Antenna installation and alignment

Its been an interesting journey.

Am located in Greenstone, Gauteng. Poor signal coverage, and high density occupation in the suburb eventually took me on this trial and error journey.

Initially started off with a Poynting 3G LPDA, and a Huawei E367, RSSI 67db, good signal, using the GINGGS tool, could never get over 6MB dl speed mark.

Then decided to upgrade, and see what options where most suitable.

First I purchased the Huwaei B880-73, covers all 4 major networks in RSA.

Manufactured a bracket to support mast, bracket bottom mast support to facilitate easy azimuth adjustments.

Purchased the Poynting OMNI LTE, used the router dashboard device info, RSRP 97 db, average of 20 MB dl speed now. Antenna subsequently removed, up for grabs, 4 weeks old.

Wasn't convinced yet, so bought 2X Poynting LTE LPDA Yagis, spaced them 2 wave-lengths apart, vert/horr polarised.
Alignment was initially done with Cellmapper software wrt locations, and cell IDS, then used the B880,s diagnostics page to incrementally find the best RSRP, which is 82db, not great but yielding some satisfactory results.
Made sure mast and bracket are suitable grounded with earth grounding spike, and have used OTTO WIRELESS inline surge suppressors for lightning suppression.

I am actually outside the LTE network coverage area, but am using the ORT LTE tower.

My internet experience now a pleasure, before it was a PITA.

See basic install pic: http://i1382.photobucket.com/albums/ah249/kurtg64/IMG_0513_zps6ce2675e.jpg
 
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Great success story, well done!

Very neat install. What made you make up a custom bracket btw?
 
I have a Huawei B593s-601 router on Telkom mobile wireless LTE. So I installed my second LPDA-0092 Poynting antenna today (I already had one of these installed). Results are disappointing. Something must be wrong but I don't know what. If anyone has advice that will be great.

Results:

With the 2 "ice-cream" paddle antenna's that come with the router (1 bar LTE - sometimes 2 bars):

RSSI (dBm) -83.0
RSRP (dBm) - 112.0
Download 10.64 Mbps
Upload 0.2 Mbps
Latency 77ms
Ping 40ms
Distance <50 mi


With the 1 "ice-cream" paddle antenna and 1 external LPDA-0092 antenna (with 5 m extension on cable) (always 4 bars LTE):

RSSI (dBm) -58.0
RSRP (dBm) - 84.0
Download 13.75 Mbps
Upload 6.95 Mbps
Latency 42ms
Ping 40ms
Distance <50 mi

With the 2 external LPDA-0092 antenna's (7m cable - no extensions) (always 5 bars LTE):

RSSI (dBm) -45.0
RSRP (dBm) - 72.0
Download 10.73 Mbps
Upload 5.79 Mbps
Latency 43ms
Ping 40ms
Distance ~500 mi

The distance now shows ~500 mi - is this the problem? I mounted the antenna's on a new pole (higher than the one antenna was mounted) but in line with the tower as best as I can judge. Maybe they are too high now and "missing" the tower - and that's why it shows ~500 mi ???

Any ideas/suggestions guys?

I will still post a full reportback with photo's etc once my installation is complete but I need some help now please.
 
Cellular antenna installation and alignment

Remember that the right metric for LTE is RSRP; RSSI is used for 3G.

Your -112dBM reading for RSRP is quite a stretch. It's one of the highest figures I've seen on here so far. The beauty however is that *massive* improvement achieved by using dual LPDA-0092's. I'd be interested if you could report back and give us the actual distance to the tower? (I used Apple Maps, Google Maps should work 100% too)

You'll notice that with the "ice-cream stick" antennas, you aren't really getting an LTE connection. It is so marginal it can be discarded for 3G instead. The give-away is the upload speed.

Just by attaching one LPDA-0092 you tap into perfect LTE right away. Adding a second and the result seems worse but your RSRP is excellent at -72dBm. I only get -78dBM and check the speeds I am getting (Afrihost Mobile speed test thread).

I suspect this is a teething issue with your tower. I've seen all too often now that people get wildly different results as time goes by - things improve. An example I've used often - 9 months ago I had 2 bars Telkom LTE signal without antenna which led to me using LPDA-0092's myself. Today I get 5 bars signal without any antenna at all.

You're definitely pointing in the right direction as you get a solid 5 bars. Hell, see what jcheek gets with a solid 5 bars. What is the spacing between your terrestrial antenna and the LPDA's? And between the LPDA's themselves? Are the horizontal and vertical LPDA perfectly aligned on top of each other?

Speedtest doesn't work like you think. You can take it off auto-select server and force your own server choice; it should choose the closest but does go batty from time to time.
 
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Azimuth said:
Remember that the right metric for LTE is RSRP; RSSI is used for 3G.

Your -112dBM reading for RSRP is quite a stretch. It's one of the highest figures I've seen on here so far. The beauty however is that *massive* improvement achieved by using dual LPDA-0092's. I'd be interested if you could report back and give us the actual distance to the tower? (I used Apple Maps, Google Maps should work 100% too)

You'll notice that with the "ice-cream stick" antennas, you aren't really getting an LTE connection. It is so marginal it can be discarded for 3G instead. The give-away is the upload speed.

Just by attaching one LPDA-0092 you tap into perfect LTE right away. Adding a second and the result seems worse but your RSRP is excellent at -72dBm. I only get -78dBM and check the speeds I am getting (Afrihost Mobile speed test thread).

I suspect this is a teething issue with your tower. I've seen all too often now that people get wildly different results as time goes by - things improve. An example I've used often - 9 months ago I had 2 bars Telkom LTE signal without antenna which led to me using LPDA-0092's myself. Today I get 5 bars signal without any antenna at all.

You're definitely pointing in the right direction as you get a solid 5 bars. Hell, see what jcheek gets with a solid 5 bars. What is the spacing between your terrestrial antenna and the LPDA's? And between the LPDA's themselves? Are the horizontal and vertical LPDA perfectly aligned on top of each other?

Speedtest doesn't work like you think. You can take it off auto-select server and force your own server choice; it should choose the closest but does go batty from time to time.
Click to expand...

Actual distance to tower (as the crow flies - using Google Earth is 0.86 km's). The terrestrial (TV) antenna is quite close to the bottom mounted LPDA (I'd guess it's about 50cm). Do you think the terrestrial antenna operates in a frequency band that could be interfering? The distance between the 2 LPDA'S is 40cm (as advised by Poynting technical guy). The horizontal and vertical are perfectly aligned yes (I checked and double checked that). I'm a perfectionist by nature.

I must say I was expecting the second antenna to improve my download speeds - to at least 30Mbps. I'm going to lower the antenna's slightly tomorrow and see if that makes any difference.

Thanks for your response - much appreciated.

Why the distance change on speedtest from <50mi to ~500 mi though?
 
Teejaybee said:
So I installed my second LPDA-0092 Poynting antenna today (I already had one of these installed). Results are disappointing. Something must be wrong but I don't know what. If anyone has advice that will be great.

Results:

With the 2 "ice-cream" paddle antenna's that come with the router (1 bar LTE - sometimes 2 bars):

RSSI (dBm) -83.0
RSRP (dBm) - 112.0
Download 10.64 Mbps
Upload 0.2 Mbps
Latency 77ms
Ping 40ms
Distance <50 mi


With the 1 "ice-cream" paddle antenna and 1 external LPDA-0092 antenna (with 5 m extension on cable) (always 4 bars LTE):

RSSI (dBm) -58.0
RSRP (dBm) - 84.0
Download 13.75 Mbps
Upload 6.95 Mbps
Latency 42ms
Ping 40ms
Distance <50 mi

With the 2 external LPDA-0092 antenna's (7m cable - no extensions) (always 5 bars LTE):

RSSI (dBm) -45.0
RSRP (dBm) - 72.0
Download 10.73 Mbps
Upload 5.79 Mbps
Latency 43ms
Ping 40ms
Distance ~500 mi

The distance now shows ~500 mi - is this the problem? I mounted the antenna's on a new pole (higher than the one antenna was mounted) but in line with the tower as best as I can judge. Maybe they are too high now and "missing" the tower - and that's why it shows ~500 mi ???

Any ideas/suggestions guys?

I will still post a full reportback with photo's etc once my installation is complete but I need some help now please.
Click to expand...

Just to check something (apologies if insulting your intelligence!) : Are you forcing both antenna ports to operate as External ?
I've found that the B593's antenna detection isn't reliable when set to "Auto". Even with two good externals connected, it sometimes selects "Built-in" for one of them.

If you aren't already doing so, go to System / Antenna Settings / Antenna, select "External" and submit. When you're done there, go to Home / Overview and verify that both antenna ports come up as "External" before starting your tests.
It's real easy to forget to do this - I've done it more than a few times when switching back and forth.

As for Speedtest : Yes, best to create a login and set your server preference to something sensible. That way when you next login, your preferred server is always available and will always be consistent. Bonus is all your results are stored.
If you leave it set to "Auto", Speedtest tries to figure out where you are based on your allocated IP address, and then displays the distance from there to the selected Speedtest server.
Would be interesting to know where (the hell!) it thought you were to be 800km from Cape Town ?!
I don't think that explains your disappointing result but it will eliminate one weird variable.
 
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Thanks for reply - I checked on Home - Overview and they reflect as external there - I then went to System - Antenna Settings - Antenna and it was set to auto - so I changed it there to external - thanks - forgot about that - but it hasn't made any difference. All readings still the same RSRP -72 and download/upload speeds the same.

Mmmmm....I'll try some adjustments to the antenna tomorrow and see what happens.

Is the TV antenna possibly interfering? - I wouldn't have thought so.

I did this......As for Speedtest : Yes, best to create a login and set your server preference to something sensible. That way when you next login, your preferred server is always available and will always be consistent. Bonus is all your results are stored.
If you leave it set to "Auto", Speedtest tries to figure out where you are based on your allocated IP address, and then displays the distance from there to the selected Speedtest server.
Would be interesting to know where (the hell!) it thought you were to be 800km from Cape Town ?!
I don't think that explains your first result but it will eliminate one weird variable.

It now shows ~700 mi ....ha ha.
 
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Teejaybee said:
Thanks for reply - I checked on Home - Overview and they reflect as external there - I then went to System - Antenna Settings - Antenna and it was set to auto - so I changed it there to external - thanks - forgot about that - but it hasn't made any difference. All readings still the same RSRP -72 and download/upload speeds the same.

Mmmmm....I'll try some adjustments to the antenna tomorrow and see what happens.

Is the TV antenna possibly interfering? - I wouldn't have thought so.
Click to expand...

OK, good to keep it set to "External" while you're testing with the LPDA's.

I don't think the TV antenna is to blame. Bottom line is I don't think there's anything (at all!) wrong with your signal - in fact, I think RSRP=-72 is the highest I've heard of on here.

My guess is it's something screwy on the tower or backhaul. I would watch it for a day or three and see if that's a consistent result at all times of day. If so, it may be time to report that to Telkom and hope for the best *sigh*.
 
jcheek said:
OK, good to keep it set to "External" while you're testing with the LPDA's.

I don't think the TV antenna is to blame. Bottom line is I don't think there's anything (at all!) wrong with your signal - in fact, I think RSRP=-72 is the highest I've heard of on here.

My guess is it's something screwy on the tower or backhaul. I would watch it for a day or three and see if that's a consistent result at all times of day. If so, it may be time to report that to Telkom and hope for the best *sigh*.
Click to expand...

Cool...thank you for your time and advice - much appreciated.

P.S. Why is the time on this site out by 2 hours? Does it use GMT and not GMT+2 ?
 
Thanks for the compliment!:)

Wanted a sturdy bracket, and important was a mast stop at the bottom of the bracket to facilitate easy mast rotation to fine tune signal strength, bracket was hot dipped galvenised and all stainless hardware for mounting.

I have a spare wall mount bracket, 4,5 m 45 mm mast, and a poynting OMNI LTE antenna up for grabs, anybody interested PM me.
 
Teejabee,

During the initial stages of setting up my system I also got some bewildering results.

What has turned out the best was to mount the horizontal polarized LPDA on top, 600mm spacing between the 2 LPDA's. Vertical alignment of the 2 LPDA's also important.
I bought the clear plastic bird spikes from Builders warehouse and ty-rapped it onto the top horizontal LPDA, hate bird droppings all over below the ant location.

Oddly enough even though my RSRP remained constant, swapping the antenna inputs on the router would have a large impact on the download speeds, horizontal polarized ant is now on the top right side of the router, not sure why?
 
Cellular antenna installation and alignment

That is some fantastic feedback, kurtg. Thanks for sharing!

Now we're getting somewhere with sharing and helping others. Sweet! (#notahippy)
 
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Pleasure!

My turn to contribute, I find i am mostly on the asking for advice side of the fence.

Cheers
Kurt
 
Sure, will do. I also want to merge another one of my topics with this one...
 
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