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Hi all,

Short story: Live inside M25 RM125DE, all the postcodes around us have fibre but us, Openreach sucks and wants our development to pay fibre installation and profit with it, no more than 1Mb via ADSL.
So currently I'm using 4G from 3 and I have around 10Mb down.
I have an Solwise Outdoor 3G/4G LTE 2dBi Cross Polarised Omni-Directional Antenna w/SMA Male Connector connected to an Asus 4G-AC55U inside my loft.
Can you give me any tips on how to improve it? Maybe a better antenna? Router? How much would I gain to put the antenna outside, it's already on top of the loft but bellow the roof tiles?

Thanks.

Regards,
JS
 
Firstly, if you can't even get 2Mbps then your local authority should be paying to upgrade your area so that you can.

Unless the development was built after the plans were drawn up in which case it's up to the developer of the properties to have provided it as part of the build, though there was no obligation for them to do so.

I've struggled to track down the local authority's website (they should all have one) to see the status of the programme but that's worth looking into. It may show an alternative possible supplier e.g. wireless.

Also fill this in:
https://cablemystreet.virginmedia.com/#!/register

Vodafone seems to have the strongest signal of all the operators at that postcode. Three and EE both show good outdoors, variable indoors.

You don't say what the signal strength you get is; for instance we can get a fair 3 signal but the downstream speeds are all over the place, from just a few Mbps to 25 Mbps. I'd guess that when the transmitter was upgraded for 4G, the backhaul wasn't. So here, the issue isn't the signal strength, it's that there simply isn't enough bandwidth at the transmitter.

+2dBi is a marginal improvement but you may well be losing even that small improvement by putting it in the loft.

The first thing to try is putting it outside. Height is usually the key. While it may look ridiculous, if you're determined, get a broom, fix the antenna to the end of it with some rubber bands, and poke it upwards and out of the windows on the top floor. Try each corner of the house. Bear in mind that if you see an improvement - you may need to move the modem along with the antenna, don't fix an extension cable as that will lose your signal improvement.

Likewise you may gain a fraction by shortening the length of cable between the two, but that's if absolutely everything else has failed and is unlikely to achieve very much.

If you have line of sight to the transmitter than a directional antenna on the roof is the way to go, budget around £250 for that and someone to climb on the roof. Make sure you're satisfied with the operator before you do this. Changing operator involves climbing on the roof again if the transmitter is in a different place.

Three say they're "doing some maintenance work" on Friday where you are, so that may affect or improve their service.
 
That's an amazing response, thanks!
I've already registered on cablemystreet and even talked to some neighbors to do the same but without success. :(
So, on my Asus I get 3 out of 4 bars. The speed is usually constant and I can only get that Max in a specific place of the loft, maybe because the signal is being reflected and that's where it gets the strongest.
Can you advise on any source to check cell towers around?

Thanks.
 
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There used to be an online database which you could search but it doesn't seem to be up to date any more.

To locate our nearest one I ended up taking the modem in the car and driving around until the signal was strongest, at which point I found myself next to it.

You can sometimes work it out from the operators' coverage maps - it's generally in the middle of the "circle" of coverage.
 
Mastdata is OK. Cellmapper is excellent where users have properly surveyed an area. If you send me a location, I can find the masts in the area and usually the frequencies too.
 
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Thanks! I'm waiting for a 12dbi directional antenna. Let's see if I get better results.
Does anyone know what does the Aux and Main antennas do on routers? I fail to see why connecting just to the Aux antenna the signal gets lost and the Main is the only one that gets signal, what's the logic behind it?

Thanks!
 
Correct antenna for 4G

Thanks! I'm waiting for a 12dbi directional antenna. Let's see if I get better results.
Does anyone know what does the Aux and Main antennas do on routers? I fail to see why connecting just to the Aux antenna the signal gets lost and the Main is the only one that gets signal, what's the logic behind it?

Thanks!

From what I can see the Asus router has 2 antenna (https://www.asus.com/Networking/4G-AC55U/specifications/) for mobile (LTE) connectivity so it can support 2x2 MIMO, that means you have to connect 2 external antenna and not just one or you will lose one half of the bandwidth.

With MIMO on this router there are 2 antenna and 2 radios for downlink reception, this allows for the 150Mbps speed, likewise on the uplink it will attempt to use x 2 MIMO to get 50Mbps if the cell site is close enough (the router has only the same transmit power as a phone).
 
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You need to connect the cables from the antenna to the left and right ports on the router. The readings you have are pretty good and shouldn't be limiting speed much though we don't know SINR and other signal variables.
 
2 Antenna are LTE the 3rd is WiFi only

Hi,

Can anyone tell me what connects where?
IfDlbid.png


Thanks.

Hi,

The Middle antenna on the picture is WiFi ONLY, not LTE, the left and right antennas are LTE Only - not you have labelled them.

Next the router's prime LTE frequencies are: 4G FDD-LTE: 800 /1800 /2600 and you should note that 3Uk transmits LTE on 800MHz and 1800MHz, it does not have 2600MHz spectrum. So ideally your antennas need to be able to support 800 through 1800MHz.

The second picture shows a cross polarised antenna, 3UK will be using horizontal polarisation in most cases, so your xpol antenna will be wasting gain.
 
Thanks, but does it make any difference if I connect +45 to aux and -45 to main antenna or -45 to aux and +45 to main antenna?
I've been doing some research, can I assume my RSRP is bad?
Source: http://www.cablefree.net/wirelesstechnology/4glte/lte-rsrq-sinr/

It will not make a difference as you have the wrong antenna, I think you should be using 2 off CSG
68007 / 10 PSX-5, which are 3G/LTE multi-band antennas working from 800 up through 2500MHz as a dual band unit - it will give 7 to 10dBi and you will need one for each antenna port.
 
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I see, so I have the wrong antennas, even the Solwise Outdoor 3G/4G LTE 2dBi Cross Polarised Omni-Directional Antenna isn't the best choice then?
Do you know were can I get those antennas?


Does EE also uses horizontal polarisation? Is there any provider that uses both and those antennas are the right fit?

Thanks for all your help and sorry for such noobness :p
 
The one you said "CSG 68007 / 10 PSX-5" on the specifications it says: "Polarization Vertical"

Can you explain the difference from this one with aux and main antennas to Huawei E5186?
 
Last edited:
All operators use X-Pol antennas now apart from a few legacy rural sites (which are Vertical polarity) and certain very, very specialised masts. If you look at actual antennas used on transmitter sites, they have +45 and -45 for polarisational diversity.
3UK are using 1800MHz 4G on the masts around you.
It doesn't matter which way you connect the +45 and -45.
The antenna you have is more than capable for receiving 3's 4G.

To find out more about the masts the networks use, check out my YouTube and my website. You will see from the mast schematics, that effectively all sites use X-Pol panels. The masts serving you are mostly dual band examples, featured here. The Xs indicate antenna X-pol
 
Last edited:
That's amazing Pedro? That's a common Portuguese name, any relation? :)
Thank you so much for all the info. So, I guess I I'll use this antenna as it seems to be the best option and I'll try to find someone to put it on the roof pointing to the mast.
As I can see at the moment, when inside the loft I point it to the mast and I have that signal with roof tiles in front, and 2 more roof houses in the line of sight. Hope that putting it on the roof high enough to have a perfect line of sight my signal will be much higher.

Any recommendations?
 
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