Tower Location and Antenna Query

ginggs

ginggs

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Super Moderator
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
12,171
Reaction score
737
Location
Kapkaupunki
I was at my father's place yesterday and picked up a Vodacom 3G signal for the very first time. The cell IDs were 63901 and 63906. How can I find out where this tower is located? I couldn't pick up a cell broadcast from that tower on the GSM band. He has a Poynting LPDA facing an MTN tower to the North-East, but I think I will have to move the mast to the South end of his house so I'd like to establish LOS to the tower first.

I would like to get him on a Broadband Advanced contract, does Vodacom have any Huawei modems that can take an external antenna?
Do Vodacom sell the Huawei E230? I know it doesn't take an external antenna, but we can use an inductive coupler from Poynting.
 
ginggs said:
I was at my father's place yesterday and picked up a Vodacom 3G signal for the very first time. The cell IDs were 63901 and 63906. How can I find out where this tower is located? I couldn't pick up a cell broadcast from that tower on the GSM band. He has a Poynting LPDA facing an MTN tower to the North-East, but I think I will have to move the mast to the South end of his house so I'd like to establish LOS to the tower first.

I would like to get him on a Broadband Advanced contract, does Vodacom have any Huawei modems that can take an external antenna?
Do Vodacom sell the Huawei E230? I know it doesn't take an external antenna, but we can use an inductive coupler from Poynting.
Click to expand...

Tower IDs to physical locations, not sure.
I've heard a birdie whistle that this data has been made available to Google, so it might be available via GoogleEarth or via theGrid. Don't think Vod do cell broadcast of geographical info anymore.

From current VEC (Vodacom Equipment Company) supply & stock status:
VODAFONE MOBILE CONNECT
E272 VHE272NC - IN-STOCK. 7.2 HSDPA & HSUPA
MC 950D VNMC950D - IN-STOCK. 7.2 HSDPA & HSUPA
K3520 VHK3520 - IN-STOCK. 7.2 HSDPA
HUAWEI B970 ROUTER VHB970R - IN-STOCK.

Do you need the E230 or will the E272 do?
 
ginggs said:
@VD: Are you able to find out this information, please?
Click to expand...
When I installed my external antenna I had to go to a lot of trouble to get the coordinates of the (only) 3G tower to get the antenna aligned properly. For sites in the UK it is a breeze - you can get it on a website!
The E272 is probably even better since you can get a cradle for connecting an external antenna, I thought they had been discontinued.
Click to expand...
I will happily buy another one if they are still available!
 
KaasP said:
I've heard a birdie whistle that this data has been made available to Google, so it might be available via GoogleEarth or via theGrid.
Click to expand...
I suspect Google might just be collecting the info from people using GoogleMaps. I did find some co-ordinates on OpenCellID though.
KaasP said:
Don't think Vod do cell broadcast of geographical info anymore.
Click to expand...
I know they moved the area info from topic 50 to 60 and then started broadcasting the Yebo4Less discount information on topic 50. I'm not even getting the Yebo4Less broadcasts from this tower though.

@VD: Thanks for the info!
 
ginggs said:
I suspect Google might just be collecting the info from people using GoogleMaps. I did find some co-ordinates on OpenCellID though.

I know they moved the area info from topic 50 to 60 and then started broadcasting the Yebo4Less discount information on topic 50. I'm not even getting the Yebo4Less broadcasts from this tower though.

@VD: Thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

No problemo

Regards
VodacomData
 
@ginggs,

Is their a way to locate tower coordinates.
I installed arial at my place. My arial points into empty space (no tower).
This gives me the best -dBm reading, if I point to the so called tower it seems the -dBm readings don't change. dBm readings into empty space -58dBm and pointing towards the tower -77dBm. Strange but true.

I did run OpenCellID from work and home gives me the same results.

Regards
 
HowTo said:
Is their a way to locate tower coordinates.
Click to expand...
Ask VD nicely. :D
HowTo said:
I installed arial at my place. My arial points into empty space (no tower).
This gives me the best -dBm reading, if I point to the so called tower it seems the -dBm readings don't change. dBm readings into empty space -58dBm and pointing towards the tower -77dBm. Strange but true.
Click to expand...
It may be that the tower you can see belongs to another network operator.
HowTo said:
I did run OpenCellID from work and home gives me the same results.
Click to expand...
What do you mean you ran OpenCellID?
 
@ginggs

Klicked on "OpenCellID" this is what I got in return.

Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
- <rsp stat="ok">
  <cell range="6000" lac="208" lat="-33.96303819" nbSamples="1" lon="18.73842044" cellId="63902" mcc="655" mnc="1" /> 
  </rsp>
:D

Regards
 
HowTo said:
Klicked on "OpenCellID" this is what I got in return.
Click to expand...
That's the tower I was looking for.

Copy and paste the URL it into your browser, then edit the cellid and lac to match the values you see in MDMA.
 
@ginggs,

I did edit OpenCellID and good my reply for Vodacom.
I did the edit and I think I also know where my tower is located.
Did another edit OpenCellID for MTN but no results revealed.

Tnx ginggs.
 
@ginggs,

Using Vodacom map to map my tower. It is located in "Telkom" yard.
Strange when my arial points in the direction of the tower the -dBm readings are higher (-dBm77).
Do a 15Degree shift it goes down (-60dBm) best i can get with your utility.
This was revealed by someone a while ago. No I know for shure.
Excelent.:D
 
Last edited:
ginggs said:
I was at my father's place yesterday and picked up a Vodacom 3G signal for the very first time. The cell IDs were 63901 and 63906. How can I find out where this tower is located? I couldn't pick up a cell broadcast from that tower on the GSM band. He has a Poynting LPDA facing an MTN tower to the North-East, but I think I will have to move the mast to the South end of his house so I'd like to establish LOS to the tower first.

I would like to get him on a Broadband Advanced contract, does Vodacom have any Huawei modems that can take an external antenna?
Do Vodacom sell the Huawei E230? I know it doesn't take an external antenna, but we can use an inductive coupler from Poynting.
Click to expand...

When I phoned Vodacom once before, I picked up that they are using Google Earth or Google Maps for their base station location. I really wish to appeal to Vodacom to make it available to us as the public. I don't see any harm in doing that. Hell, if they could supply me with the co-ordinates, I am even willing to create a public, downloadable, Google Earth Map for them.

It will really make everybody's lifes much easier.
 
ginggs said:
... any Huawei modems that can take an external antenna?
Do Vodacom sell the Huawei E230? I know it doesn't take an external antenna, but we can use an inductive coupler from Poynting.
Click to expand...

Hi ginggs - Poynting's selling the E161 and it takes an external antenna through it's Huawei connector. It's 3.6Mbps, at a really inexpensive price. It runs mobile connect, Huawei's proprietary software.

Cheers.
 
ting said:
Poynting's selling the E161 and it takes an external antenna through it's Huawei connector. It's 3.6Mbps, at a really inexpensive price. It runs mobile connect, Huawei's proprietary software.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that looks interesting. I might have to come and get a loan unit from you! You were missed at the Silvermine braai last weekend, didn't you know about it?
 
My father's been using a Vodacom pre-paid SIM for the last couple of months, I could see he was hitting the limit of his old E620 card, so I ordered an E272 through ocleroux.
It turned out to be one of those dodgy knock-off models that don't work with the cradle! ;)

Anyway, this weekend I went to install it at his place and it picks up cell id 24201, not 63901.
I walked all around outside his house, and I picked up 63901 and 63906, but no 24201.

@VD: Any ideas where 24201 is coming from?
 
ginggs said:
so I ordered an E272 through ocleroux.
It turned out to be one of those dodgy knock-off models that
Click to expand...

huh? Am I being accused of selling dodgy models? :cry::cry::cry:

The modems are getting a little tricky nowadays. For example, you might get two different versions of the same Vodafone model. K3765 can either be a ZTE or Huawei make, but both makes gets branded under the K3765 model number.

Not sure if this is the case with the E272. We only have one stock code to order on for the E272 though so dont think there are different versions available ginggs.

Pardon my ignorance ginngs, but I have not uses or seen a real E272, as I mostly sell the K3565 or K3765 modems to my corp clients, but what is this cradle thing you talking about? What does it do?
 
ocleroux said:
Pardon my ignorance ginngs, but I have not uses or seen a real E272, as I mostly sell the K3565 or K3765 modems to my corp clients, but what is this cradle thing you talking about? What does it do?
Click to expand...
It allows you to connect an external antenna, follow the link in my previous post and take a look at the pictures.
 
ginggs said:
My father's been using a Vodacom pre-paid SIM for the last couple of months, I could see he was hitting the limit of his old E620 card, so I ordered an E272 through ocleroux.
It turned out to be one of those dodgy knock-off models that don't work with the cradle! ;)

Anyway, this weekend I went to install it at his place and it picks up cell id 24201, not 63901.
I walked all around outside his house, and I picked up 63901 and 63906, but no 24201.

@VD: Any ideas where 24201 is coming from?
Click to expand...

Lingelethu_West_1
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X