jawilson59
Casual Member
Greetings one and all.....
Some great reference material on this forum, and I am hoping some answers / guidance to my situation / query below.
Background
I live in County Down, Northern Ireland, about 3 miles west of Ballynahinch, property faces south / south south west. About a mile out of BT Infinity range so ended up going down the 4G broadband route, of which EE is the only provider in my area.
Received the 4G router (Alcatel HH70 as I understand) - no signal received on internal antenna of router after setup.
Bought a Poynting XPOL 2 - 5G V3 antenna (future proof!) and mounted it. Beginners lunch managed to get the full 3 bars signal strength on the router, and 4 bars (full strength) as indicated in the routers web interface. Download and upload speeds pretty good except for the afternoons when upload goes down to less than 1Mb.
Due to lockdown I purchased and installed the antenna myself as TSG (EE) were unable to visit. Only problem is, I have no idea of readings such as RSRP, RSRQ or SNR as the web interface on the router is pretty basic. Can’t help but feel that the antenna should be properly aligned using the readings rather than a superficial ‘maximum’ bars approach.
I downloaded the Alcatel Wi-Fi Link App in the hope it might give me more information, unfortunately not, but what it did show was up to 5 bars of signal strength could be achieved....hence my tinkering with antenna direction started, trying to get 5 bars on this app and now am only showing 3 bars despite aligning on the bearing to the mast location below.
I have used Mast Data (Not much use)and Cellmapper to try and find the position of the EE mast, but having driven round the area shown (west side of Slieve Croob), I can't see the one shown (ID 26072), but for anyone who knows the area, there are plenty of masts on the top (location used for bearing).
Question(s)
Can anyone confirm the exact position of the EE mast in this area so I can align the antenna using a bearing? Or alternatively can anyone recommend a way for me to tune the antenna direction without using blind luck? Is there different software I can use to interrogate the EE router or even better, a way to telnet into the Sim to run a cell query on it (*3001#12345#*).
I have rung round a few aerial installers but none carry the correct cellular signal meter to align the antenna using the RSRP/RSRQ/SNR values so if you know who might perform this service or even a company that might hire out a cellular signal meter that could work.
I have even thought about trying to find another 4G router on Amazon that supports EE nano sims and MIMO antennas and has a software interface that provides the signal dB readings - any suggestions? One that supports a primary and secondary broadband source would be perfect as I am using my mediocre BT broadband copper line as a backup when the 4G signal is interrupted.
If anyone has any info / guidance or wants further info, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thanks in advance
Some great reference material on this forum, and I am hoping some answers / guidance to my situation / query below.
Background
I live in County Down, Northern Ireland, about 3 miles west of Ballynahinch, property faces south / south south west. About a mile out of BT Infinity range so ended up going down the 4G broadband route, of which EE is the only provider in my area.
Received the 4G router (Alcatel HH70 as I understand) - no signal received on internal antenna of router after setup.
Bought a Poynting XPOL 2 - 5G V3 antenna (future proof!) and mounted it. Beginners lunch managed to get the full 3 bars signal strength on the router, and 4 bars (full strength) as indicated in the routers web interface. Download and upload speeds pretty good except for the afternoons when upload goes down to less than 1Mb.
Due to lockdown I purchased and installed the antenna myself as TSG (EE) were unable to visit. Only problem is, I have no idea of readings such as RSRP, RSRQ or SNR as the web interface on the router is pretty basic. Can’t help but feel that the antenna should be properly aligned using the readings rather than a superficial ‘maximum’ bars approach.
I downloaded the Alcatel Wi-Fi Link App in the hope it might give me more information, unfortunately not, but what it did show was up to 5 bars of signal strength could be achieved....hence my tinkering with antenna direction started, trying to get 5 bars on this app and now am only showing 3 bars despite aligning on the bearing to the mast location below.
I have used Mast Data (Not much use)and Cellmapper to try and find the position of the EE mast, but having driven round the area shown (west side of Slieve Croob), I can't see the one shown (ID 26072), but for anyone who knows the area, there are plenty of masts on the top (location used for bearing).
Question(s)
Can anyone confirm the exact position of the EE mast in this area so I can align the antenna using a bearing? Or alternatively can anyone recommend a way for me to tune the antenna direction without using blind luck? Is there different software I can use to interrogate the EE router or even better, a way to telnet into the Sim to run a cell query on it (*3001#12345#*).
I have rung round a few aerial installers but none carry the correct cellular signal meter to align the antenna using the RSRP/RSRQ/SNR values so if you know who might perform this service or even a company that might hire out a cellular signal meter that could work.
I have even thought about trying to find another 4G router on Amazon that supports EE nano sims and MIMO antennas and has a software interface that provides the signal dB readings - any suggestions? One that supports a primary and secondary broadband source would be perfect as I am using my mediocre BT broadband copper line as a backup when the 4G signal is interrupted.
If anyone has any info / guidance or wants further info, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thanks in advance