My Experience (DP727L15 15dBi Panel vs Wilson Yagi 314411)

[jrp78]

I've had dual Wilson yagi's in a mimo setup(mounted in my attic - asphalt shingle roof) for a little over a year. I'm 4.75 miles from the tower. I have an AT&T nighthawk router with an AT&T plan. The yagi's are connected to 20' LMR400 cables then pigtails to connect to the nighthawk. This setup has worked pretty well for me.
However, recently someone told me about this site and I was intrigued by the 15db panels. Having read numerous positive reviews/posts I decided to get a pair to see how they would work for me.
With my yagi's, the speed would top out around 60down/10up in the morning hours on Band2. The nighthawk would bounce from Band2 to Band12 ocassionally. Band12 speeds weren't terrible but not nearly as good as Band2 at around 15down/2up.
After putting up the panels(with 17" of separation between the connectors), the speeds were terrible. Almost like I had no antennas. I moved the antennas closer together and the speeds are almost as good as the yagi's.
I'm seeing around 50down/7up. Having said that, I was a little disappointed the speeds weren't as good as the yagi's. They do seem to stick on Band2 better but again speeds just aren't quite as good. What's also odd is the signal strength/snr/etc is all reporting slightly better values than the yagi's.

Now, in all honesty, I was hoping the panels would give me a stronger signal as I'm moving to a house where the closest tower is 7.8 miles away. Standing on that property, I have no signal. I went up about 20 feet and saw a signal for a split second but then it was gone.
I plan on trying both setups soon to see if I can pull any usable signal. I can only assume the mimo setup itself may not help much. My guess is Band12 is the only band that is going to reach that far. If anyone has any tips for trying to reach a tower this far out, let me know!

[Didneywhorl]

Did you try to match the antennas to standard signal planes? IE each tilted opposites +/-45 degrees?

[Viper67857]

Might have something to do with being in the attic. I'd try getting them outside, if possible. Maybe the yagis aren't quite as affected by those materials since they're a bit more directional.

I started with a cheap netgear flat panel in the attic, then tried a parabolic grid in the attic. Neither were good. Moving the grid outside resulted in a ~20dbi improvement on rsrp and ~7dbi on the rsrq. My tower is also in the direction of the gabled end of the house, so I wasn't even pointing through any shingles, the attenuation up there is just terrible for LTE frequencies.

[jrp78]

Did you try to match the antennas to standard signal planes? IE each tilted opposites +/-45 degrees?

Yes. Also, something else I forgot to mention is I'm NLOS. Again, I was really only testing the panels at my current location. I'll be gone from in here a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to do some testing(from outside) at the new address tomorrow and will report back.

[jrp78]

Might have something to do with being in the attic. I'd try getting them outside, if possible. Maybe the yagis aren't quite as affected by those materials since they're a bit more directional.

This thought crossed my mind but I had no real proof since I didn't test outside.

[gscheb]

tried a parabolic grid in the attic. Moving the grid outside resulted in a ~20dbi improvement on rsrp and ~7dbi on the rsrq.

Hello,
Always wondered about the performance of these parabolic grid antennas. Thing that was always Leary of that they usually are only tuned to higher frequency bands like 1800 MHz and higher. So CA aggregation to lower Frequency bands or back up if the there is an issue with getting higher frequency bands at that time.
Did you ever have an issues with anything like that?
Also with anyone's antenna setups did they ever see an improvement in upload or ping?

[Viper67857]

Yeah, the parabolic I got from Amazon pretty much only covered band 2... Band 12 reception was handled by an Omni on the diversity port. I have since swapped out the feedhorn with a mimo that covers 700mhz-2700mhz, so the omni is out of the equation and my speeds are much better (see image below). It still gets way more gain on the higher frequencies than it does on the lower, I'm at -88 on b2 and around -96 on b12.

Screenshot_20200714-115530.png

[jrp78]

How far away is the tower you are pulling B2 from with the grid?

[Viper67857]

I haven't measured it on the map yet, but I'm guessing ~4 miles... Lots of pine trees between us, though..

[jrp78]

I'm shocked and cautiously optimistic that I'll have a usable signal at the new location. With no signal on the nighthawk itself at 15', the two panels at 25' are giving me a usable band5 signal. Speeds are varying from 5 to 15 down and 1 to 2 up. The tower I'm currently pointed at is 10 miles away NLOS. I was pulling a weak Band12 signal from the the closest tower(8 miles) but speeds were not good/usable.
Now I'm looking at removing some loss if I can. I was thinking both my LMR400 cables had N to TS9 pigtails but I'm wrong. I have one LMR400 cable with an N to SMA adapter then SMA to TS9 pigtail. The other LMR400 cable already has SMA on one end so it's just an SMA to TS9 pigtail. Both pigtails are 12" and are RG174. Is it worth trying to get some better adapters to prevent some DB loss ? The adapters are all chinese branded stuff.

I found these.

https://www.amazon.com/MPD-Digital-TS9- ... ics&sr=1-4#

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0174 ... DFDI&psc=1

[jrp78]

I ended up getting those adapters from Amazon. I also put my antennas up another 5' higher. Unfortunately, I could no longer pickup band 5 anymore. I saw it briefly and I saw band 2 briefly but mainly I'm only getting band 12. Signal is not great. -115 to -120 with an RSRQ that floats between -11 to -18. Speeds are around 2-5 Mbps down and 0.2 to 0.7 Mbps up. I tried some band locking for band 5 then band 2 but had no luck there either. I'm confused how going higher could make the signal worse. I could lower them down again but I didn't have time to do that yesterday. Raising and lowering a 25' pole isn't that quick and easy(I cannot reach the antennas while the pole is raised). Also tried putting the original adapters in place and that made no difference either.

[gscheb]

I ended up getting those adapters from Amazon. I also put my antennas up another 5' higher. Unfortunately, I could no longer pickup band 5 anymore. I saw it briefly and I saw band 2 briefly but mainly I'm only getting band 12. Signal is not great. -115 to -120 with an RSRQ that floats between -11 to -18. Speeds are around 2-5 Mbps down and 0.2 to 0.7 Mbps up. I tried some band locking for band 5 then band 2 but had no luck there either. I'm confused how going higher could make the signal worse. I could lower them down again but I didn't have time to do that yesterday. Raising and lowering a 25' pole isn't that quick and easy(I cannot reach the antennas while the pole is raised). Also tried putting the original adapters in place and that made no difference either.

Is this at the new place now?

[jrp78]

Yes, new location.

[gscheb]

Remember how far you said it was away. Never done one that far before. Seen on here people getting those distances with parabolic antennas.
With that being said seen you how you where talking how going higher made it worse some how.
This can be an aggravating process. Here is an old post of mine same kind of thing happened.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=15 ... ilit#p3516

[jrp78]

Thanks. As much as I hate to do it, I'm afraid I will need to keep taking the pole down and moving them up or down then standing the pole back up and trying it.

[gscheb]

Yeah, the parabolic I got from Amazon pretty much only covered band 2... Band 12 reception was handled by an Omni on the diversity port. I have since swapped out the feedhorn with a mimo that covers 700mhz-2700mhz,

Hello again,
Where did you find a wide band feedhorn? I haven't seen any.

[Viper67857]

It was either alibaba or aliexpress.. ~$60

The specs say 1700-2700mhz, but I still get band 12 with it.

Code: Select all

AT+QCAINFO
+QCAINFO: "pcc",1025,75,"LTE BAND 2",1,427,-89,-12,-55,15
+QCAINFO: "scc",5110,50,"LTE BAND 12",1,332,-96,-12,-75,6
DL
+QCAINFO: "scc",9840,25,"LTE BAND 30",1,371,-94,-11,-74,12
DL

OK

Edit: it was this one: https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4000677894051.html

[gscheb]

Now, in all honesty, I was hoping the panels would give me a stronger signal as I'm moving to a house where the closest tower is 7.8 miles away.

My flat panel are in the 5 miles range and work good. Have tower damage issues just tried to connect to tower 10.7 miles away.
Couldn't get good connection or speed. Just wanted to let you know. Your distance is somewhere between the 5 and 10 miles.
If you can't get it to work might have to consider parabolic maybe. Heard of people going that far with them.

[gscheb]

Now, in all honesty, I was hoping the panels would give me a stronger signal as I'm moving to a house where the closest tower is 7.8 miles away.

Another update on my flat panel antennas. The normal tower usually connect to is still down. The one going to is another mile away and allot harder to connect too. Had to raise them another 7 foot over what I usually do. Now got good enough speed for now. Nothing what I am used too.
Point is every situation is different and usually never know why.

[gscheb]

It was either alibaba or aliexpress.. ~$60

The specs say 1700-2700mhz, but I still get band 12 with it.

Code: Select all

AT+QCAINFO
+QCAINFO: "pcc",1025,75,"LTE BAND 2",1,427,-89,-12,-55,15
+QCAINFO: "scc",5110,50,"LTE BAND 12",1,332,-96,-12,-75,6
DL
+QCAINFO: "scc",9840,25,"LTE BAND 30",1,371,-94,-11,-74,12
DL

OK

Edit: it was this one: https://m.aliexpress.com/item/4000677894051.html

Hello,
Got some follow up questions on these feed horns.
1. Do you just put them on any ole grid parabolic antenna or should I be looking for certain size?
2. Guessing that you use grid antennas because of the wind factor. So in the cause have my uncles house that has his antenna in the attic. Does that mean that it could be mounted on an old direct TV dish there?

[Viper67857]

I honestly don't know if a fiberglass dtv dish will reflect LTE signals like they do the ka/ku band signals.. That'll be a research question.

[gscheb]

I honestly don't know if a fiberglass dtv dish will reflect LTE signals like they do the ka/ku band signals.. That'll be a research question.

What kind of grid are you using? Trying to mimic your results basically. Our signals out here in the country have always been in the negative hundreds.

[Viper67857]

It's a rather cheap one from Amazon, honestly probably not optimal for the mimo feedhorn as it's an ovular shape instead of being round, but it's working for me.

[gscheb]

It's a rather cheap one from Amazon, honestly probably not optimal for the mimo feedhorn as it's an ovular shape instead of being round, but it's working for me.

Oh thought oval is what you would want on this.

[Viper67857]

The single polarity feeds are ovular, but the mimo one like The Wireless Haven offers is round... Makes sense when you think about the physics of it... I've got either wasted space on the edges of my dish if the feed isn't as wide as the dish for that polarity, or I've got the other polarity missing the reflector entirely.. Round would be better.

Actually now that I think about it, I rotated my feed 45deg, so both polarizations are equally handicapped.