Improving MyWi signal

[OhGats]

I am sure this has been asked before, and I am sure there are more users with ideas that may be able to assist. Is there anyway to improve your signal on MiWi? lately my signal strength has been very scatty, and I keep on connecting to tower 12 (Hyde park?) which tends to leave me disconnecting all the time. I have found that if I connect to tower 60 (Northcliff?) or 22 (no idea) the signal is a bit better, or shoudl I say less liable to drop in strength. I would like to see about boosting my signal and have read about the various coffee tin experiments which users conducted with the modem with the antennna. I have one of the newer modems which doesnt have the little antenna. Where would one attach an external antenna onto it anyway?) My bootloader FW is 5.01.27. Do the patch antenna's work at all? is it worth my while to actually buy one?

Unfortunately I still have 12 months to go on my contract so am stuck for the duration and may as well use my 10G while its available and naturally a better signal will hopefully mean better browsing (or is that only a dream?)

 

[ProAsm]

Get a patch antenna from Poynting, I've had good reports on them.
If you dont mind spending around R400 you can get their little yagi which also performs very well.
Dont touch the crappy little patch antenna from NoWire, it acts like an attenuator.
The new modems do have an ext antenna socket but I cannot remember where it was as I've only ever seen one of them

 

[bdt]

OhGats (old son) , allow me to enlighten you some:
- tower 012 is Hyde Park
- tower 022 is Randburg
- tower 066 is Northcliff (so that's 2 out of 3, good guessing!)

As to the question of whether an HGA (high gain antenna) works, oh HELL yes ...but, clearly, you would want to get the right one for your particular and unique situation. I know this from having done no small amount of this kind of work over the last two and some change years.

Now, you could go "lo-fi" and stuff around with some home-brew action, but you really don't have the right modem for that - the older one (IP1C) is WAY better for experimenting as it has that external flip-up blade antenna ..that newer (IP1D) one you have has the antenna integrated into the body, leaving you no way to really do it easily.

And, last but not least, to find the external socket: turn the modem to face away with you, so that the battery compartment cover is facing you, and look at the top LHS corner. You'll see a socket there - that is where you connect the pigtail (that's connected to the HGA solution you need) to. But NNB to note: when you jack the pigtail in, you MUST hear/feel two clicks (you'll know what I mean when you do it) as the first click isn't an actual connect, that comes only with the second one.

Oh, and when you're done playing silly buggers, I operate out of Randburg myself - you're welcome to call on me to get the job done right!

 

[OhGats]

Thanks for the replies, I am going to look at the solutions, oddly enough according to the justconnect website thingey that they had on calculating the distance to the towers I should not even be able to access northcliff as its a bit further away but strangely enough thats the one that gives me the most stable connection. as they say in Souf Efrika.... Eish! I may just rtake you up on that offer bdt, lemme get myself organised and try some experiments... now where is my hammer?

 

[zambussi]

Before you buy any antenna - take a pringles can, make a slit close the the bottom of the can (on the side), and push your modem antenna through it.

You get a better signal gain than the patch antenna (in fact I use the patch antenna to balance the pringles can), and even though I also have an external antenna, I still get more reliability out of the pringles can.

 

[keithr]

When I started using Sentech, I built the following antenna: (see link)

http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna2.html

Using that as proof that the concept would work, I invested in an imported antenna mounted about 15 metres off the ground - I never have disconnect problems etc. (only Sentech management problems!)

According to the Sentech map I am out of zone and without the external antenna I have zero signal - (the antenna is 28dbi gain and my modem always has all the signal strength lights on) there is no doubt that it works.

 

[bdt]

zambussi you seem to have missed the line

I have one of the newer modems which doesnt have the little antenna. Where would one attach an external antenna onto it anyway?

..OhGats simply doesn't have that option at all. This means some sort of external cable-connected solution is the only way he'll be able to get it done.

 

[OhGats]

Just out of curiosity, what if you cut a slot in the side of the pringles can and shove the top half of the modem into it so that the black section is in the can? I dont have a pringles can so cannot try myself yet (yet). I have contacted poynting and am looking at getting a patch antenna in the near future.

 

[bdt]

OhGats, I direct your attention to the PM awaiting a response from you...

 

[Daveb]

I am at present using the NoWire patch antenna which does not seem to be particularly good. Have spoken to both Miro and a Poynting's distributor to get a better antenna, but the pigtail and connector seem to be a problem as neither can supply. Can anybody please tell me what type of connector is used on the old MyWireless modem and where either a connector or 2m pigtail is available at a reasonable price as one supplier has already quoted me over R600 for the pigtail alone ( modem to N ).

Thanks

 

[ProAsm]

We used to get our pigtails from Poynting.
If you have no luck make one, check the "Homebrew Connector" on my site.
Oh btw, both new and old modems use the same connector.

 

[StillOnSent]

OhGats (old son) , allow me to enlighten you some:
- tower 012 is Hyde Park
- tower 022 is Randburg
- tower 066 is Northcliff (so that's 2 out of 3, good guessing!)

Around 2 months ago Rosebank changed from 90 to 12

I can also pick up Northcliff as 60 ( not 66)