Merlin U630 external antenna - Worth it?

[jhart]

Good news and bad news...

I managed to get an external antenna for my Novatel 3G card for R180.00 at the Vodashop in Brooklyn. (Funny enough, it was Vodafone branded, but that doesn’t matter!)

I came home and plugged it in and... nothing special happened...

I had 2/5 signal strength before and I have 2/5 signal strength now

BUT!!!

I have that 2/5 all the time as well as in rooms where I could only get GPRS!

So yes, it was a worth while R180.00.

In my dining room I get 3/5 where the previous best was still the 2/5.

If any of you are on the outside limits of 3G coverage I think the external antenna will do the trick for you.

Don't expect miracles, but I think it is safe to assume that you will gain an extra 20% signal... In my case it is just enough to not throw me between 3G and GPRS all the time.

I would love to hear your stories about the external antenna.

 

[nicovdw]

On the Vodacom forum there is a thread on this. One guy wrote software to give more accurate measurements. It measures 0-30/30. So a 2/5 bar could range between 7 and 12/30. So the 2 bars you had could have been an 8 (-97 dbm) and now it's a 12 (-89 dbm).

Have you noted different results when doing a speed test?
http://www.telkom.co.za/minisites/dsl/speed.html

 

[jhart]

It's a bit better...

With antenna

Download time: 41.704 seconds
Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
Estimated line speed: 97.8 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 12 (kiloBytes/second)

Without antenna

Download time: 48.391 seconds
Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
Estimated line speed: 84.3 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 10.3 (kiloBytes/second)

So much for the "UP TO" 384Kb/sec

Shame... But the speed stays the same always. Not faster and not slower either and I always get connected...

What download speed does the Vodacom guys get