Another 'almost have signal' post...recommendations needed.

coolraptor

Hey all, ive searched thru the forums and now have a general idea of what iam talking about.

According to all the coverage maps, iam not supposed to get cell service, or anything at my house.
I cannot get broadband of anykind besides satellite, which i dislike for several reasons.

Anyway, I live in a valley area with hills and trees of course. Sometimes I can get 1bar of digital signal on my phone if I stand just right in the upstairs of my house, enough to send a text but not complete a call. Sometimes I dont have any signal.
Although I can walk up my street a few houses, thus going further up the hill iam located on, and achieve a decent and useable cell phone signal. Which tells me this area does have cell service, its just hard to come by due to the hills.
Havent tried it with the EVDO.

Tonight, after weeks of re-searching, making sure 'unlimited' really was unlimited as far as download limits/bandwidth limits are concerned, i bought a Huawei EC360 laptop modem and wireless broadband service from my local Alltel store.
It works perfectly in town, which is roughly 19 miles away driven on the winding roads, fyi.

As expected, no signal of any kind in my house, upstairs or otherwise.
I obviously need a beast of an antenna and signal repeater/amp setup.
If i mount on top of my roof iam above MOST of the nearby tree lines but not all of them.
I cant see any cell towers, although iam sure there around here somewere.

I have my tax return checks in hand, i just need you (the wise and experienced people of evdoforums) to give me some recommendations on a setup that will give me the best signal possible.
I need the best signal possible because the connection will be used for everything from videos, work, gaming, you name it.
I just need signal for my house, as this is where my laptop resides 95% of the time.

Again, I have Alltel Wireless Broadband and a Huawei EC360.
I live in southeastern Ohio, Outside of Marietta. Zip 45745.

Thanks for ANY and ALL advice!! Very Happy

Aaron

coolraptor · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:04 am Post subject:

ALMOST FORGOT!!

My laptop card does not appear to have an external antenna port. So whatever signal repeater/amp i get needs to broadcast the signal to my laptop wirelessly.

karlyn · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:10 am Post subject:

Hi Aaron, welcome to the forum!

Did the Alltel rep tell you where your closest cell site is? Supposedly they can look this info up on their new system but it seems the reps seldom bother to really look.

An alternative is to look up your address at antennasearch.com or cellreception.com to see if you can find a listing for an Alltel cell tower near you. These websites don't have complete info for all locations but might help you find the nearest site -- let us know how many miles away it is.

Unfortunately you need to take back the Huawei card and get the UTStarcom UM150. This USB card has an antenna port and can be used with a router, too. If they don't have the UM150s in the store and they have to order it you may want to stop your trial service then start again when the UM150 comes in.

Capt Ron · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:40 am Post subject:

Do as Karlyn says and you may be able to get service with the right additional equipment. But I don't think that you will be able to get the speeds necessary to play a lot of games and video may be jerky.

You will probably require a directional antenna of some type aimed at the cell tower. Also an amplifier may be required to get a signal good enough to maintain service. No amount of equipment will over come no signal so it is important to get the antenna high. And you still may not be able to pull it in, but with one bar who knows.

You won't know unless you try!
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Ron

glenozzy · EVDO User Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 49

http://www.ossman-cg.net/index_files/Page676.htm

your app would be better with a remote ethernet EVDO modem and a high gain Antenna

dieselguy · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:07 pm Post subject:

coolraptor · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject:

http://www.cellreception.com/towers/towers.php?city=lower%20salem&state_abr=oh

theres what i came up with as far as cell towers are concerned. Lower Salem is about 6 miles from here, as driven by the roads.
I live in Harrietsville, to the east.
Iam currently behind harrietsville on a backroad which is up on a hill and have almost full service on my laptop-which is what iam typing this on.

As for other modems picking up better, iam not too concerned about that because I already had figured i'd need an antenna + Amp setup for the house. And so far, in town, this modem picked up alright.

Ive seen some of the huge antennas that ressemble sattelite dishes, would they be any help?
I figure ill need one of the strongest setups as far as signal-recieving ability goes. My house clears some of the tree lines but not all of them, there are hills EVERYWERE just look at the map.

Thanks for all the replies!!!

Aaron

coolraptor · Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:19 pm Post subject:

Well i just spent a few hours crawling all over the roof of my house, the roof of my garage, the storage building in the back yard, etc, and found that outside of my bedroom window my cell PHONE will get 1bar digital signal and will hold it. Not enough to call or text but it shows up.
I know the general direction of the cell tower(same direction my window faces), its not an alltel tower but it shows up on the map as a cell tower.
Some of the trees in the direction of the tower have had the tops cut off for my Direct TV setup so iam assuming thats where the little signal is squeezing thru.

The setup Karlyn suggested, while deffenitly looks like it would work, is a a little over the amount of my tax return and appears a bit more complex than what i could handle myself.

The spot i found outside of my window is right before the A frame shaped part of the house comes together. I have NO signal on the roof, but outside of my window about 5 feet LOWER i have 1bar digital Confused

Another thing i found outside of my window is a nice collection of WASPS Evil or Very Mad

. I didnt think they were outside this early in the year (usually they hide IN my house somewere 'till its warmer). So between doing battle with a bunch of angry wasps and trying not to fall off my roof, i had a very interesting evening.
Shoulda seen the neighbors looking, me on the top of my roof holding a cell phone up 'can you hear me now?!" Laughing

Do ya' think a high-end direction antenna pointed at the clearing in the trees where my phone gets 1bar digital service would do the trick? Assuming it was connected to an amp/repeater also of course.

Again thanks for all the replies Very Happy

Aaron

karlyn · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 6:39 am Post subject:

Thanks, dieselguy, for letting us know the Hauwei card can use an external antenna. I was too lazy to look it up! Embarassed

I also can't take credit for the high-gain rig that glenozzy posted about -- which looks pretty interesting. I don't know very much about antennae and amps and tend not to stray into that territory. Smile

Karlyn

PS -- That's a pretty part of Ohio you live in!

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:31 am Post subject:

Try the directional antenna first (yagi, panel, or grid/parabolic) before the amp. It may be all that is needed.
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evdo-tips.com

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:18 am Post subject:

You could also improve the signal by eating a pie first:

... it makes a noticeable difference.
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evdo-tips.com

coolraptor · Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

3gstore emailed me back and says they wouldnt suggest trying to get service for someone in my situation Sad

I think i might give it a shot anyway. Ive tried getting broadband for 6 years out here so i dont really have much to lose.

Any recommandation on a specific antenna? Which type of antenna would have the most reception? I know a directional antenna is supposed to pickup better but which one would you all recommend?

Thanks
Aaron

EvdoNonLOSuser · EVDO User Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 36 Location: PNW

I live in an area where there is no cell phone, National Access, or EVDO service without using an external antenna. So I had to resort to Wildblue. I have spent almost a year researching what I could do to get some sort of cell signal. I knew that if I went 300 ft up the hill on my property(I live in a mini canyon) that I could get a few bars of Verizon cell service (1900mhz). I could also get a bar or two of the 800mhz too. On top of my roof, I would sometimes get an Analog signal but that was it. I am not line of site with any towers whatsoever, even when I am on top of the property(although, I am closer to LOS up there due to my signal strength). So, I invested in a cheap dual band yagi antenna advertized at 23 or 24 db. But now that I have learned a little, I know it couldn't have possibly been that high. They were probably adding the db for both bands. LOL. But I did't know that then. Anyway, I was able to get a usable bar of service(800mhz) with this antenna and I knew that cell phone signal heaven was within my grasps. LOL.
Well, winter came early and I never got the chance to put up the new 800 mhz yagi (4 ft long!). But I did some testing and I was able to get 2 bars of usable service Smile

Of course, with this signal I was able to get the National Access service too. I figured Evdo was out of the question since it operates at a higher frequency in this area and doesn't bounce or bend as well as 800mhz.
Then one day I was on my laptop in my car as my wife was driving us home. I was using a usb720 hooked up to a car antenna on National Access. Just as we were pulling into the driveway, I saw evdo revA pop up for a few seconds. Too bad I saw that. Because it lead me down to a path of evdo signal obsession. Unfortunately, the driveway is 1/3 miles long and I lost all signal by the time made it to the house.
To make this long story shorter, I ended up buying a 24db grid antenna from Hyperlink and 20 feet of LMR400 cable and assorted connectors. It took me a while to find a good spot close to the house. But I now have that antenna on a 25 foot mast 100ft from the house. I have the MB1000 and usb720 in a weatherproof enclosure. I have the usb720 locked on EVDO. I now get anywhere from 200 to 1000KB/S download(300-500 average) and 50-100KB/S upload. Even though Wildblue advertises higer speeds than that, the evdo is much more responsive since it doesn't have to deal with the lag. I am in EVDO heaven now. Now to work on the cell phone antenna and repeater. sorry for being long winded.

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:48 am Post subject:

Glad it finally worked out for you. Question about the mast, what did you use for that and how did you install it?
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jackrodgers · EVDO Addict Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 1131

The engineers in the Dilbert comic strip recommend buying the battery operated Cradlepoint and a small helium balloon. Attach the Cradlepoint and your EVDO card to the balloon with duct tape.

You have the option of attaching a string to the balloon or letting it free float but the string will help maintain local connectivity and to retrieve the balloon.

The string also will permit testing the balloon/reception at various altitudes.