Using program to determine mast location?

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videogamingtown

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Hi , im using MDMA (the program) to find out about my signal with a few to improving speeds and stability, wondered if there is any way to pinpoint with lat and longitude where the mast im connecting to is located?
im in ireland and im getting a cell tower number but that's no good to me because it doesnt correspond to the mast id's listed for our country. I'm hoping to find out the location so i can put up a yagi antenna, problem is the provider im using has no masts very close to me and i think it might be connecting to a mast from a few miles away.

Any advice would be great!
 
Try Antennas from Google play (Android). I've found it quite useful.
 
Do remember if you decide to put up a Yagi antenna, that it will generally work well for voice calls, but if you are looking to improve your data signal then you need a dedicated data antenna, which differs considerably. Some experts go as far as saying that a Yagi antenna is actually useless for improving data signals.
 
Terencek said:
Do remember if you decide to put up a Yagi antenna, that it will generally work well for voice calls, but if you are looking to improve your data signal then you need a dedicated data antenna, which differs considerably. Some experts go as far as saying that a Yagi antenna is actually useless for improving data signals.
Click to expand...
Citation needed.
 
Terencek said:
Do remember if you decide to put up a Yagi antenna, that it will generally work well for voice calls, but if you are looking to improve your data signal then you need a dedicated data antenna, which differs considerably. Some experts go as far as saying that a Yagi antenna is actually useless for improving data signals.
Click to expand...

What would you recommend for my situation? the network broadcasts 3g at 2100mhz
 
Terencek said:
Do remember if you decide to put up a Yagi antenna, that it will generally work well for voice calls, but if you are looking to improve your data signal then you need a dedicated data antenna, which differs considerably. Some experts go as far as saying that a Yagi antenna is actually useless for improving data signals.
Click to expand...

On what do you base this? Your statement is contrary to basic microwave theory: P_rx = P_tx * Gain(Ant_tx) * Gain(Ant_rx) * Attenuation
Neither antenna nor transmission medium knows or cares whether the signal carries voice or data.

videogamingtown said:
What would you recommend for my situation? the network broadcasts 3g at 2100mhz
Click to expand...

I'd ignore Terencek's statement until he provides some sound proof for his claim. I know that both Vodac and TM have provided clients with data throughput problems with Yagis before. If you get a Yagi, it should be pretty easy to pan it in the right direction by watching your signal strength while you slowly turn the Yagi in a circle. If you really don't know where the mast is, I'd suggest that you determine the position a couple of times at different times of the day, just to make sure that you don't lock yourself onto a tower that actually has worse signal strength than the closest one*.

* - microwave is a strange transmission medium. There are phenomena such as "ducting" which can help signals travel much further than normal, making a certain tower seem closer than it is. Or there can be a large truck parked somewhere, not even between you and the tower, and the signal will reflect off the truck back to your device, causing multipath, which can make the tower look further than it is. All in all, don't trust only a single measurement.
 
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