The Poynting antenna discussion thread

No, I believe you. I made them fix the mistake on their website and have since bought one for an install. The new box is correct.
 
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Azimuth said:
I've been wondering about Biggles190's results with the XPOL-0001. Obviously he is getting gain over 2300MHz and yet the XPOL-0001 doesn't have 2300MHz support...WRONG. I've chatted to Poynting about this and there's an error on the poyntingcommercial site (and brochure) but not on the antennas.co.za site.

The XPOL-0001 therefore supports all networks. I'll update post # 1 accordingly.

Edit: Poynting have updated their sites and released a new v4 brochure.
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I noticed Azimuth positioned the XPOL-0001 antenna on the roof and the results are great for such a low gain antenna. Did you perform speedtests from the more standard locations such as windows?

Where I am considering locating one of these antennas is on the patio window of an apartment and I am not confident that I can position a directional antenna in the right direction. I am fairly sure that I do not have line of sight to the tower and that is why I am mainly researching omni-directional options. The current signal is circa 55 ping, 16 up, 4 down and not stable. I am hoping to increase all 3 metrics. Advice would be appreciated. I will keep an eye open for the tests that webdev intends to run.
 
That was Biggles190's install, not mine.

I actually tested an XPOL-0001 today myself and wasn't blown away by the results (Biggles190, you set me up! :p). Got signal up from 3 bars LTE to 4 bars. Speed tests were quite good though (low 20's). Elevation was approximately 6m off the ground.

Bearing in mind this is a low gain antenna only and quite cheap as they go. At least moves signal reception from inside to outside and that counts plenty. In your case it sounds like you don't have too many options and this is quite a discrete solution.
 
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Next up, where to buy it? Poynting Europe have not replied to my enquiry yet.
 
Azimuth said:
That was Biggles190's install, not mine.

I actually tested an XPOL-0001 today myself and wasn't blown away by the results (Biggles190, you set me up! :p). Got signal up from 3 bars LTE to 4 bars. Speed tests were quite good though (low 20's). Elevation was approximately 6m off the ground.

Bearing in mind this is a low gain antenna only and quite cheap as they go. At least moves signal reception from inside to outside and that counts plenty. In your case it sounds like you don't have too many options and this is quite a discrete solution.
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Eish no man! Maybe the dramatic increase is because I'm so close to the tower?
 
Biggles190 said:
Eish no man! Maybe the dramatic increase is because I'm so close to the tower?
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It would be interesting to find out the exact reason yeah. I tested 800m from a tower. Do the inside vs outside test and let us know? (Test your router indoors and out)

All these experiences seem to be extremely tower specific. At the end of the day, the XPOL-0001 basically gave me an extra 1 bar signal - 3 bars indoors became 4 bars with the XPOL-0001; to be expected with a mere 2.5dBi gain.
 
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So I have gone from 5 bars LTE to 4 bars today - why? - nothing has changed - my 2 LPDA-0092 are still pointing to the same tower - my router still stands in exactly the same position. Why would it suddenly go to 4 bars when I have had 5 bars for ages now? Strange huh!
 
For the link distance and considering you're using LPDA-0092's, it's a complete mystery. Perhaps they're working on that base station? I've had my signal fall though the floor from 5 bars to 1 bar - with full recovery the next day.
 
Azimuth said:
For the link distance and considering you're using LPDA-0092's, it's a complete mystery. Perhaps they're working on that base station? I've had my signal fall though the floor from 5 bars to 1 bar - with full recovery the next day.
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Mmmm thanks .....pretty strange....it doesn't affect download speed though....I wonder if there's a point where signal strength plays a role in download speeds - or does it mean even if you have 1 bar LTE you can still have good download speed (based on the tower you connect to) ..... so how important is 5 bars vs 3 bars etc?
 
The higher the signal the better the stability. Having 1-2 bars provides for a very bumpy ride, been there done that. It's the reason I embarked on the outdoor antenna journey.

Having 3 bars signal and up is where you want to be.
 
Teejaybee said:
Mmmm thanks .....pretty strange....it doesn't affect download speed though....I wonder if there's a point where signal strength plays a role in download speeds
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They do continuous antenna tuning. Perhaps they found that your signal already gives maximum throughput and decided to give more juice for poorer customers. :)

Seriously, it is usable signal and error count which matters, not a signal strenght.
 
sajunky said:
Number of dropped (rejected) packets due to the wrong checksum.
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I don't know how technically proficient Teejaybee is, so here is a bit more explanation on dropped packets. If Teejaybee understands it already, then I hope some other non-technical members might find this useful.

The message transmitted from the cell tower to your router will consist of the actual data, as well as additional data added by the system. One part of this additional data is called the checksum. The checksum is calculated for the specific message data.

When the packet arrives at your receiver (router), it will calculate the checksum for the included message data. If the new checksum is not the same as the old checksum calculated by the transmitted, it means the data has changed while being transmitted. Thus an error has occured. The receiver system will discard this packet. It will send a message to the transmitter asking it to resend the specific packet. In some instances some systems can rebuild the bigger message without using that specific packets data.

A small number of errors can be handled without too many problems. However, if the number of packets that are dropped (and therefore have to be re-transmitted) are too high, then your connection will be unstable.

There are various reasons for packets to become corrupted. The most obvious are environmental problems. Rain, LoS, reflections from buildings, trees, etc... can all cause packet loss.
 
Great post AntennaMan. To throw my question into the mix, how do we make this information relevant? Signal levels we can see, RSRP/RSSI/RSRQ we can see. Speed tests we can see.

Do we propose ping tests?

P.S. I wish they'd bring out an app already.
 
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Thanks AntennaMan - a much more useful explanation. I have never experienced any issues so I'm guessing that from a pure user perspective - one wouldn't know if you have a poor connection until you get disconnected and have to reconnect etc. I mean - how will I know if my checksum = my dimsum :p

I reckon my external antennas are resulting in me having a stable setup. I have good speed, never have any issues, never have to reconnect etc - it is sound!
 
Teejaybee said:
I reckon my external antennas are resulting in me having a stable setup. I have good speed, never have any issues, never have to reconnect etc - it is sound!
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Yip, stable setup and overal satisfaction. Once it is achieved, you can stop doing monkey speed tests and enjoy it. :)
 
Azimuth,

Just wanted to say thank you for all your time and effort.
I have not looked back since going LTE with an LPDA-0092 LTE antennae a couple of months ago.

You are doing more for LTE uptake in ZA than all the network operators combined!

Cheers
 
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