Any hope of getting a EVDO Signal?

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:53 pm Post subject:

yeah, that's good stuff. The cable has N-male on both ends. That's fine for one end which will go on the yagi no problem. On the other end you need a N-female to FME-female adapter to connect that cable to the pigtail that goes in your modem. That is the only other part you need.
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widgetman101 · EVDO User Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 95

Okay I guess the one I have is too small for that coax cable. I'll buy the adapter cable just in case. Now for mounting what do you recommend I get. It says the antenna can be mounted to pole but the pole is not included.

Can I just go down to Lowes and buy like a 12 foot poll to use? And I presume the Yagi Antenna gets mounted straight up in the air then just rotate the poll around and see what yields the best reception?

So what do you think my chances are of getting enough of a signal to improved the speed. Right now I'm getting around 140Kbps/17Kb Download and around 70-80Kbps upload on the nationwide.

I really hope this will allow me to connect via Rev A for much faster speeds.

Jim_in_VA · Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject:

A yagi will be at a right angle to the support, wait until it arrives and see what kind of mounting hardware comes with it. Yes, you can likely get what you need at Lowes. After you get it all hooked up, look at the signal strength on your connection manager and rotate the antenna until you get the best signal. Use small incremental changes, very little movement can make a big difference.
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widgetman101 · EVDO User Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 95

Alright well I went ahead and placed my order today! I hope it comes in the middle of next week while I'm off but I'm guessing it will arrive when I go back to work.

I did find it interesting that when I lock the modem on HDR mode I can actually pull a signal to around -91dBm but it won't hold it. It will stay there for a second then jump back up to -105 to -114 dBm so I can't connect.

I know if it goes down in the low 90's for a split second I would like to think this antenna should be able to hold low 90 dBm's mounted 20 feet in the air on the antenna.

I'm expecting the worst and hoping for the best though. I'll fill in details after I get everything in the mail.

Thanks again for all those that took the time to help me out. :Cross Fingers:

widgetman101 · EVDO User Joined: 02 Apr 2008 Posts: 95

Alright well here is my little update so far. I got the Yagi and mounted a 16 foot pole and ran a 10 foot section of PVC pipe across the top with some C clamp brackets.

Initially the signal was about 2-3 dBm lower than before. I had about 1 hour of play time with it before I went to work. I ended up connecting to Rev-A for a split second then lost the connection.

When I got home the next day I turned it on and the connection was much better. I'm guessing for some reason the ladder may have been interfearing with the signal somehow since it was somewhat in the direction I was pointing.

Right now on the HDR lock mode I can connect although sometimes I have to wait a minute or so for the VZW Access manager to lock onto the Rev-A signal.

When the signal goes connected - dormat my Rev-A signal is between 80-85dBm then when I start surfing its up around 85-95dBm. I've seen it go up as high as -114dBm but it will remain connected and still download around 30KB/s. When its lower I'm getting about 50KB/s. Granted I still have not aimed more than probably 30 degree's worth of direction on the Yagi so I may find a more stable connection.

Frankly I'm amazed it even found the signal. Will see how much of a improvement I can sustain then I'll post in the success stories section.

If for some reason I can't find much of a better connected signal would a amp help hold a lower dBm while actually surfing? I know my speeds would go up if it did.

Here is a picture of my antenna setup currently the 30 feet of Wilson Ultra Low loss cable with the 800Mhz Yagi antenna run out through my window for the time being.

jameswadewilson

If I could figure out how to post an image you would see a Dish Network dish mounted at 0 degrees - perpendicular to the pole.

I have a tripod and mounted the pole so that it is pointed 45 degrees in the direction of the dish. These are offset dishes so they point 45 degrees lower than you'd expect.

I just have a Verizon Pantech card from the 3G Store wedged in approximately where the LNBs used to be mounted.

This setup caused my card to switch from two bars of US Cellular (slowest 1xRTT - about 4 seconds of latency) to Verizon at around -92 dbm and gave me EVDO good enough for Skype calls.

I'm going to improve on this - I'll find a large C Band dish and work out a way to either mount a feedhorn antenna and connect to the wireless card or find a way to mount the card at the focal point.

This is about 1000 feet away from the house so I have a Cradlepoint MBR 1000 router to send it on via WiFi.

Anything to get off this miserable US Cellular 1xRTT!

Still a work in progress...

OK, here's an URL for pictures:

picasaweb.google.com/jameswadewilsom/RemoteEVDO

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