U720 external antennas for improved bandwidtgh?

ChrisKnight

I have a Novatel U720 USB modem, and I noticed that under the flip-up antenna is a black rubber square cap. I pulled off the cap, and there is a small antenna connector. Are there any third party antennas that are known to fit this jack that will improve wireless performance?

-Chris

Michael · Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:33 am Post subject:

Here are products that work with the U720:

http://booster-antenna.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=63
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Semi75 · EVDO Junkie Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 230

As pointed out in the reviews the u720 is a real performer in picking up a signal when using the Y cable. I am in an area that is just starting to roll out EVDO at home and the tower right by me is still 1xRTT while a tower 7 miles away with one large hill preventing Los was preventing a decent connection.

With the s620 plugged into my laptop I could barely pick up an evdo signal in one room and usually needed to do all those odd things to improve signal like standing on one leg with one arm stretched to the west holding the laptop, you get the drift. With the u720 using the Y cable a bad but usable signal of -98 to -104 is always available, sometimes a little better. Currently I am using the u720 on a desktop in my home office where the s620 cannot receive an evdo signal at all. Using an Inteligain amp with the little window sticker antenna I can pick up an evdo signal on the s620 similar to that of the u720 without any external devices.

My situation is not ideal for EVDO but I was curious and was more concerned about testing latency with an external antenna so I bought a Wilson and adapter cable. The -dB signal reading frankly was not improved by a huge margin and I did not expect it to be. With approximately 6-7 miles to an EVDO tower and one hill blocking Los I was not expecting much. The steady signal with the Wilson trucker reads from -92 to -95. What the antenna did is get me over the hump of a fading signal into a usable signal.

For me what the external antenna also did was lower latency approximately 25ms average to various sites tested. That is not including the previously tested high pings that would creep in due to a variable signal. With my crappy signal on Rev 0 I am pinging google.com between 149 and 164ms while I was averaging 176 to 195ms before. Other sites such as a gaming server I play on tested the same depending on the time of day and prime to play hours testing higher.

Anyway nothing earth shattering here but a few things we already knew hold true. The u720 does a great job pulling in a signal when getting it away from rf noise and using the Y cable. An external antenna helps but if you are in a bad rf location in relation to the tower that has evdo don't expect miracles. Numerous things effect latency in wireless but reducing obstructions between your card and the tower helps.

Another note is that the Wilson trucker connected to the u720 preformed slightly better than s620 using both the amp and the trucker antenna in the same spot for me.

Bandwidth was nearly identical using the u720 alone or with the external antenna. I wasn't suprised due to this being such a poor signal area frankly and can't wait to test latency after they finally switch over the tower less than a mile away and within los.