Now I need antenna advice

gamfa · EVDO Newbie Joined: 10 Mar 2009 Posts: 10

Now that I have my solution for a router taken care of I need to move on to the next hurdle or two that I see for my Verizon EVDO set-up.

To lay down a little ground work, I am using the UM175 modem. I have the following conditions. My house sits on a true N-S axis with the front facing north. According to antennasearch.com, the tower I come off of is 2.37 miles to the south-west. The elevation at the top of the tower is 988.2 feet. The elevation of the floor of my house is 820 ft. There is no dirt between me and the tower but, there is timber. I have played around with various locations in the house to see what works as far as signal strength and transfer rates. The best situation I have come up with is kinda strange. I am using the 2 headed usb cable that came with the modem with another 4' usb cable attached and the modem installed in the extension. Right now the modem is being held to the inside face of the south wall of the house with Scotch tape. It's is exactly in the middle from the studs on either side and about 8" below the ceiling. The only thing between the modem and the tower is .5" of drywall, 3.5" fiberglass insulation, .5" of foam insul. board and thin vinyl siding and tall timber. My signal is a stable -86dBm. In non-busy periods, say 6:30 AM, my speeds are 1100+/- dn and 700+/- up. In busy periods, 750+/- dn and 450 up. Sure beats the heck out of my AT&T service. I would like to maintain those speed numbers if possible when the leaves come out and I guess the only way to do that is an antenna. I have gone through a lot of the posts on antennas and looked through what the 3Gstore has to offer and I'm a lost ball in high weeds here. To compound the problem, I need to get the signal from the south face of the house to the north wall where the router needs to be. In my reading there is evidently signal loss caused by the cable.

I could really use some advice on this.

3Gstore · EVDO Addict Joined: 19 Sep 2006 Posts: 3171

if those signal readings are indoors, you've only done half your homework.

read this, and answer the questions: http://3gstore.com/RSSI

that article will help you find out for yourself is improved signal gets you any better performance.