Antenna, Signal, Antenna...

C

CyberWire

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Hallo everyone and thanks for making this a great site! Overall I think the Mywireless product is great and kicks ass, but I'm a bit disappointed in the service Sentech is offering their clients and clients to be...[:(]

First off, when you go to the map on Sentech's page it indicates whether you have signal in your area. Very impressed with this online map, I found "Good signal" in my area (Pretoria - Willow Glen AH) and decides to order the product right there and then! After about 2 weeks I eventually receive the modem and very excited I switched it on only to find that it doesn't pick up any signal in my house! [:(] Now completely peeed off I phone the call centre only to get told that "Althought you have very good signal in that area, you have to have line of sight with one of the base stations" Now why couldn't Sentech tell me that from the start? Anyway I went out and bought myself this "patch antenna" from Fastcom. The conector of the cable doesn't fit perfectly, but who cares it worx!

The problem however is the lenght of the cable. the max they have is 2.5m. Does anyone know where I can get an extension for this "patch antenna" to increase the length? I get pretty good signal on my roof, but the cable is to short to run it to my PC inside the house...

Appreciate any sugestions.

CW
 
Dunno about the extension but remember, the longer the cable the more the signal loss, that's why they make the cable so short. You'd better look for an ULTRA LOW LOSS extension cable.

Ajax
 
plus, that line of site bull they fed you is just that, bull. the type of technology they use does not require line of site, however, in built up areas you will lose out considerably on signal. Luckily I live on a moerse hill and i can choose which towers to connect to, although i still have trouble with 12 for some reason
 
What is more important is to do the math : E.g. if you have 30% on the roof with the patch and a 2.5m cable, and you add an extra 2 meters of cheap cable, you may end up at 20% (assuming 5dB/m loss), which is still pretty good.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by noone</i>
<br />plus, that line of site bull they fed you is just that, bull. the <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Yes, we all know that when you call a support number for any product in SA, you'll get a guy answering the phone who has worked with the product, and never studied in a tech field.
 
Thanks for all the comments.

I got 2 yellow lights on on the modem by putting the patch antenna up on the roof, but in order to determine the exact signal strength, I used that great app from Proasm and found out that I only have 5% signal strength! Now although the modem is working 100% and I don't get dropped connections I'm quite happy with the 5%, BUT I need a longer cable just to get the modem closer to the PC...

Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Regards

CW
 
Try a USB extension with a USB hub which will inturn boost the USB signal. I think USB extensions go up to 3 to 5 meters.


<hr noshade size="1"><center><font color="blue">MyWireless Stuff</font id="blue">
<font size="1"><font color="black">The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer</font id="size1"></font id="black"></center>
 
Thanks ProAsm, good sugestion - I'll try that!

Is there anyone else who dit this?

Regards

CW
 
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