Getting a fairly consistent 1.3~1.4 down and .3x up with latency in the 160~180 range.
Time to update the signature.
Thanks again Jim.
--
Old setup: Wilson omni, Cellmate 2000, Pantech PX-500 in Linksys WRT543G3-ST.
Current setup: Wilson yagi, Cellmate 2000, Sierra 598U in Cradlepoint MBR1000.
Pending: Cyfre CA-819 amp & parabolic grid.
Thanks to Jim_in_VA for the tips! | |
Jim_in_VA
join:2004-07-11
Cobbs Creek, VA | Cool ..you're welcome | |
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! | |
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