USB720 increasing signal and speed?

MobileNetr · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

Hello,

I've been reading through the various posts, and am learning more about evdo. Like many others, I have a weak signal and am wondering what, if anything, I can do to improve my situation.

I'm currently in a rural area in Texas, and have Verizon wireless with a USB720 aircard. As I write this, the best place I could find in the house, my VZAccess manager is showing only the green flag, on roaming, and an RSSI of -116 dBm.

I took some different readings, using the tests on Speedtest, and I get the following:

DownLoad Upload Latency Miles from RSSI Bars of
Megabits Megabits house Service
0.14 0.01 1036 -120 green flag
1.58 0.35 136 1.2 -80 1 bar
1.66 0.24 129 1.5 -85 3bars
1.76 0.4 133 1.5 -77 3bars
1.66 0.48 122 1.5 -85 2bars
1.47 0.23 128 1.4 -90 2bars
0.49 0.02 133 1 -100 1bar

All of the faster numbers, 1.5 miles from the house, are down the road to the southeast, and in Broadband RevA access, and at a point higher than the house. As the numbers drop off, it goes to NationalAccess, and then fluctuates between NationalAccess and Roaming. Going up the road, to the west, it will occasionally pick up NationalAccess again, signal is only about 1 bar, and RSSI is around -100.

From the maps on the evdo forums, it looks like we are about 8-10 miles from a tower to our south. The countryside varies from pastures, woods, and rolling hills. There are trees, about 25-30 ft in front of the house, and the house has a tin roof on it.

Wondering what I could get to improve this, and would there be a solution that would also help with my Verizon Blackbery Curve, for calls and webservice?

Look forward to any replies, thank you,

ed · 3Gstore Employee Joined: 21 Jan 2009 Posts: 34

That signal fluctuates a lot. It might be worthwhile to try an omnidirectional antenna in that location but at that distance from the tower I wouldn't make any guarantees.
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MobileNetr · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

Are there any other antenna products, like a grid antenna, that are designed for this distance, or would I have to get pretty elaborate to gain much?

Alex · Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 11:32 am Post subject:

if you are certain you only have the one tower feeding your area, i'd recommend our dualband yagi mounted high as you can get it and used in combination with the 3watt dualband amp.

http://3gstore.com/dualbandyagi

http://3gstore.com/amp

that combination of gear has helped folks in identical situations find great success, and the products are covered by 3gstore's 14-day return policy. details are at: http://3gstore.com/rma

a grid typically has higher gain, but there are no dual-band grid antennas that we know of, and verizon uses both bands at their whim.
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MobileNetr · EVDO Newbie Joined: 31 Oct 2009 Posts: 4

From the coverage maps, there appears to be more than one tower in the nearby area (zip code 78632), but the closest of them to the house, seems to be about 6-8 miles or so.

So with this set up, would that help both signals on my usb 720 and my Blackberry? Would my internet improve and be able to make calls on my Blackberry, or just improve the signal on the UsB720?

Thank you,