Surface elevation tool

psmith

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Joined
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Plotting the surface elevation between yourself and the nearest Rain towers can be very helpful to determine why your signal strength is not optimum, see this tool: Surface elevation tool (https://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-elevationtool.html)

For example, the two towers closest to my home gave a very weak signal. The surface elevation tool immediately showed the reason. The first profile tells me that nothing will get me a connection to this Rain tower(1.9km). The second profile(1.2km) shows that I can improve matters by putting an external antenna on a mast. The third profile is to a Rain tower 3.1 km away and this gives me a good signal, despite the distance, when I position my 5G modem on the outside wall just under the roof eaves. Now I enjoy excellent download/upload speeds.

In summary:
1) measure your signal strength(5gtop). Without measurements you know nothing.
2) know where your nearest Rain towers are. Rain will tell you.
3) plot the surface elevation profile to these towers so that you know whether you can in principle receive signals from these towers. Use the Solway surface elevation tool.
4) once you have chosen the best Rain tower it will become obvious where you should place your modem.
5) if two or more Rain towers are visible to you then you are sitting in the pound seats. That is because when load shedding downs one tower the modem will automatically switch over to the other tower. I can only wait in hope that Rain installs more towers in my locality.
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Plotting the surface elevation between yourself and the nearest Rain towers can be very helpful to determine why your signal strength is not optimum, see this tool: Surface elevation tool (https://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-elevationtool.html)

For example, the two towers closest to my home gave a very weak signal. The surface elevation tool immediately showed the reason. The first profile tells me that nothing will get me a connection to this Rain tower(1.9km). The second profile(1.2km) shows that I can improve matters by putting an external antenna on a mast. The third profile is to a Rain tower 3.1 km away and this gives me a good signal, despite the distance, when I position my 5G modem on the outside wall just under the roof eaves. Now I enjoy excellent download/upload speeds.

In summary:
1) measure your signal strength(5gtop). Without measurements you know nothing.
2) know where your nearest Rain towers are. Rain will tell you.
3) plot the surface elevation profile to these towers so that you know whether you can in principle receive signals from these towers. Use the Solway surface elevation tool.
4) once you have chosen the best Rain tower it will become obvious where you should place your modem.
5) if two or more Rain towers are visible to you then you are sitting in the pound seats. That is because when load shedding downs one tower the modem will automatically switch over to the other tower. I can only wait in hope that Rain installs more towers in my locality.
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Thanks for this. Very interesting. Explains some of the problems a friend of mine had with reception of Rain 5G.
 
Just an FYI, that tool makes use of a Digital Terain Model, which only looks at the earth's surface. A Digital Surface Model would take man made and natural objects into account, giving a far more accurate view, considering how much foliage and buildings (think Shacks or corrugated roofs for example) attenuate RF signal.

But this is sufficient to get you 80% to the problem.
 
Last edited:
Just an FYI, that tool makes use of a Digital Terain Model, which only looks at the earth's surface. A Digital Surface Model would take man made and natural objects into account, giving a far more accurate view, considering how much foliage and buildings (thinks Shacks or corrugated roofs for example) attenuate RF signal.

But this is sufficient to get you 80% to the problem.
Yes, very true.
 
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