Antenna installation and alignment

[sajunky]

We have the imported lightning protector, which you noted, but are also looking at a superior product, designed in South Africa. It is not on the website yet.

I do want to check the auto-detection as you noted above, but this month is our financial year-end,

I read, the current product will not create DC-short unfortunately. I expected something like this:

The DC Short is for static discharge. it should be a 1/4 wavelength short inside the antenna. Alternately, the lightning protector should create this same dc-short, which is only necessary to use when an antenna does not already have a dc-short.

 

[Solitude]

Anyway... if anyone does this and manages to capture some images, i would love to see them. For now though, we have an amazing 13dB dc-shorted Omnidirectional antenna in stock. I am going to install 2 of these (appropriately spaced, as they will both be verticall polarised) this weekend.... One client who has tried them improved from 20Mbps to 38Mbps when these antennas were laying on their lawn....

http://www.otto.co.za/products/ante...omni-directional-lte-antenna-with-12dbi-gain/

Cheers guys, and thank you for all your contributions, some really insightful and interesting comments on this forum!

Hmmm viveiros, I just contacted Poynting Direct about their antennas but I like that you are personally active at MyBroadband.

Would you like to test (install) the 13dB dc-shorted Omnidirectional antennas at my house? We can post the before and after results here. I'm in a sectional title though and I got permission for one antenna, so will have to get permission for the second one too. How large are these antennas? Have you got any photos of these antennas installed?

Also, I've got a Vodafone B2000 router. Will that be fine? I will be connecting to Afrihost Mobile (MTN). I'll probably also take a wifi repeater. Depending on the cost of everything plus the installation.

 

[Doom5003]

I see this thread has been quiet for sometime but hope I can get some help.
Let me give a quick rundown.
I have a B593u-12 and a A-XPOL-0002-V1 antenna installed.
I have no LOS of any tower but have found that there's 4 MTN towers around me, maybe more.
At one of the towers my bars jump between 2 and 3 with and without wind. Sometime even 4 bars. I have trees that probably hinder my reception but as I understand they are only a problem when wet, could use some clarity on this.
The 2/3 bars are from 3G, using LTE I only get 1 bar from only one tower.
Now I would like to know that getting an extension cable would that help and at what point/length does the cable start to work against me. Remember that the antenna came out with an 7m cable.

Here's the info regarding my router:
Firmware: V100R001C55SP102
RSSI(dBm): -75

Cant find any other info regarding signal strength on the router menu.

Another question, how can my bar range be from 2-4? I can understand 2-3 as I could be just in the edge of 3 hence the jump between the 2 but for the life of me I cant get a stable 4 bar connection.

And local MTN is utter useless with info regarding tower location. The one location they gave me I already know about tree block LOS and even though I'm not 100% sure if I'm pointing at it I still only get 2/3 bars connection.

My end goal is to get my ping as low as possible for online gaming.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/4651335414.png

 

[KaMoS]

What antenna to use internally

I just moved to Greenstone Hill and got the Telkom 100GB LTE-A deal with the Huawei E5186. Main reason for getting the deal was to future proof my connection and it was the same price as the LTE deal.

I am getting mediocre speeds on LTE (speedtest result) and would like to improve my speed with an antenna. These are my stats (122 5793538 -4dB -105dBm -79dBm 10dB 7). However, the body corporate won't allow us to install antennas externally. So I'd have to install it in the bedroom window (which happens to be the only place where I can get LTE in the apartment). I saw Azimuth did an install in a window in this thread with the XPOL-0001. I've also read that some users have had great success with the XPOL-0006 antennas, however, I have no clue how I would mount that internally. Which antenna would you recommend I get for the best results considering my constraints. And how would I mount it?

EDIT: I'm on the 1st floor of an apartment complex and I don't think I have LOS to any of the towers. Here's my location on the coverage map:

 

[Subversion]

Howzit KaMoS,

I'm about the furthest thing from an expert myself but am in a very similar situation to you so have been doing similar research.

I spoke to Poynting today and they said the 0006 does need LOS of some kind, it's not omni-directional. I think for an indoor, window-mounted effort the 0001 would probably be better.

I myself am going to give that "desktop" one a try today (I think), will let you know how successful I am with that. For reference, I'm talking about this: http://www.antennas.co.za/Products/ProductDetails?code=377 (A-XPOL-0010)

If that doesn't work out I think the 0001 will be my next try.

I'm currently getting 2-3 bars of LTE on TM so hoping to boost that just slightly.

 

[Awesum]

I just installed the XPOL-0006 that Telkom supplied with my B593-601. I don't have LOS to the tower as there are a lot of trees in the area. According to Google maps I'm about 980 meters from the tower and the Telkom coverage map shows that I'm not in the LTE coverage zone. I could only get 4 bars signal on the router. I don't know if there is any way I can improved the results but I'm very impressed with the results. I had 4Mbps ADSL previuosly.

My stats


My speed test.

 

[n4rco]

Hi,

Quick question for the experts. I currently get about 3-4 bars on my HUAWEI B593s-601 with the paddle antenna's.
My stats:

Wireless Status
1 PLMN: 65502
2 Service status: Valid service
3 RSSI (dBm): -67.0
4 RSRP (dBm): -93.0
5 RSRQ (dB): -6.0
6 Roaming: No


My download speeds are fine, average between 30mb and 60mb. What i would like to check is, would an antenna improve my ping?

Tracing route to google.com [216.58.223.46]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 9 ms 9 ms homerouter.cpe [192.168.88.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 85 ms 78 ms 79 ms 172.17.48.9
4 74 ms 79 ms 79 ms 192.168.102.2
5 74 ms 79 ms 80 ms 172.17.48.17
6 114 ms 73 ms 88 ms 8ta-150-179-01.telkomadsl.co.za [41.150.179.1]
7 93 ms 95 ms 82 ms ndn-ip-hsll-1-wan.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.25.7.165]
8 158 ms 79 ms 79 ms rrba-ip-lir-1-gig-3-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.11.134]
9 134 ms 92 ms 79 ms 72.14.212.1
10 85 ms 73 ms 108 ms 72.14.239.129
11 95 ms 99 ms 98 ms jnb01s08-in-f14.1e100.net [216.58.223.46]

Trace complete.

 

[sajunky]

Wireless Status
1 PLMN: 65502
2 Service status: Valid service
3 RSSI (dBm): -67.0
4 RSRP (dBm): -93.0
5 RSRQ (dB): -6.0
6 Roaming: No


My download speeds are fine, average between 30mb and 60mb. What i would like to check is, would an antenna improve my ping?

Tracing route to google.com [216.58.223.46]

I am not sure why is so high, it is local server on the Telkom infrastructure. Besides, delay is on the first hop responding to the ping, it suggest packet loss on the cellular radio link layer. Try internal antenna in first place. It is well known fact that bunny-ears do not perform well.

Here is my ping from Cell C using B315s with internal antenna (and signal lower than yours) to the same IP:

C:\>ping 216.58.223.46

Pinging 216.58.223.46 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.58.223.46: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.223.46: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.223.46: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.223.46: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=54

 

[Sneeky]

Sorry, reviving this thread a bit.

Why would the 2nd hop time out.
I have the exact same issue now with kaksleg interwebs on lte.

I have external antenna 5 bar and can see the tower.

 

[blowdart18]

Quick question . . . . is there anything on the market with a higher gain than the XPOL-0006 for the Telkom LTE network ?

 

[Alacrity]

Quick question . . . . is there anything on the market with a higher gain than the XPOL-0006 for the Telkom LTE network ?

Yes, LPDA-0092. It is also:
1. More directional
2. More noisy since it's a wideband antenna and you receive a whole lot of stuff you don't want unlike the XPOL-006 which only receive at the selected 2.3GHz

In my case I currently use the LPDA-0092s since I have access to two towers and the weaker tower is the better one. If I use the XPOL-006 the strong but bad tower is selected.

 

[blowdart18]

Thanks for the reply

 

[Horras]

I was just wondering where you guys are based.

My experience has been really average but still better than my old temperamental ADSL line.

I am seeing guys are reported speeds of 30-50mbps and i am not getting anywhere close to that.

Are any of you guys in the Sharonlea area? What kind of speeds are you getting there?

 

[jcheek]

I was just wondering where you guys are based.
My experience has been really average but still better than my old temperamental ADSL line.
I am seeing guys are reported speeds of 30-50mbps and i am not getting anywhere close to that.

Hey Horras
Not sure if you already found it, but have a look at this thread for a cross-section of real-world LTE results across several different areas.
The leaderboard hasn't been maintained for a while, but you'll get a good idea.

 

[Horras]

thanks jcheek. Seems the Randburg area is not great.

 

[Horras]

Interesting antenna question.

I managed to point my antenna in certain direction that other day. Interestingly the speed went up quite dramatically to over 30mbps. I got home the following day and the signal had degraded and tower had changed from the nice fast one to a much slower one c5-8mbps.

is there an app that i can use to keep the tower number constant.

 

[Alacrity]

I have the same problem when using XPOL-06. I have to use the LPDA-092s when I want to force a specific tower.

 

[jcheek]

Interesting antenna question.

I managed to point my antenna in certain direction that other day. Interestingly the speed went up quite dramatically to over 30mbps. I got home the following day and the signal had degraded and tower had changed from the nice fast one to a much slower one c5-8mbps.

is there an app that i can use to keep the tower number constant.

There's no direct way to force this, unfortunately. At least, not that I know of.

The modem continuously receives and measures signals from all stations within range and maintains an internal list rather like this one :



The GSM management system and the modem together decide which is the "best" cell to connect to, based on obvious criteria such as signal strength/quality, but possibly also on more system-oriented criteria like traffic and current cell-loading.
This is a process that happens continuously in the background, so when there are multiple signals (as is usually the case with omni antennas in an area with several stations), you can be "handed off" from one cell to another within a session. Some modems (like the B593u series, and the B315s) display the Cell_ID of the connected cell, so you can see when the connected cell has changed. But on other modems (like the B593s-601), the firmware feature is missing. Which device do you have ?

As Alacrity says, the only way to influence the cell choice indirectly is to use a directional antenna that allows the modem to "see" only signal from station(s) in the direction the antenna is pointed. However you can still be unlucky with geometry (ie two or more stations more or less in a line from where you are). It also has the effect of "locking you in" to one station, which may not always be a good thing.

Bear in mind that cell performance can vary widely over time, depending on station loading and other factors, as the guys on the Telkom uncapped LTE promotion (especially) are finding.

 

[darrencon]

I was just wondering where you guys are based.

My experience has been really average but still better than my old temperamental ADSL line.

I am seeing guys are reported speeds of 30-50mbps and i am not getting anywhere close to that.

Are any of you guys in the Sharonlea area? What kind of speeds are you getting there?

I am in Northriding and the fastest I have got is 24mb. I had the external antenna installed and it makes no difference at all...

 

[Timken]

I am in Northriding and the fastest I have got is 24mb. I had the external antenna installed and it makes no difference at all...

I have a similar problem, with bunny aerial on the modem, i get about 24-28, on an -92dB / 18SNR signal. I tried the external aerial supplied by Telkom, dropped the signal to -84dB and 25 SNR, but then my speeds dropped to 16-18.

The telkom sponsored techies came out, walked all over the roof, and have suggested I forego the external aerial, as it seems bunny aerials are performing much better.

I did pickup thou, there are times when it is seriously cloudy / raining, my signal dips by about 3dB, and speeds drop to below 10.

I will be doing a permanent external aerial installation this weekend, to see if I can get it more stable during "bad weather" Not sure if the water on other people's tin roofs causes some sort of interference, I know weather shouldn't affect LTE as bad as it used to affect 3G.

My question for everyone however is... Is it normal for the signal to slow down, even thou the signal strength has improved? Is it possible I have a faulty external aerial?