http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Cell-Service-Tower-Reception-Repeaters-etc-tp6870615p7117397.html
providers to install new towers. (fwack) I'd have to check a reliable
improvement. I here good things about google voice- haven't used it
> Just to follow up on this thread for those who care:
>
> I finally got around to ordering (and then got around to installing) a
> Wilson Electronics DB Pro with a directional (Yagi) outdoor receiving
> antenna and an omnidirectional indoor antenna. It is a dual band
> "transciever", essentially taking in whatever signal it finds in those bands
> from the Yagi and retransmitting them (after amplification) on the omni (to
> be placed at least 20 feet away and not in "front" of the Yagi).
>
> I'm testing against T-Mobile on an iPhone4 (not 4s). My wife is still on
> ATT with her iPhone 2g (soon to be replaced with a 4s), I'll do some testing
> there as well. For those of you who followed the earlier thread, my
> location near Otowi bridge on NM 502 at the Rio Grande has almost zero
> effective cell coverage. We are down low and all the known towers
> (espanola, pojoaque, white rock, pajarito mountain) nearby are either
> marginally line of site or completely blocked by intermediate topography.
> My goal is to get good enough coverage to delete my wired landline service
> (which we hardly use even with cell phones not working)... I expect to use
> my wireless (900Mhz from Tewacom) with Skype to provide a backup alternative
> to the Cell coverage. I'm testing Google Voice to integrate it all (hah!).
>
> Using the aforementioned "field test mode" on my iPhone4 I was able to
> verify that I was getting a modestly better signal... using the RSSI
> (received signal strength indicator) measure in the field test mode, I was
> able to roughly map the net strength of signal to my phone with and without
> the repeater turned on.
>
> The Yagi is about 15 feet above the ground (a permanent installation will b
> ecloser to 20) facing roughly due East which is both my best guess as to
> where the tower I'm most likely to use is, and corroborated by some ad-hoc
> direction testing with the RSSI. The Omni is roughly in the center of my
> 30'x30'x20'(tall) stucco-mesh-frame faraday cage of a house.
>
> At the location of the Yagi, my signal strength is roughly the same whether
> the system is on or not (not surprising as one step in the installation is
> to reduce the retransmit strength until there is no detected interference).
> At the opposite end of the house, the signal is similar with the system on
> and virtually zero without it (far end of my faraday cage of a house)...
> at ground level, I normally see from 0 to 1.5 bars which means I get the
> occasional incoming call that i can't answer and can rarely call out (to the
> point of never trying). With the system on I get a very usable signal
> equal to 3 bars... As I wander away from the house outside, the
> rebroadcast signal drops off fairly quickly but it appears I might get
> useable signal on most of my 1.5 acre property where previously I had a few
> hot spots where I might get enough to catch an incoming call for a few
> seconds.
>
> I am testing with data as we speak and so far, so bad... in fact, the whole
> signal dropped out in the middle of my attempt to get to my favorite
> speed-test site (speakeasy.net) and of course, when I got there, I am told
> that my favorite method requires Flash 7, apparently not on my
> Safari/iPhone4 (not surprising). So I'll have to find a better solution for
> testing... meanwhile anecdotally, Google Maps loads at least as slow as I'm
> used to *anywhere* without wifi. Well, fortunately I don't care so much
> about Data, or at all at home where I have WiFi.
>
> Overall I'd say the Wilson system works well, mostly as expected and seems
> to meet my needs/desires. Internet research suggests that Wilson is the
> best system with only a few spurious compliants while all the other options
> have many complaints (though many of those sound spurious as well?!).
>
> FWIW, it is also worth noticing that Wilson Electronics is a small-town
> company out of St. George Utah... the quality of their engineering,
> packaging, documentation, online support rivals that of any large scale
> consumer product supplier I know of. That said, there may be little going
> on in St George beyond shipping... the parts and primary packaging may come
> directly from China and there may be nothing more than a small warehouse in
> St. George, but indications are that the engineering and support may
> becoming from there as well. A business article linked from their website
> suggests that they sell 200,000 units per year and hired 50 new employees in
> the last quarter... clearly a big deal for a small town like St. George.
>
> Let me know if you are interested in more specifics.
>
> - STeve
>
>> Gil -
>>
>> Thanks! Very Interesting!
>>
>> My iPhone does have a "field test mode" (*3001#12345#*) which does expose
>> the alternate towers that it sees (and might use). I see no indication
>> anywhere that I could influence it's choice, nor have I been able to find a
>> concise description of the algorithm/heuristics likely used to decide. The
>> most obvious of course, would seem to be signal strength, but that ignores
>> issues such as congestion.
>>
>> Since GSM is a Frequency Division Multiplex hybridized with Time Division
>> Multiplex, it seems like there would be almost immediate feedback to the
>> mobile device as it tries to connect as to whether there even *was* an
>> available time/frequency slot to use... the heuristic could be as simple as
>> "try the strongest signal you see, if it is full, try the next, repeat".
>>
>> Along with a dB indication of (useable?) signal there is something called
>> RSSI (received signal strength indicator) which seems useful for recognizing
>> how much interference in the band there might be. It tops out at about 50
>> underneath a tower but is as low as 5 when still useable. Multiple towers
>> competing and/or possibly other sources of interference run this number up
>> without running up the "useable" signal.
>>
>> There are two very cryptic numbers, C1 and C2 which from the mumbo jumbo
>> I've found, might relate to the heuristic which I was seeking above... but I
>> don't know yet... this is subtle and complicated stuff and it appears that
>> short of finding a professional training course, there isn't much
>> information laying around for the motivated layman.
>>
>> See what we have become in this Internet/Google/Wikipedia age? We DO
>> expect a LOT!
>>>
>>> Depending on the phone there might be a # code to get it to search for
>>> more frequencies. Might take a bit of diging though. My oold Cinguluar
>>> phone for instance used #689# that let it borrow other towers in
>>> range. I'll check for the potenial andriod # codes to see if there's
>>> something simillar.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 12:45 PM, Steve Smith<
[hidden email]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm hoping *someone* out there knows more about this than I do, though
>>>> none
>>>> of the earlier discussion seemed to bring any of that out.
>>>>
>>>> I took up Gary Nelson's question about Cell Towers/Coverage, my own
>>>> frustrations, and the other resulting conversations to do a little
>>>> research
>>>> and see if I could learn more and maybe even fix up some of my own
>>>> problems/challenges.
>>>>
>>>> I'm testing iPhone 2, 3G, 4 against ATT and T-Mobile SIMS right now.
>>>> Mostly
>>>> at my house (very marginal signal if any) but will be doing other
>>>> places.
>>>> I'm looking at Cell Repeaters (primarily for my home, but maybe also
>>>> mobile). I'm therefore *mostly* sorting out GSM related issues, but
>>>> there
>>>> is a lot of overlap in general RF issues, repeaters, tower locations,
>>>> etc.
>>>>
>>>> I started trying to write up what I know (so far) and discovered that
>>>> (as
>>>> often is the case) the more I know, the more I know I don't know. My
>>>> 3rd
>>>> Class Radiotelephony license from 1974 and a BS in Physics provides
>>>> just
>>>> enough background to get me in trouble. I wrote a long, rambly overview
>>>> of
>>>> what I know (dominated by what that made me realize I *didn't* know) and
>>>> decided most of you don't care.
>>>>
>>>> So, if there are others trying to make actionable sense (or merely slake
>>>> your curiosity) about the issues of Cell Reception and the potential use
>>>> of
>>>> Repeaters, ping me and we can discuss offline. Maybe once we learn
>>>> enough,
>>>> one or more of us can write up a (more) concise "lessons learned".
>>>>
>>>> My long-winded ramble was useful (to me) already, as trying to explain
>>>> it to
>>>> the larger crowd caused me to dig just a little deeper than I was for
>>>> more
>>>> "practical" reasons. Now to get my nose back on the practical
>>>> grindstone.
>>>>
>>>> - Steve
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> ============================================================
>>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org>>>>
>>> ============================================================
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org>>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.orgMeets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College