Antenna installation and alignment

marlin178 said:
Hi all, it appears that Telkom have locked me to one tower- no matter which direction I point the aerial, the cell ID remains the same. I would assume that this is the case as the Poynting XPOL006 is directional.

When I previously tried to turn the aerial previous, I connected to different towers... :mad:
Click to expand...

When using the XPOL-006 I have the same problem BUT when using the LPDA-0092s the modem uses the tower I point it to.
 
Alacrity said:
When using the XPOL-006 I have the same problem BUT when using the LPDA-0092s the modem uses the tower I point it to.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input- I find it strange that I could previously connect to a great tower but no longer.

I did log a query with Telkom Mobile but not sure if this will help- do you recon it's worth forking out R2400 for the 0092?
 
It is a bit pricy but the performance is very good. Just remember that in a perfect world the XPOL-006 outperform the 092s but in our case when the wrong tower is selected you need an antenna as good is this one.
 
Alacrity said:
It is a bit pricy but the performance is very good. Just remember that in a perfect world the XPOL-006 outperform the 092s but in our case when the wrong tower is selected you need an antenna as good is this one.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this... I'm still a bit puzzled because I used to be able to rotate the aerial and it would change towers. Is there a reason that this is no longer happening?
I now rotate the aerial and it remains on the same tower, just the stats improve or get worse.

I've also reset the router and logged a call with Telkom, specifying the Cell ID of the tower which I want to connect to.
 
marlin178 said:
Thanks for this... I'm still a bit puzzled because I used to be able to rotate the aerial and it would change towers. Is there a reason that this is no longer happening?
I now rotate the aerial and it remains on the same tower, just the stats improve or get worse.

I've also reset the router and logged a call with Telkom, specifying the Cell ID of the tower which I want to connect to.
Click to expand...

I had exactly the same issue. The XPOL-006 is directional but not enough to overcome the stonger tower I don't want to use.
 
Alacrity said:
I had exactly the same issue. The XPOL-006 is directional but not enough to overcome the stonger tower I don't want to use.
Click to expand...

Thanks once again.

So I called Telkom yesterday, they called me back today and when I got home this evening, the speed was useless and stats were terrible yet I noticed that I was connected to the good tower.
Went back onto roof and made some adjustments to improve state to the good tower - all back to normal and great.

It's interesting to note that the stats off the tower which I was "forced/had no alternative" to use were useless despite tower being very close.
 
Alacrity said:
I had exactly the same issue. The XPOL-006 is directional but not enough to overcome the stonger tower I don't want to use.
Click to expand...

Thanks once again.

So I called Telkom yesterday, they called me back today and when I got home this evening, the speed was useless and stats were terrible yet I noticed that I was connected to the good tower.
Went back onto roof and made some adjustments to improve state to the good tower - all back to normal and great.

It's interesting to note that the stats off the tower which I was "forced/had no alternative" to use were useless despite tower being very close.
 
I am currently using Telkom Mobile's uncapped LTE service with a Huawei B593 router and I have an XPOL 06 antenna fitted.

My current signal stats are as follows:

SIGNAL STRENGTH : 5 (consistent at this level)
RSRP: -83 (consistent at this level)
RSRQ: between -6 and -10 (not consistent and fluctuates every few seconds)

Is there any way to get the RSRQ to maintain a consistent -6 level ?
Would there be a huge/material gain in speeds if the RSRQ was consistent at -6 as opposed to -10 ?

Thank you
 
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Alacrity said:
For reference
Click to expand...


Thank you for that reference.
When the Telkom antenna installer guy fitted the XPOL 06 antenna the best RSRP signal value he could obtain was -83.
I would like to improve my RSRQ from an inconsistent value which fluctuates between -6 and -10.
How would I be able to achieve a better and consistent RSRQ value ?
 
I had to drive around with the modem in the car to verify the location of the tower. And to know without a doubt you are pointing in the right direction I would say is the first step.
 
Alacrity said:
I had to drive around with the modem in the car to verify the location of the tower. And to know without a doubt you are pointing in the right direction I would say is the first step.
Click to expand...

I know precisely where the tower is located and the antenna is pointing in the direction of the tower.
 
With LTE-Uncapped they lock you to a specific tower. Is the tower you are locked to and the one you are pointing to the same one?
 
Alacrity said:
With LTE-Uncapped they lock you to a specific tower. Is the tower you are locked to and the one you are pointing to the same one?
Click to expand...

I thought the same- I don't think it's the case.
If I point my antenna (Xpol 006) in different directions, I can connect to other towers.
 
marlin178 said:
I thought the same- I don't think it's the case.
If I point my antenna (Xpol 006) in different directions, I can connect to other towers.
Click to expand...

Nice to know :-)

Brunette Babe, the only advice I can give then is to install the LPDA-0092s.
 
Alacrity said:
Nice to know :-)

Brunette Babe, the only advice I can give then is to install the LPDA-0092s.
Click to expand...

Or call 081180- tell them that your performance is rubbish!
Give them CellID and tell them to give this info to their techies.
I did this, 24 Hours later, life was great again:

unnamed.png
 
Some "new" appearances on the 4G/LTE PLMN landscape

I was out helping a pal get going with LTE over the weekend and saw that the number of 4G/LTE providers appearing in the list of PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network Identity) numbers around the Jo'burg / Pretoria area is looking better these days!

The PLMN-ID is a concatenation of the MCC (Mobile Country Code) and the MNC (Mobile Network Code) as explained here :

20160529 PLMN-ID makeup.JPG

Cellular wireless modem/routers such as the Huawei B593 often display a list of all the available networks that they can "see" on a page like this one :

20160529 B593 available networks page (Medium).jpg

Apart from the "Big Three" (Vodacom, MTN and Telkom), I was interested to see that Cell C was well represented in the area (Edenvale), as was iBurst/Wireless Business Solutions (PLMN = 65519) with their 2600MHz trial. (The strong WBS presence probably relates to this trial).
The Cell C 4G/LTE signal seen above was at 1800MHz. (Cell C also provide 4G/LTE service at 2100MHz in some areas, but the B593 doesn't cover the 2100MHz band).

MCC-MNC pairs can be looked up on sites like [url]http://www.mcc-mnc.com/[/URL] or Wikipedia :

20160529 MCC-MNC codes.JPG

(PS: PLMN=65514 is Neotel. For some reason it's missing from the above list, but it is listed on the more complete Wikipedia one.)
 
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Poynting Antenna Installation by Telkom

Noob Question!

Telkom installer will be coming to install Poynting Antenna as received With Telkom LTE Uncapped package tomorrow.
Do i need to supply any parts for example pole, screws needed etc or do they bring those with for installation purposes?

Thanx!
 
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