Tower Locations and Improving Signal Strength

[The_Unbeliever]

Just drive close to the tower, and post your speedtest.net results

 

[Dolby]

Sorry - maybe worded wrong

I was driving around with my laptop, as I'm possibly getting a place on Bellairs Drvie and broadband is important. I went to the place and got weak signal - but it was enough never the less (I could add an antenna at a later stage ...).

However when driving around, I was checking on my netbook to see the RSSI and drove past the Dome/Honeydew Toyota. After seeing the lower figure, I pulled off and did a speed test to get 9+ down and 3 upload ... the fastest I've seen I didn't get the link - but I will in future.

Wish I could afford a place in the estate across the road

EDIT : Yea - Google Earth puts me at 3km away from the Dome. Do you think that I could have been connected to that specific tower - or do you reckon there is one closer? I need to try find the closer one ...

 

[ajax]

EDIT : Yea - Google Earth puts me at 3km away from the Dome. Do you think that I could have been connected to that specific tower - or do you reckon there is one closer? I need to try find the closer one ...

Just make a note of the tower ID in MDMA and drive back.

 

[renierp]

So during my search of North Riding, I think I found a tower

Got <51db or something - and 9.1 down / 3 up ... So heading to the Dome to download

How far is a towers reach? I'm 3km away - would it be possible to get 1mbps there?

The tower is on the roof of Northgate (according to the staff in the cell c shop)
I live roughly 3KM up the road from northgate, when I moved my router upstairs, I managed about 6Mbps peak (downstairs only 1-2 if I am lucky)
At the moment, I only get 2Mbps with my router upstairs, seems the signal has degraded drastically over the past week or two...

 

[snake eyes]

so there is no way to tell where the towers are....like on a google map or something???

 

[Dolby]

That's exactly what I'd like to know - a Google Earth/map type thing.

I have found the one on Northcliff and since I've been looking, found a few more i the area - but not sure which network they all are.

 

[ginggs]

That's exactly what I'd like to know - a Google Earth/map type thing.

I have found the one on Northcliff and since I've been looking, found a few more i the area - but not sure which network they all are.

Ofcom, the UK's equivalent of !casa, has/had one. We need to start petitioning our government to force our local operators to make this information available.

In the meantime, drive around in circles a couple of blocks in size around your area of interest. Look out for 3 Cell IDs that only differ in the last digit, for example 42551, 42552 and 42553. Now plot these three in GoogleEarth and your tower will be roughly in the centre of all three. Now drive around the area containing the centre and you should be able to find the tower.

So far this has proven a bit more difficult for me on Cell-C than MTN and Vodacom, not sure if this is an effect of the bigger coverage 900MHz has over 2100MHz.

 

[wndrbees]

We need to start petitioning our government to force our local operators to make this information available.

Where do I sign?

 

[Dolby]

Where do I sign?

+1

I actually have driven around and found quite a few. It's amazing how I don't notice them until I look ...

 

[ntu]

does anyone know where the closest cell c tower providing for green point in cape town is?

decided to shell out $ for a high gain antenna, but i'll need to know where the tower is in order to point the antenna in the right direction..
I logged a call wth cell c for this info a week ago via their website but haven't heard back

 

[1geoff99]

Guessing there is no way of scanning al lthe networks in the area to see what I get at a certain location?

You can use this software: http://www.mwconn.net/download.html

 

[Dolby]

You can use this software: http://www.mwconn.net/download.html

Thanks!

Will get this tonight!

 

[Bundu]

another dumb (?) question while you're talking about towers - how can I determine if this http://goo.gl/maps/3FvR tower manages the CellC signal in the area?

 

[Cost Conscious]

Thanks for the tip. I haven't used Nokia Maps in this way before, but have used Google Maps which has its own tower-based location lookup (not using Nokia's A-GPS).s.

Hi Ginggs:

had a Cell C employee here this morning and he showed me Google Earth with overlays for Cell C transmitters. I've hunted around but can't find any link to show this data in Google Earth. Any ideas?

 

[Mr K]

Hi guys,
Any body using any inside antenna from poynting with E1820.
I got a call from cell c optimisation manager and he told me get a antenna from poynting.
He said it is better to get a outside bigger antenna. But my problem is in my complex body carporate does not allow any antenna's to be erected.
He also said there is small antenna which i can use inside the house.
Is anybody using this kind of antenna?
If yes please provide some details like improvement in speed, stability of connection, signal?

 

[ginggs]

had a Cell C employee here this morning and he showed me Google Earth with overlays for Cell C transmitters. I've hunted around but can't find any link to show this data in Google Earth. Any ideas?

The overlay is probably stored on his computer in his Google Earth placemarks. I wish you had slipped him a roofie and copied it for us, it would be very useful!

 

[ajax]

another dumb (?) question while you're talking about towers - how can I determine if this http://goo.gl/maps/3FvR tower manages the CellC signal in the area?

Not a dumb question. Borrow someone's laptop and modem and drive to the tower. You should get -51dBm of signal (the max. that can be reported) when you get close to it. Or stick a Cell C sim in a UMTS900 capable device. My SGS shows full bar too easily, so it may be necessary to "degrade" the reception on the phone by holding your hands over it as tightly as possible. If it still shows full strength, then you must be near a tower.

EDIT: Ok I see now my SGS with Android 2.2 has a much better signal strength indicator - much more responsive and gives signal strengths higher than -81 dBm.

 

[IceQB]

+1 @ginggs

I should have thought of that when i asked cell c to test before i bought back in november
But it would be outdated by now.

 

[Cost Conscious]

The overlay is probably stored on his computer in his Google Earth placemarks. I wish you had slipped him a roofie and copied it for us, it would be very useful!

I find the Cell C guys pretty straight up. Perhaps we just need to ask Ron or Lars whether we can't have a copy?

Also, shock news, he was also using MDMA!

 

[morkhans]

I find the Cell C guys pretty straight up. Perhaps we just need to ask Ron or Lars whether we can't have a copy?

They won't make that information public because the tinfoil hats will have a field day when they discover the amount of towers in their backyard emitting deadly beams.