Experience with added antenna and signal strength

carsc99

We live in a rural area and have had nothing but dial up for the past, well..forever. Finally, EVDO, my savior from dial up. I purchased the 595U and got it up and running. Signal strength was only getting me 1X and very limited EVDO. It woud jump back and forth. I hooked up the little tombstone antenna and got a little more stability but still not much EVDO signal. Bought the Omni and set it up inside. Now, I'm getting some EVDO signal. Next the Omni goes in the attic. Better again, but still not what I was looking for. Now to mount it outside. I ended up mounting an Omni on the side of a fake dormer window. The dormers are up high so I had to add another 15' of cable. This got the tip of the Omni about roof level. Here is the summary of signal strength:
Just the 595U w/o any antenna - 1X to very limited EVDO ( very poor )
Added the little tombstone antenna - Still very limited EVDO but better
Omni in the house (no extension) - EVDO in the mid 90dBm range
Omni in the attic (no extension) - EVDO in the high 80dBm range
Omni mounted outside (w/15' added cabling) - EVDO in the high to mid 70dBm range

I'm now seriously looking into the Amp. I have about 27' of cable (length with the Omni, extra 15' extension, and adapter cable). I talked with a Wilson tech. He claims I should be in the 60's with the amp. BTW, tech mentioned how important it was to get the antenna outside for better reception. He said something about Sprint putting out 1900 Mhz which doesn't travel though objects very well.

My main concern is stability of signal. We have had nothing but perfect weather since getting the aircard, so I'm not sure how it will handle severe weather. We can get some pretty nasty stuff in the Spring time around here. It must be 99% realiable for work purposes. Anyway, that is probably a question for another post.

Hope this helps someone out there.

Scott

Michael · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:05 pm Post subject:

Scott,

Thanks for your post, perhaps it should be crossed posted in the "Success Stories".

Looks like you got the Omni External from us just last week - so it didn't take you long to do all these test - thanks for sharing.
_________________
EVDO :: EVDO News :: EVDO Antennas :: Buy Verizon :: Buy Sprint :: EVDO Amplifier

carsc99 · Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:20 pm Post subject:

Michael · Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 6:38 am Post subject:

sglad · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 6

You should see 10-12 dB gain with the amplifier.

jon8105 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 147

Also, when I have bad weather at the house I can't tell a difference in my signal strength, so I don't think you will have to worry about that. What speeds are you getting?

carsc99 · Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:25 pm Post subject:

jon8105 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 147

With your signal right now in the mid to high 70s you should be seeing much faster speeds than what you are now. My signal strength is low 80s and I get 1.3 Mbps down and 450 Kbps up, with latenc(pinging google) around 120ms.

carsc99 · Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:33 pm Post subject:

Yeah, I know...I wish my speeds were like yours. I'm still holding out hope once I start doing some tweaking. I do know I get better speeds in the morning and afternoon. It slows down at night, during peak internet hours. I have started reading the Supercharged EVDO thread but I only made it through the first couple of pages. I made a change to the TCP receive window and got around 500 this morning. I'll get around to some major stuff in the next few weeks. You have any suggestions? I have only been to this site and to broadbandreports website. I wonder if there is some tower congestion? Is there such a thing? Seems like I read that somewhere. I also wonder about Norton 360 and all the security monitors it has. Anyway, I all ears for suggestions or places to look.

Scott

jon8105 · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Posts: 147

Maybe you have already said this, but are you on Sprint EVDO or Verizon EVDO?

carsc99 · Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:38 pm Post subject:

Sprint...

Did some tweaking last night with the TCP Optimizer program. Now getting about 600 down and 150-200 up. Slowly trying to get there.

Scott

realist · EVDO Newbie Joined: 07 Oct 2007 Posts: 1

Great info! I get -97db and was about to buy the booster antenna, mainly because I didn't want to have to mount an antenna on the roof. I had never considered using the omni external antenna *inside* the house, and your post about it getting better reception than a booster antenna makes me think this is the way to go. (I will not be carrying the antenna around, it will be in my home office for a desktop PC.)

It seems that buying the omni external antenna is better than the booster antenna for multiple reasons. One, your testing shows it has better reception inside the house than the booster antenna. Two, it comes with a longer cable so I can try moving it around inside the house. Three, it has the option of moving it to the attic or roof if reception is still not good enough inside at the computer desk.

Thanks for the great post and information. The db information of the omni external antenna at different locations (as well as the booster) is very helpful.

Rangerw · Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 10:33 pm Post subject:

From a post I did in the WRT54G3G thread. Speedtests on two seperate cards, one in Laptop with no external amp/ant and the other in router with 3w amp/omni. Tests where to the same speedtest.net server and I started the tests at the same time:

Verizon Service

KPC-650-wrt54g3g-3amp booster-the Omni antenna = 200ms - 604 down - 113 up

V640 (Express) - in a Vista Ult HP Pavilio dv9230us express slot - VZW Access Manager v6.2.5 (1784a) = 276ms - 318 down - 47 up

I can swap the cards and results are about the same.

If you leave in a fringe area not sure you can go wrong with an amp/ext ant setup and 3GStore is the place to get it from. I get everything from there I can and wish I could get all our corporate account stuff there.
_________________
A simple man.

freightliner · EVDO User Joined: 02 Oct 2007 Posts: 61

Thanks, carsc99,
I am in an almost identical signal environment as yours, only my carrier is Verizon. I recently received the aircard 595 and will be getting the 3 watt inline signal amp and external omni antenna this week. I am migrating from satellite and have noticed a gigantic leap in quality just from plugging the aircard into my laptop here on the kitchen table. I imagine the antenna and amp are going to make the difference in order for me to disconnect the more expensive satellite service.
Your post has been very helpful in reassuring me that I have made the right decision.
_________________
Further...

carsc99 · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject:

realist,
The omni is definately going to help. You, should get pretty good signal gain with it. Especially, if you are at -97 now. Try to get it as high as you can. I was amazed at the difference a few feet would make.

Rangerw,
I may be getting an Amp soon. If it increases my speed, it will be worth every penny.

freightliner,
I'll be interested to hear how things go for you. BTW, I have heard some real horror stories with Satellite.

Scott