Sectorized towers

CBD1 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 10:51 am Post subject: Sectorized towers

Hi all, just found this board as I have begun messing with my new V620. Does anyone know if Verizon offers EVDO in all directions by default from their sectorized towers? I am currently only getting 1xRTT from my home, and the nearest location that I have been able to receive EVDO has been about 12mi away (havent checked elevation yet). Though when I begin to receive it at that spot, it seems very abrupt and not omni-directional. I imagine this could just be the function of the card. From what I have found so far, there is no way to set the V620 to receive only EVDO and not 1xRTT, at this point anyway. Is this a correct statement? Also, has anyone had luck with the antenna boosters allowing them to receive EVDO where they couldn't before? Thanks!!!

boater805 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 6:52 pm Post subject: evdo with a pc card

1. Control of "forcing" evdo only reception isn't a question of your card model, its your software. To force evdo mode, you need to be running mobil connection manager version 2.5 and use the engineering menu to set it to HDR only mode. This will pull in evdo if its present in your area. I am able to get evdo even when signal indicates 0 to 2 bars. Normally vzw would auto to 1xrtt as a stronger signal in those instances and thereby effectively block you evdo. In fact my "home base" on my boat is generally 1 to 2 bars of signal for evdo (2 to 3 for 1xrtt) and I have no problem getting evdo at averages of 300 - 500 kbps by setting to HDR only. At my office evdo is just in the testing stage and lights up the towers occassionally with 0 to 1 bar at my location. Even with that I get good evdo performance of 300 - 450 kbps average. In strong evdo areas (3 to 4 bars) the HDR only doesn't matter so much (although it still seems to prevent dormant mode on idle as frequently). In 3 to 4 bar areas I'm averaging 500 to 800 with bursts to 1.2 Mbps.

To force HDR mode, you open mobil connection manager. Click on the help tab. Place cursor on the icon in the help window or within the inside area of the outlined text box and double right click.
This opens a "secret box" for inputting the following (all uppercase): ##DEBUG. Then click on test tab, enable test mode, click on HDR only and hit return. MSL box opens, enter 000000 (6 zeros) and hit return. Wait til it shows modem reset then click on OK to close out .. you're now in evdo mode. To reset to 1xrtt where needed repeat but select CDMA only or hybrid instead of HDR only.
I find that CDMA only decreases switch to dormant when idle and stops those annoying occassional failed DNS lookups. Hybrid allows it to auto default to evdo when in a strong evdo signal area (but I prefer to force HDR even in those areas for the same reasons as cdma only).

DB
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CBD1 · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 7:12 pm Post subject: V620

Thanks for the info, its good to know that EVDO will work well with less than stellar coverage. However, I have the V620 card and I have tried MCM v2.5 and it doesnt even recognize that the card is installed. Does anyone know of some way to perform the same function on the newer software?