What happened to my signal?

ParrotHead · EVDO Newbie Joined: 21 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: Denver

I have a Sierra AC595U 1xEV-DO card hooked up to my pretty fast PC - PentiumD, 2.80GHz, 3GB RAM, XP Home SP2. Surveyed the signals
available for miles around, found EVDO avg approx 1100down, 405up,
ping about 300, signal avg about 73dbm close to the casa - all of these measurements taken via laptop, inside my Exploder with no external
antenna, at high points on the side of the roads. This is a rural area, in horse country about 30 miles SE of Denver metro. The hacienda is in a
small valley - could not get a signal in the driveway in the car, but did on the hood - 498d, 318u, 323ms ping, -87dbm. Signal with the 595U card
on extension cable, set in the window, -89dbm. OK, looks like I'll have to use external antenna. Got the trucker's mobile Wilson with adapter from
3gstore, put it on the roof directly over the office. Signal averaged 535d, 425u, 76dbm over several tests. Not good line of sight except to the
north, I think can be better, raise it some and test. Roof has pitch of about 1/3, rise/run. Raised the antenna 4 feet net with a camera tripod and retested. Avg of 674d, 409u, 74dbm. Made a permanent tripod mount and raised it to 6 ft. Now the antenna has no effect at all. I'm getting around 115dbm signal, it won't connect. I removed the antenna lead and stuck the 595u in the window - I get right around 100dbm. I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and front end - no effect. Sprint released a new driver - no effect. Removed and reconnected the card - no effect. Went up on the roof, looked for anything like a cut wire, could find nothing wrong. Checked the card still works with the laptop with no external antenna. Set the Network to mixed mode, with the card in the window it connected at 1X. Signal strength indicated 75 - 98 or so. Without antenna.

What happened to my signal from the antenna?

Thanks for your help, ideas, comments.