I used to have a decent signal - until trees with leaves

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

...then the leaves came out.

I bought the card in February and had a decent signal in my home. It hovered around -90. Now that the leaves have come out, I'm around -105 and the speeds have taken a big hit. I am not yet in a EV-DO area, but my area is shown as 'future coverage' on the Sprint maps. At the same time as trying to boost my signal right now, I'd also like to plan for the future and buy something that will work well if/when EV-DO is available to me. I am approximately 3 miles away from the tower that I'm pretty sure I'm connecting to. It's NLOS due to trees.

Any advice/ ideas on what would work for me here?

Thanks,
Chris

Michael · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 6:30 am Post subject:

There are other threads up here on this topic.

(Lots) of green leaves can cause a problem for signal, specially when you are in a heavily wooded area and it is that time of the year when the leaves come out.
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cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

I found a couple similar threads, but not much meat to them.
http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1807
http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=953

With trees, would a yagi or an omni perform better?

Thanks,
Chris

Semi75 · EVDO Junkie Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 230

Is it just me or are you testy lately Michael? The guy just asked a question and although I read this forum daily I can see why as someone learning he feels this is a specific question unrelated to many other antenna questions posted. That is especially true with this new Antenna and Amp forum. Who cares if the same question is asked 10 different ways by 10 different people all thinking their problem is specific, it makes them happy, keeps me and others entertained at work and people coming back to help. It's your site but to keep people happy and coming back rely on being nice and helpful and beginner friendly, that welcoming it what keeps me coming back as well as the info of course. This mini rant was just brought on by a few recent posts by yourself and Scott that seem more annoyed than in the past.

Anyway...... here is my help but there are others that are more experienced. What card are you using? The cheapest solution is an external antenna. You will find a link here to booster antenna that is on the sites main page. It could very well be the solution for you as you have a signal but just need a better one.

For a more dramatic increase you can try an external antenna and an amp, i.e. the interior booster and an amp. If even more gain is needed there is the exterior antenna route. An omni directional would likely work best as a directional such as a Yagi works much better w/ los, which you do not have. Personally I would start with the cheapest solution first.

Michael is right there are quite a few other threads that will help you even more but this will get you started in the right direction.

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

It's not a big deal, really. I can understand an admin getting testy at times. The constant influx of inept users who post once and you never see again gets irritating to say the least.

I thought I had done enough research and my question was specific enough to warrant a new thread. I thought wrong, apparently. Very Happy

Chris

MaximumSignal · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:58 am Post subject:

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

If you were to recommend an antenna from your arsenal, what would you recommend for this situation?

I have a feeling that I can get by with just an antenna for now, but if you don't think so, please tell me. I have Sierra 580 that I use through a cardbus adapter on my desktop computer. It's down on the floor and I'm sure that just having an external antenna up off the floor and away from the case will help a bit.

Thanks,
Chris

MaximumSignal · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:16 am Post subject:

Michael · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:32 am Post subject:

Semi75 · EVDO Junkie Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 230

I understand what you are saying especially as it grows and this category was definetly needed. You just didn't seem to be your happy self as of late with the efforts to clean an uncluttered forum as of yet. I reccomend this forum to people curious about evdo quite often in rl and refer even more on various notebook forums. The knowledge bases outside of here are extremly limited.

It could be worse it could have been another my Dell has an express card slot only question. Confused

horsessmellfunny · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 12:31 pm Post subject:

Yes, trees are a bitch, they do absorb all the good wavelength in the specutrm (wait until we have gamma ray cell phones) HA. Anyways, your best bet, as stated above would be pick up an amp and antenna (the mag mount is pimp) from Max Signal. I have it, and holy crap. I am still too far away from EVDO, but my freakin 1xRTT has hit all the way down to -57dBm!!! I almost poo'ed myself. It works flawlessy. Actually, I forgot to mention this before, but when I updated my AC 580 and set the roam to 'automatic'; I hooked up the amp and mag mount, and my card started roaming on some foriegn network, thats how strong the strength was. Max Signal has the best prices for it as well. Check him out for sure, you will be very happy. It will also solve that damn tree problem.

Here is an idea, get the trucker, and mount it at the top of one of those trees... Shocked

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

What was your signal before the amp and 5db mag?

horsessmellfunny · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 1:16 pm Post subject:

It varies from -83dBm is my average.

cpayne5 · EVDO User Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 71

So -83 is now your average, or -83 was your average before you got the amp?