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Rural - Antenna, B1 & B3 THIS!

LeaUK

Pro Member
After quite some research, trial and error, some good advice and help from members here, and a key suggestion from a very experienced ISP forum member, I took the leap and purchased a Mikrotick LHGG.

I am cell edge on an external omni, with B1 and B3 (poor) connection (B20 shocking throughput as expected, sub 0.5Mbs) behind trees; so seeking improvement I finally took the leap and found an LHGG on ebay for £100, made sense to try.

Boom, from an exceptionally fluctuating 1Mbs to 30Mbs on the Omni SNR -5dB to 10dB, and heavily fluctuating c. -110dB RSRP, to a solid -97dB to -100dB RSRP low latency (c. 40ms) 20Mbs to 35Mbs (occasionally 17Mbs or 65Mbs, possibly depending on cell load/weather) and stable 15dB to 20dB SNR.

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My goal was to increase SNR to increase reliability (directional antennas are excellent for this) and hopefully a minimum stable low latency (for Teams) 10Mbs - goal complete.

The advantages of the modem/router built into the dish are multi-fold, including low loss from antenna to router (almost no coax) and PoE allowing significant lengths of ethernet cable runs (up to 100m, but consider PoE length run so lets say 60m @57v PoE). This gives significantly increased mounting possibility and performance etc.

Cant rate this device high enough after two weeks of continuous use and bandwidth checking through a diversity of weather conditions.

My only concern (for others) is its limited gain of 4.8dB at 800MHz (B20) compared to 15-15.5dB at 1800MHz -2100Mhz (B3,B1) if you're extreme cell edge or don't have a B1/B3 mast nearby (I'd change provider, use cell mapper to check local providers vs Bands).

1695976766131.png

Forget the rest, buy the best!
Would be interesting in other's views of this device on B20.
 
I have one and found exactly the same as you. It is not good for B20. In fact, I found it to be useless in my situation. If B20 is all you have, the SXT is a better choice. Yes, it hasn’t got the 1000 Mbps ethernet port, but that isn’t likely to be an issue if you are B20 only.
 
I have one and found exactly the same as you. It is not good for B20. In fact, I found it to be useless in my situation. If B20 is all you have, the SXT is a better choice. Yes, it hasn’t got the 1000 Mbps ethernet port, but that isn’t likely to be an issue if you are B20 only.
tbh doubt the 1Gb port is a requirement for any bands rurally, I bought it as it was on ebay at an exceptionally good price lol, but I understand the processing is far higher and a redesigned board, so maybe useful for 5G in the future with a new PCIe modem and 19.5dB @3.4GHz?
 
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It also has a nice heavy integral heat sink on the back. Only one sim slot though.

You might need to add an extra couple of antenna for 5G.
 
I recently installed a Mikrotik LHG LTE6. We only have one mast we can use, about 2.5km away and partially hidden behind a hill. Unfortunately it seems I can only get B20, either from Vodafone or O2. B3 from EE doesn't get over the hill, it seems. Still, it's getting between 8Mb/s and 10Mb/s which is a better than I could get with an pair of omni antennas connected to a cat 4 gateway.
 
I recently installed a Mikrotik LHG LTE6. We only have one mast we can use, about 2.5km away and partially hidden behind a hill. Unfortunately it seems I can only get B20, either from Vodafone or O2. B3 from EE doesn't get over the hill, it seems. Still, it's getting between 8Mb/s and 10Mb/s which is a better than I could get with an pair of omni antennas connected to a cat 4 gateway.
8Mbs on B20, impressive, I barely get 1Mbs on EE. It's a shame the LHG(G) dish isn't designed for 800Mhz too, I'll check the SXT et al
 
It also has a nice heavy integral heat sink on the back. Only one sim slot though.

You might need to add an extra couple of antenna for 5G.
another good move from Mikrotik and reason to spend the extra 20quid, no brainer really the LHGG, also guaranteed to get an LTE6.

Also interesting on my mast, is even with CA on B3 & B3 it yields less throughput than a single B1, and B1 being higher frequency is slightly lower on the signal but far better SNR for me.

Another pro point is Cell ID locking (if you're keen), Band locking and Cell/eNB ID :cool:
 
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One thing I have noticed using speedtest.net (etc) is that BW seems to creep up over time, for example initialise at a solid 10Mbs download and rise to 25Mbs, bounce around, then progressively increase, however the test regularly ceases before max speed is measured.

I'm wondering why, and also how to increase the time period of speed testing. I've tried launching a couple of speed testers simultaneously but timing is critical and they rarely finish simultaneously.
 
I do love a good picture of mounting position, sort us out geezer
not sure this is the correct forum hahahaha

Simply on a long aluminium pole (around 5m off ground) with a 10deg elevation, test setup not full install.

For those in the UK, can be bought here:

I also grabbed the useful quick mount to allow easy alignment:
 

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One thing I have noticed using speedtest.net (etc) is that BW seems to creep up over time, for example initialise at a solid 10Mbs download and rise to 25Mbs, bounce around, then progressively increase, however the test regularly ceases before max speed is measured.

I'm wondering why, and also how to increase the time period of speed testing. I've tried launching a couple of speed testers simultaneously but timing is critical and they rarely finish simultaneously.
Use the nperf app and set it to run longer tests.
Alternatively start a speedtest, stop it midway and start again.
The routers need a bit of time and load to aggregate fully the bands.
 
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On high bandwidth connections, another good play is to stream a YouTube video at the same time as testing to keep the connection warm as medium quality videos are negligible network load versus a high bandwidth connection. Accuracy could be tested comparing without the additional load.
 
On high bandwidth connections, another good play is to stream a YouTube video at the same time as testing to keep the connection warm as medium quality videos are negligible network load versus a high bandwidth connection. Accuracy could be tested comparing without the additional load.
Good tip, although I'm far from 'high' bandwidth. I tend to run one after the other to 'warm' the connection up, it's not always warm though, or cell load begins to limit me.
 
You may see an improvement by raising it up a bit. I initially tested mine fitted to a 1.8m long pole strapped to a garden chair, so the centre of the dish was around 1.6m or so above ground level. It worked, but wasn't great. Raising it up so the dish is around 6m above ground level made a big difference.
 
Use the nperf app and set it to run longer tests.
Alternatively start a speedtest, stop it midway and start again.
The routers need a bit of time and load to aggregate fully the bands.
nperf, great tip thanks.

I'm locked to B1 and the mast doesn't support B1, B1 CA so single carrier, which is faster than CA on B3, B3 using the same mast - odd!
 
You may see an improvement by raising it up a bit. I initially tested mine fitted to a 1.8m long pole strapped to a garden chair, so the centre of the dish was around 1.6m or so above ground level. It worked, but wasn't great. Raising it up so the dish is around 6m above ground level made a big difference.
Cheers, I have a little and it didn't make anything noticeable, the vertical angle makes the most difference, I changed from 5 degs to 10 deg which improved both SNR and SNRP. Probably the trees, it's pointing right between two very close but then hits the tips of huge 100ft tall ones around 100m away. I also checked ground/building elevation via Solwise's elevation tool, handy!

If the sun ever comes out again I'll have more of a mapping exercise, but so far a significant improvement. I'd recommend to others (plenty around me 'signalling' they want one) just grabbing one of these (B1 + B3 reception area) and be done with it
 
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I measured the elevation angle using some trig and the known heights either end (from the Solwise map tool). The height difference between the centre of the dish at our end and the centreline of the array up the mast is 97m, which gives an elevation angle of only 2.29°. I'm using the 5° spacer that came with the dish at the moment, as there are trees on top of the hill between us and the mast and I think angling it upwards a bit might help.

The beam width of the dish antenna is pretty broad though, even up at B7. Guessing, from the gain figures, I'd say the 3dB beam width of the dish is going to be around 60° or so down in B20, narrowing to maybe 35° in B3. Might get as narrow as around 25° in B7. Still a pretty wide beam though, which does make alignment a bit less critical. Looking at the design the antenna pattern is going to be close to symmetrical in both the vertical and horizontal planes.

Be interesting to see what the performance is like with a bigger dish. Tempted to get the largest satellite TV dish I can find and see if there's a way to adapt the LHG antenna/router unit to work with an offset feed. Can't see any obvious reason for it not to work, and a typical asymmetric satellite TV dish would give a narrower beam in the horizontal place, whilst retaining a reasonably wide vertical pattern, with a useful boost in gain, especially down in B20.
 
It was a just back from the pub late night bid on eBay. I forgot all about it until I got an email five days later saying I’d won. £30 if I remember correctly. Nobody else bid on it.
 
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