Got antenna, weird results. Suggestions? (Changed subject)

leviathon713 · Last edited by leviathon713 on Fri Apr 18, 2008 2:50 pm; edited 2 times in total

First off, sorry this is so long, but I am trying to include all the necessary information.

OK, I've been reading here for about a week, and I am working on my degree in IT, but I am a noob to EVDO.

I live in a rural area in south-central NC (outside Fayetteville)where I receive signal range of -75dBm to -84dBm. My signal bars fluctuate form 2 to full. My speed also fluctuates quite a bit but seems consistant around 400k. This is the best location (in a window sill) when I try other places around the house, signal drops. I can see the tower from my house, but I haven't bothered to measure the distance. I'll say its around 2-3 miles.

For the first week (this is now the middle of the second) I had my internet I was connecting at 1.5 to 1.3 megs all the time. This has stopped for some reason. I tried updating the PRL to 40036 but it didn't make a difference.

After being on the phone with alltel for 6 hours, I have been told that I am limited to 300-500k with their service. I know this not to be true from personal experience, so after much reading here, I will be buying an antenna.

Now here's the question.

I can get almost any antenna for around the same price whether its a Wilson Yagi, Wilson trucker (both Wilsons are the same price), the ARC indoor (cheaper), and some random antennas on ebay that range in strength from 5dB increase (12") to 13dB increase (40") (all cheaper).

Which one should I get? Or which one would you get?

Edit: I'm using a laptop running Vista with the UM150 USB card.

jfarris · EVDO Junkie Joined: 10 May 2007 Posts: 182

If you can see the tower, I'd lean toward the wilson yagi. It's worked really well for me, because it limits the fluctuation since it's 800 MHz only.

JoeCHecht · EVDO Junkie Joined: 05 Jan 2008 Posts: 277

leviathon713 · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 12:26 pm Post subject:

Thanx guys, but, before I could buy one, someone gave me a Wilson Trucker antenna.

Now I have a steady -75dBi reading but the bars on the signal strength indicator keep dropping down to two bars whenever I am downloading.

It will hold four bars all day long until I click a download link of any kind. Within 30 seconds off downloading, it will drop to two then go right back up to four.

Speedtest.net is holding steady at around 1.2M though, so I'm pretty happy. When I first put the antenna up on the roof, I had rev A, but only 1 bar, then it switched back to DO. Do you think it would stay on Rev A if I got an amplifier?