Signal Boosters / Poynting

[gazza777]

Hi guys

I recently upgraded my trusty Huawei E353 3G USB dongle, connected to a TP-Link TL-MR3040. I had a standard Poynting omni-directional booster connected to this set-up and it gave me around 2Mbs without fail.

Now I've upgraded to the Huawei E5372 mobile internet device which is LTE capable, so I thought I would share my experience so far and hear if anyone else has similar.

The E5372 has two external antenna booster ports which I was lead to believe BOTH have to be connected to, in order to fully maximise the devices LTE potential.

I went to Poynting and was advised on upgrading my current single cable omni directional aerial to the Dual Polarised High Gain LTE Antenna... R1800 later, I'm home and testing... this is where it gets interesting:

Current omni directional antenna with a single cable gives 4G connection (5bars) and 16 - 18Mbs download / 2Mbs upload. (That's not bad is it?)

New Dual Polarised High Gain LTE Antenna with two (dual) cables gives me 7Mbs download /1.5Mbs upload.

What gives? Should I take the R1800 Dual Polarised High Gain LTE Antenna back to Poynting and demand a refund? Anyone else with experience on that Dual Polarised High Gain LTE Antenna?

 

[redcliff]

The LTE Antenna is directional. Have you tried pointing it directly at the tower?

 

[gazza777]

I don't really know where the tower is... but based on other houses in my area I tried and the best direction way up at the sky. No jokes!

This said, if I had to find and point at the tower, could I expect better than 16 - 18Mb/s?

 

[redcliff]

if I had to find and point at the tower, could I expect better than 16 - 18Mb/s?

Possibly... From my experience, i went from 7ish to 35Mbps adding the LTE antenna - never tried Omni so can't comment on that. In my case, given that the tower is quite a distance from me, small shifts of the Antenna (i'm talking less than 10 degrees) drops the speed to low 20's i.e. Orientation seems VERY important.

Another point is height... Lifting the Antenna 1 or 2 meters (i used a 3m pole) made a massive diference - just lifting it above the roofs of the surrounding homes easily doubled my speed.

 

[snowwolf]

From my experience with antennae, small changes in direction make a big difference. Like redcliff says, try and get it above the roof line of the other houses, and also look at the possibility of swopping the cables connected to the booster ports.

One other thing to try, it to turn the antenna in a clockwise motion. Sounds odd but sometimes, depending on a bunch of factors, a slight (or even large 90 degree ish) turn may make a difference.

Good luck!

 

[gazza777]

Thanx guys, I'm trying to gauge if it's worth the additional R1800 that the Poynting Dual Polarised cost. To be fair I did not attached the new antenna to a pole and hoist it above roof levels, rather just held it near my existing antenna and tested like that.

This said, with my Omni directional antenna, I get a full 5/5 bars on the device...