The Poynting antenna discussion thread

Azimuth said:
As of late the norm was around 12-15Mbps (max) download with the usual 7-8Mbps upload. Pings were kinda high at 90ms. YouTube still streamed liked a bastard though, so all good. All of this using the B593's internal antennas, mind you.

I've already mentioned the "before" speeds. "Before" RSRP was -76 dBm with RSRQ at -7dB.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised that your speeds without the antenna is so low. The RSRP is very good, the RSRQ is not perfect but still good. My gut tells me you should be getting much better speeds.

This is like my backup LTE, an E3276 plugged into a Dovado tiny just here in the office without special care and quite often it outperforms the proper router with external antennas, Ethernet etc. upsetting...
 
Hi guys,

I'm considering getting the TelkomMobile LTE package 200gb for R1 599 however my LTE coverage is really bad in my area (1 - 2 bars) and I will probably need an antenna. Which antenna would be best recommended. I will most likely need the strongest antenna there is in order to get good signal. The Telkom tech came to do a demo/test and without the antenna I was able to get 15mbps - 20mbps. What sort of speed improvements can be achieved using the strongest possible antenna?
 
Hi the speed will improve, to what degree is questionable. as a suggestion, first check the signal as per the router. its in the diagnostics under RF, if the signal is good there might be other issues. Are you referring to the 200+200 ?
 
loose cannon said:
Hi the speed will improve, to what degree is questionable. as a suggestion, first check the signal as per the router. its in the diagnostics under RF, if the signal is good there might be other issues. Are you referring to the 200+200 ?
Click to expand...

Oh, it seems that the 200 + 200 is only for LTE-A which I don't have coverage for, so I would have to go with the 100 + 100 for R999.

I just need to know which antenna is best suited for areas that have very very weak LTE signal.
 
The LPDA-0092 is the best option followed by the XPOL-0006. For both antennas, you need to establish if you have LOS.

Also refer to the following thread for more information on installation how-to:

Antenna installation and alignment
 
Azimuth said:
The LPDA-0092 is the best option followed by the XPOL-0006. For both antennas, you need to establish if you have LOS.

Also refer to the following thread for more information on installation how-to:

Antenna installation and alignment
Click to expand...

How can we find the Telkom towers in our area? What do they look like? Would we need to drive around and find which towers are in the area?
 
jcheek said:
Welcome 'Viking !

The first step would be to make absolutely sure that the antenna cables and connectors are all in good shape, ie no loose connections, damaged cables or bent centre pins. Assuming that is all okay, then ...

Unlike the B593's internal patch antennas, the XPOL-0006 is strongly directional. It will deliver substantial gain, but only if it is pointed in the right direction (ie at a base station), and the B593 is set to USE that base station, and that station is A-OK. Problems can arise in all three areas.

My guess would be that the problem is one of the following :

  1. The XPOL-0006 was pointing in the wrong direction, ie not at a base station. This seems unlikely since the Telkom techie (of all people) should know where that is.
  2. The XPOL-0006 was pointing at the "right" station, but the B593 wasn't tuned to that station. The B593 "remembers" which cell (station) it was last tuned to and attempts to attach there first. If the last-connected station isn't the one the XPOL-0006 is aligned to, connecting the antenna would actually make things worse. Unless you force a cell search, it can take quite a while (at least a few minutes) for the B593 to figure out that the current station isn't the best and to switch to a better one.
  3. The XPOL-0006 is aligned to the "right" station, and the B593 is tuned to that station, but that station (for whatever reason) isn't performing as well as the one you were tuned to when operating on the internal antennas.

The scientific way to pick up the problem is not to look only at download speed (or signal bars on the front panel), but to look at the signal strength & quality parameters on the B593's user interface. If you see substantial improvement in the RSSI, RSRP and RSRQ figures, then the antenna is correctly aligned and doing its part.

Also hook into the The Huawei B593 LTE discussion thread - you'll find loads of help there.
Edit: I see you were already there, waaaay way back last year!
Click to expand...

Quick question. How do you start the search. After clicking on search in my router menu nothing happens. Anyway to force a search on a new tower? I heard switching from 3G to 4G mode does this. I think I have a problem with my router not searching for a new tower and always connecting to old tower. And on another note, my bars goes from 2 to 4 all the time staying at 4 for only a few minutes and that is without any wind. What could be the problem causing this? Sorry I can give any real info regarding my setup as I am not at home at the moment. Will provide so on Tuesday.
I have a MTN router but with latest Huawei firmware and one of these A-XPOL-0002-V1.
 
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Hi Doom5003

Doom5003 said:
... my bars goes from 2 to 4 all the time staying at 4 for only a few minutes and that is without any wind. What could be the problem causing this? Sorry I can give any real info regarding my setup as I am not at home at the moment. Will provide so on Tuesday.
Click to expand...

You probably have a B593u-12, which is an FDD-only version of the B593 re-branded for MTN (see this post for background). That has slightly different firmware to the more common B593s-601, so the firmware-related parts of the following recommendations may not be in the same places, but the same general ideas will apply.

I'd recommend you start with the following steps:
  1. Make sure that your B593 is actually detecting and using your external outdoor antennas. The XPOL-0002 should be detected fine, but double-check to see what antennas are actually in use on both ports. (On the B593s-601, this status is given at the bottom of the 'Home' page).
  2. Use the "signal stats" (RSSI / RSRP / RSRQ) figures presented on your unit's 'System / Diagnosis / Wireless Status') screen to get a more quantitative idea of your current signal conditions and how stable or variable they are.
  3. The XPOL-0002 is quite directional, so make sure you are actually pointing it at an MTN base station, or experiment by change the azimuth (compass direction) in small increments and monitoring your signal strength.


Doom5003 said:
Quick question. How do you start the search. After clicking on search in my router menu nothing happens. Anyway to force a search on a new tower? I heard switching from 3G to 4G mode does this. I think I have a problem with my router not searching for a new tower and always connecting to old tower.
I have a MTN router but with latest Huawei firmware and one of these A-XPOL-0002-V1.
Click to expand...

Try the procedure described in this post. Also check out the discussion a few pages above and below it for some background on that specific aspect. You will also find that whole thread of some benefit. I think.
 
jcheek said:
Hi Doom5003



You probably have a B593u-12, which is an FDD-only version of the B593 re-branded for MTN (see this post for background). That has slightly different firmware to the more common B593s-601, so the firmware-related parts of the following recommendations may not be in the same places, but the same general ideas will apply.

I'd recommend you start with the following steps:
  1. Make sure that your B593 is actually detecting and using your external outdoor antennas. The XPOL-0002 should be detected fine, but double-check to see what antennas are actually in use on both ports. (On the B593s-601, this status is given at the bottom of the 'Home' page).
  2. Use the "signal stats" (RSSI / RSRP / RSRQ) figures presented on your unit's 'System / Diagnosis / Wireless Status') screen to get a more quantitative idea of your current signal conditions and how stable or variable they are.
  3. The XPOL-0002 is quite directional, so make sure you are actually pointing it at an MTN base station, or experiment by change the azimuth (compass direction) in small increments and monitoring your signal strength.




Try the procedure described in this post. Also check out the discussion a few pages above and below it for some background on that specific aspect. You will also find that whole thread of some benefit. I think.
Click to expand...

It does use the eternal antenna but since I cant see the cellID I am not sure that it switches from one tower to the next and to make matter even worse I only have LOS to one tower but pointing at it lowers my bars to one and sometimes zero, hence me thinks no tower switching going on.
If I could just force the router to search for a new tower that could help and using the search button does nothing, doesn't even give me any networks to select. Don know if this will help but im using an afrihost sim.
Will only be able to provide RSSI / RSRP / RSRQ when I get back home.
 
The direction it point to now I cant see a tower but at least my bars range from 2 - 4
 
Hi there, thanks for all the info. I just had a chat to a salesperson from Poynting to recommend an internal antenna since I don't have an option to put something outside.

The sales person mentioned there is nothing he can offer to assist improving signal bars on the B593 router. Any opinions on this?
 
Mnaidoo007 said:
Hi there, thanks for all the info. I just had a chat to a salesperson from Poynting to recommend an internal antenna since I don't have an option to put something outside.

The sales person mentioned there is nothing he can offer to assist improving signal bars on the B593 router. Any opinions on this?
Click to expand...

Maybe he/she didn't quite follow what you meant, but Poynting certainly do make several LTE antennas that are either intended for indoor use (desktop) or can be used indoors (eg window-mount).

Have a look at the antennas listed in Azimuth's excellent post here. If you have to stay internal, look at something like the XPOL-0010 (desktop) or XPOL-0001 (window/wall-mount).

As regards an "outdoor" external antenna, there are a number of antennas that can be installed very discreetly as compared to a "hardcore" antenna like the Poynting LPDA-0092. Have a look at Azimuth's XPOL-0002 install here, for example.
 
jcheek said:
Maybe he/she didn't quite follow what you meant, but Poynting certainly do make several LTE antennas that are either intended for indoor use (desktop) or can be used indoors (eg window-mount).

Have a look at the antennas listed in Azimuth's excellent post here. If you have to stay internal, look at something like the XPOL-0010 (desktop) or XPOL-0001 (window/wall-mount).

As regards an "outdoor" external antenna, there are a number of antennas that can be installed very discreetly as compared to a "hardcore" antenna like the Poynting LPDA-0092. Have a look at Azimuth's XPOL-0002 install here, for example.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

Appreciate the response
 
Hi all. Quick question please. I have a Huawei B593 router. With all my questions which were answered (thanks for that), I decided to try TP-link's omni directional antennas to increase signal strength. I managed to get 2 TP-Link TL-ANT2408CL 8 dBi antennas from a friend to test.

These antenna unfortunately don't fit into the router since the housing around the connectors of the router don't allow it. I need to install an "extender" to do so (perhaps a male coax connector). Can somebody tell me the exact connect which would probably work?

Regards
 
the spec's for the TP-Link TL-ANT2408CL 8 dBi do not state if the antenna can be used at 2300mHz,assuming your are trying to get the telkom lte band (this operates @2300mhz). the connector type on the tplink antenna is a sma which is the right connector for the B593, only problem is that the standard sma connector is a hexagon shape and this allows one to use a 8mm spanner for tightening.
 
loose cannon said:
the spec's for the TP-Link TL-ANT2408CL 8 dBi do not state if the antenna can be used at 2300mHz,assuming your are trying to get the telkom lte band (this operates @2300mhz). the connector type on the tplink antenna is a sma which is the right connector for the B593, only problem is that the standard sma connector is a hexagon shape and this allows one to use a 8mm spanner for tightening.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply

I just realized that I'm not going to try to put an antenna on this for now.

Think I'm just going to "enjoy" what I got the router to do. (Functioning of all my devices, some YouTube and Social media) only download during the evening so speed shouldn't be too much of a factor for me for that purpose

In saying this however, I get about an average of 8-11 mbs. Would this be an "acceptable" speed for only 2 bars of reception?
 
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