Antenna installation and alignment

Hi. Any suggestions for lightning protection for antennas? With the highveld storms I'm sure the antennas are prone to strikes.
 
IMG_20141026_173650.jpgIMG_20141026_173702.jpg

I did a dual antenna installation last week to try and improve my telkom mobile speeds. Previously I used to get speeds between 6mb/s to 11mb/s on 3g signal.

I got advise from forum members especially jcheek and decided on the poynting LPDA-0092 combo which set me back about R2100.

I am in a hilly area and got line of site with a telkom tower about 2km from my base.


I must say I am very impressed with the signal boost. I am now up to 5 bars on 4G signal with great speeds.

speedtest.png

I still need to fine tune the installation but definitely will recommend this set up to any one that is struggling with signal.
 
hcpeer said:
Hi. Any suggestions for lightning protection for antennas? With the highveld storms I'm sure the antennas are prone to strikes.
Click to expand...

The recommended protection from Poynting is to tee off the top of your mast and also to earth the mast (earth as close to the mast as possible with a copper rod going as deep into soil as possible).

Note that with the DC-short employed by Poytning, there is no particular attraction for lighting. That said, none of us feel any more at ease.

Try chat to jcheek, he had some very nice custom cables done, complete with in-line arrestors.
 
Congrats on your speed test, hcpeer, you must be thrilled.
 
MtnUser said:
@TelkomZA

I have two questions but before I ask them some background and then you might even know what the questions are before I ask them :-)

I have a B593 with two LPDA0092 antennas. When I point them to the general direction I believe the tower with cell id 178 is located I get RSRP of -68dBm, ping of about 30-45ms and download of 35Mb/s. When I download the more threads I use the faster the download up to the 35Mb/s maximum.

Now, when I point to the tower which I believe is the one that gives me cell id 92 I get RSRP of -72dBm, ping of 15-20ms and download of 50Mb/s. But when I download it only goes to 20Mb/s on my downloads, changing the amount of threads does not change much. And if I do a speed test while downloading the downloads stay at 20Mb/s and the speed test goes just to just below 30Mb/s. Thus there is more speed available but not being used.

So here are the questions:
1. Cell id 178 gives me stronger signal but only 35Mb/s, why?
2. Why are the speed of my downloads limited on cell id 92 but not on cell id 178?
Click to expand...

Some factors are at play that are beyond common understanding. Some magic definitely happens at some base stations. Things you can investigate:

- base station backhaul (PM me locations)
- subscribers per cell (impossible for anyone but the cell operators to know)

This still doesn't change the situation. The only recommendation is to go with the faster base station and leave it at that...unless performance degrades (then you have the luxury of aligning to the other base station; not many people are so lucky!).

I can't comment too much on download "threads". I assume this has something to do with torrents? This is not something I use so I have no idea how/if the cell operators shape these connections.

You could always up the ante and load balance your two available cells. You will of course need another LPDA-0092 installation and B593, then a dual-WAN load balancer. :) (Was on my to-do list but my heart is set on a Peplink...which isn't cheap)
 
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Doom5003 said:
Hi guys, I need some help and home this is the right place to ask for it.
I installed and external antenna to my B683 but don't know a thing about signal strength and or quality. See my screenshot and please tell me if it looks good and if it can be better. Please note I have no idea as to where my nearest MTN tower is.
Click to expand...

To start by answering your question, your signal is fair. Remember that the "bullseye" is -50dBm. For 3G -74dBm isn't a very good signal. To illustrate, I'm 1.6km from my MTN tower and my 3G signal is in the -50dBm range. You are either very far away from an MTN made station or you are connecting to the wrong one.

What antenna are you using? How have you mounted the antenna? What is the cable length? How high is the antenna?

You need to do a site survey from your roof. Finding base stations without binoculars is difficult. What you can also do is swivel the antenna in a completely different direction (assuming directional) and check if your signal deteriorates e.g. -85dBm. You can also note your Cell ID and how often it changes.

Keep working directions until you get the lowest value possible. You can do this blindly without evening knowing where the base station is. Note you need to wait for 30 seconds or more between direction changes.
 
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Azimuth said:
To start by answering your question, your signal is fair. Remember that the "bullseye" is -50dBm. For 3G -74dBm isn't a very good signal. To illustrate, I'm 1.6km from my MTN tower and my 3G signal is in the -50dBm range. You are either very far away from an MTN made station or you are connecting to the wrong one.

What antenna are you using? How have you mounted the antenna? What is the cable length? How high is the antenna?

You need to do a site survey from your roof. Finding base stations without binoculars is difficult. What you can also do is swivel the antenna in a completely different direction (assuming directional) and check if your signal deteriorates e.g. -85dBm. You can also note your Cell ID and how often it changes.

Keep working directions until you get the lowest value possible. You can do this blindly without evening knowing where the base station is. Note you need to wait for 30 seconds or more between direction changes.
Click to expand...

How do I find my tower id? BTW yes it is a directional antenna here is the link to the product I have. Don't know if it is any good. I have the antenna mounted on a pole on the side of my place but since I have no clue as to where my nearest MTN tower is I don't know in which direction it should be showing.
 
BTW do you know if the product I am using is any good? I'm quite clueless when it comes to these things.
 
I was speaking to someone who is using a xpol0002. He is of the opinion that is doesn't matter what direction the antenna points to.
He says since it's omnidirectional, it can point anywhere.

Does this rationale make sense.
 
Doom5003 said:
BTW do you know if the product I am using is any good? I'm quite clueless when it comes to these things.
Click to expand...

If you want Telkom LTE it won't work. For the others it depends on the frequency being used since that antenna has a limited frequency range.

Also, if you want to use LTE you need two antennas.
 
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midnightcaller said:
I was speaking to someone who is using a xpol0002. He is of the opinion that is doesn't matter what direction the antenna points to.
He says since it's omnidirectional, it can point anywhere.

Does this rationale make sense.
Click to expand...

The XPOL-0002 antenna is NOT omnidirectional. See here.

The A-OMNI-0069-V3 is Omni-directional.
 
rob54321 said:
Will take pics and post.
Click to expand...

Those'll be great - look forward to seeing them.

rob54321 said:
I spent quite a bit of time fine tuning and checking RSSI which I got up to -43dbm. I was quite pleased with such a good signal.
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Your tuning efforts paid off handsomely!
Your reported RSSI will be among the highest (if not the highest) we've seen, as discussed here.
I'd be interested to hear what the rest of your signal stats (RSRP/RSRQ etc) are.

Edit: I see you posted them here. Pretty hot stats!

rob54321 said:
The antenna is directional and supports 1.8GHz to 2.7GHz bands.
Click to expand...
Do you know which base-station you're connecting to, and how far away it is ?
 
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jcheek said:
Those'll be great - look forward to seeing them.



Your tuning efforts paid off handsomely!
Your reported RSSI will be among the highest (if not the highest) we've seen, as discussed here.
I'd be interested to hear what the rest of your signal stats (RSRP/RSRQ etc) are.


Do you know which base-station you're connecting to, and how far away it is ?
Click to expand...
From the router
 
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