jcheek
Expert Member
I'm with SteveO !
Not sure who the GPS antenna belonged to, but certainly the site I photographed this GPS antenna on, had TM TDD LTE kit on it.
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Not sure who the GPS antenna belonged to, but certainly the site I photographed this GPS antenna on, had TM TDD LTE kit on it.
Different opinion can be drafted when reading and understanding how A-GPS works.
Yes, mast coordinates would be sufficient, but if GPS antenna is present, it would indicate presence of A-GPS server on the tower, as A-GPS server collect and process this information on behalf of the client.
This base station is approximately 1700m from my house and is located at a small neighbourhood shopping centre. I only have partial LOS. The tower is 35m high, I'm not sure how that compares to other towers.
The infamous "camo" sites that just started popping up a few years ago. This site went live on or after 4 December 2011. Anyone know the deal behind these camo sites? As in why? Is city beautification the only reason?
One can just see a few sector antennas and a single microwave antenna.
Up close. I was able to get even closer!
Apparently the "branches" can be easily removed to add more antennas.
Very neat site, bar a bit of trash on the ground. I couldn't identify the manufacturer of the BTS shelter...
First Cell C exclusive site that I've photographed.
Local company that does the camo work.
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A better look at the BTS shelter and the power distribution cabinet. Power supply is usually 380V.
If I'm not mistaken that's a plug to connect a portable generator to should the site "go dark". Jcheek?
I'm not sure what the "2 share" part of the label is. I'm pretty sure only Cell C is on the site but maybe I'm wrong?
Triplexers and feeder cable "hangar".
Kathrein triplexer double unit. Port 1 is GSM 900 (380-960MHz), Port 2 is GSM 1800 (1710-1880MHz),
Port 3 is UTMS (1920-2170MHz). All three ports are combined into Port 4 at the top.
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jcheek
Expert Member
To be clinically correct, if it's a 3-phase supply, the official Eskom supply spec these days is 230V/400V phase/line voltage ;-)
220/380 was an earlier specification that has now been completely superseded. Somehow the old handle of a "380V supply" just won't die!
That's a pretty standard multi-pin circular industrial socket. It could be a socket intended to provide power to portable equipment when people work at the site, or it could indeed be a socket into which one could plug the output of a portable generator when grid power is out.
Interestingly, a few weeks ago when doing a "base-station tour", I found about 4 out of 5 base stations in my area had hired portable generators parked outside, most of which were running. Seemed as if the operators had been pre-warned of load-shedding in the area.
Most of the multi-operator sites I've seen so far seem to refer to the original operator, then to 2nd, 3nd and subsequent operators as Share 1, Share 2 etc. If there's no-one else on the site currently, it could just mean that the AC power DB board has provision for a 2-share setup .. ?
To guess by the labelling, I'd say various 900MHz RF modules, possibly de-commissioned ?.
The "3G" one might be part of Cell C's 3G 900MHz HSPA+ kit ?
They have kindofa discarded look .... and those rackmount modules don't look like outdoor-spec equipment at all !
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Thanks for the corrections.
Nicely spotted on the portable genny's.
I agree on the ground radios being exposed to the elements! These will surely be in place of RRUs or TMAs? Do remember this site is barely 2 years old. I can't imagine equipment is already decommissioned!?
Nicely spotted on the portable genny's.
I agree on the ground radios being exposed to the elements! These will surely be in place of RRUs or TMAs? Do remember this site is barely 2 years old. I can't imagine equipment is already decommissioned!?
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I've been told these are "old Nokia flexi base stations and radio heads".
I guess they are made to be exposed to the elements after all.
I can concur that you can spot a Cellc tower even if they don't have any board or writing..... They for one don't have these big white boxes with aircons at the base. I wonder why though. The other 3 operators run it like that why is Cellc so different?
I might be mistaken but I *think* that the ones without the larger BTS shelter are minicells. Also, they obtain their backhaul from a microwave link from a nearby (e.g. 4km) macrocell.
I'm not sure the type of backhaul has anything to do with the BTS shelter though. I saw a VC base station this weekend being fed via microwave and it still had a BTS shelter.
Note I've seen plenty Cell C base stations now that *do* have large BTS shelters just like the other operators. I did 5-6 photoshoots the weekend so will post in due course.
I'm not sure the type of backhaul has anything to do with the BTS shelter though. I saw a VC base station this weekend being fed via microwave and it still had a BTS shelter.
Note I've seen plenty Cell C base stations now that *do* have large BTS shelters just like the other operators. I did 5-6 photoshoots the weekend so will post in due course.
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There are no Telkom towers as such. In South Africa most sites have shared infrastructure. So any site is a candidate for Telkom services. You need to check if a Telkom BTS is on site - each provider has a BTS shelter with their logo on the side.
Thank you!
Identify the cell id you are connected to.
Then go this website, and check who it belongs to: http://opencellid.org/
Then go this website, and check who it belongs to: http://opencellid.org/
Hi All,
Hope I'm posting this in the right thread. Long story short, Telkom launched that Smartbroadband Wireless Uncapped LTE in my area, since I'm 560m away from one of the towers in the promotion I thought I'd sign up. Got the Huawei B593 router, getting 4bars, LTE signal. But the speeds on a speedtest are dismal, 2.5mb down. So went on the roof (discovered I can see the tower from the roof) and the stats improved but the speedtest was the same. So today I did a drive around like @jcheek suggested. And here are the results.
Drive Around
Test 1:
RSSI: -41, RSRP: -67, RSRQ: -6.0
Test 2:
RSSI: -37, RSRP: -63, RSRQ: -6.0
Test 3:
Sorry couldn't get the stats, saw the same car drive past me 3 times so I hightailed out.
Now, I live 2 streets away from test 3. My question is, how can the speed just die from test 1 to test 3.
Would the buildings between the tower and me kill the signal that much?
Thanks guys.
Hope I'm posting this in the right thread. Long story short, Telkom launched that Smartbroadband Wireless Uncapped LTE in my area, since I'm 560m away from one of the towers in the promotion I thought I'd sign up. Got the Huawei B593 router, getting 4bars, LTE signal. But the speeds on a speedtest are dismal, 2.5mb down. So went on the roof (discovered I can see the tower from the roof) and the stats improved but the speedtest was the same. So today I did a drive around like @jcheek suggested. And here are the results.
Drive Around
Test 1:
RSSI: -41, RSRP: -67, RSRQ: -6.0
Test 2:
RSSI: -37, RSRP: -63, RSRQ: -6.0
Test 3:
Sorry couldn't get the stats, saw the same car drive past me 3 times so I hightailed out.
Now, I live 2 streets away from test 3. My question is, how can the speed just die from test 1 to test 3.
Would the buildings between the tower and me kill the signal that much?
Thanks guys.
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