Unlimited LTE Antenna Direction

broken1 · Sep 23, 2015

When I signed up for the unlimited LTE package the coverage map shows you the tower location for the area you have selected.

Now that the Telkom contractors have been to install the Pointing Antenna, it's pointing in the complete opposite direction

The reason I ask is my signal strength is only two bars and I am about 2-3 blocks away from the tower that was in the picture so I was hoping for more signal and more speed

Is there anywhere to check if there is another tower close by or if the contractor got his bearings wrong and installed it incorrectly

Thanks

Sneeky · Sep 24, 2015

It would perhaps help if you can provide a bit more detail.

The tower you thought you should be connecting to, the one (or number/designation) that you are connecting to currently, and what type of antenna did they instal? Omni or directional?

I'm also new to this Lte hocus pocus, but i reckon that would be relevant info for troubleshooting.

Also router type and no.

Is the dual antenna thingy 'enabled' in your router settings, it may just be running off 1 antenna?

see here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB1v_YDqjOk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB1VMMeTJq0

broken1 · Sep 24, 2015

The modem is a Huawei B593s-601 and the antenna is a Pointing A-POL-0006-10m

I am also new to this and I think the antenna is directional. Dual antenna and external antenna config is set on the router

I am expecting to connect to the Highlands North Tower which is corner Louis Botha and Athol Road and my antenna is pointing in a completely different direction. Where can I find what other towers are near by?

Swa · Sep 24, 2015

Why not just adjust it and see what happens?

Sneeky · Sep 24, 2015

Its a directional antenna and needs to point towards the signal.

If you go walkabout is there any tower anywhere that you can see in the direction it is currently pointing, if not just adjust it to where you want it and see what happens.

broken1 · Sep 24, 2015

There is potentially a light pole type station in the direction it's pointing but no idea if that is a Telkom mobile site. Do Telkom mobile do light pole base stations?

Speedster · Sep 24, 2015

It's a pity opensignal.com doesn't indicate Telkom towers.

ahf · Sep 25, 2015

Hi Guys

Two questions:
1. How do I check for my closest Telkom LTE tower? Current s-meter reading only 3 bars
2. Which frequency does Telkom use for LTE?

I want to built this yagi: http://bcbj.org/antennae/lte_yagi_diy.htm

Thanks.

Sneeky · Sep 25, 2015

1. Not sure, maybe drive around in the car, Mk1 eyeball, laptop, lte device and something like mdma software could work.

2.Telkom use 2300MHz.
You really need to configure 2 of those antennae to get the full mimo benefit.
Something like this has 2 built in antennae correctly orientated.
http://www.antennas.co.za/Products/ProductDetails?code=360

AstroTurf · Sep 25, 2015

Sneeky said:
It would perhaps help if you can provide a bit more detail.

The tower you thought you should be connecting to, the one (or number/designation) that you are connecting to currently, and what type of antenna did they instal? Omni or directional?

I'm also new to this Lte hocus pocus, but i reckon that would be relevant info for troubleshooting.

Also router type and no.

Is the dual antenna thingy 'enabled' in your router settings, it may just be running off 1 antenna?

see here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB1v_YDqjOk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB1VMMeTJq0

get on the roof at night, evening or early morning with a laptop or cellphone and tools.

Log into the router via wifi so you can monitor the signal.

Use a permanent marker and mark the pole so that you can adjust back if things go wrong.

Point the antenna where you think it should go and then sit and adjust till you get the best signal possible, use speedtest or similar after each adjustment till you have perfect signal.

Done.

ahf · Sep 25, 2015

@sneeky thanks for the feedback

I followed the thread regarding those antennas but costs were too high for me, then I saw these also 11dBi at much lower prices http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php/3g4g-11dbi-antenna-with-10m-sma-male-p-1668 then I thought why not try to built one and with my search I found that nice yagi.

Sneeky · Sep 25, 2015

ahf, watch this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB1v_YDqjOk

Actually all his short videos are very informative and clear. Worth a look into re LTE
https://www.youtube.com/user/poyntingantennas/videos

jun_tao · Sep 25, 2015

Hey @broken1 just a quick one. How long did you have to wait till the contractors came and did the install? Thanks.

broken1 · Sep 25, 2015

jun_tao said:
Hey @broken1 just a quick one. How long did you have to wait till the contractors came and did the install? Thanks.

About one week after I got the router.

jun_tao · Sep 25, 2015

broken1 said:
About one week after I got the router.

Ok cool. Thanks man. Hope you get sorted.

martin · Sep 28, 2015

broken1 said:
About one week after I got the router.

Do they perform some sort of signal test before installing your antennae?

MielieSpoor · Sep 29, 2015

martin said:
Do they perform some sort of signal test before installing your antennae?

Didn't do any real signal tests apart from what the router provides. Before they started I got 5 bar signal strength. He then connected the antenna (not sure which direction) and it fell to about 2 or 3 bars. Pointed the antenna to about 90 degrees away from where the base station is located and got 5 bars again. He did a speed test (60mb/s) and packed up. I really thought they would do more than that, because I could've done that myself.

Installation happened just more than 1 week after router was delivered.

martin · Sep 29, 2015

MielieSpoor said:
Didn't do any real signal tests apart from what the router provides. Before they started I got 5 bar signal strength. He then connected the antenna (not sure which direction) and it fell to about 2 or 3 bars. Pointed the antenna to about 90 degrees away from where the base station is located and got 5 bars again. He did a speed test (60mb/s) and packed up. I really thought they would do more than that, because I could've done that myself.

Installation happened just more than 1 week after router was delivered.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping they'd have some sort of tester-thingamabob to determine where to point the antennae to.

HowTo · Oct 1, 2015

The best way is to make yourself mobile. Drive to tower in question and power up router and see how many bars you get. (One tower 5 bar signal other 4 bar signal.)
You need a 12VDC adapter cable or 12VDC/220VAC invertor.
This is what I did and others.

If you are part of the future hood they have a specific tower where your are hooked to.
You can also see this from there maps.

broken1 · Oct 1, 2015

HowTo said:
The best way is to make yourself mobile. Drive to tower in question and power up router and see how many bars you get. (One tower 5 bar signal other 4 bar signal.)
You need a 12VDC adapter cable or 12VDC/220VAC invertor.
This is what I did and others.

If you are part of the future hood they have a specific tower where your are hooked to.
You can also see this from there maps.

So I am part of the future hood but my antenna points to another direction. Weird huh? Haven't had a chance to play around and getting like 14/15Mbps so not too worried just yet

Unlimited LTE Antenna Direction

Expert Member

Honorary Master

Expert Member

Honorary Master

Honorary Master

Expert Member

Honorary Master

Senior Member

Honorary Master

Lucky Shot

Senior Member

Honorary Master

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member

Expert Member