Need help picking an antenna

[cqcmommy]

Hello! I’m very new to this and looking for some help picking out something (antenna? Unless suggested otherwise.) to help my Cradlepoint’s connection.

If this is the wrong section for this then I'm terribly sorry. Please send me in the right direction!

Speed and ping is usually better at night, which made me think it was due to congestion. Ping is actually a bigger priority to me. However, I have a better plan on my phone, and I get the same speeds on it at the same times when I’d assume the better plan should have a higher priority? My net is Verizon prepaid unlimited data-only plan, which is probably kin to the lowest unlimited plan with no ‘premium data’. My phone has the highest unlimited plan, which has something like 75GB premium data. I rarely use my phone’s data as I prefer to go through the Cradlepoint to save it, so I know for a fact that I never even get close to hitting the premium data’s limits.

There’s three towers that are about 4-5 miles away. Interestingly I think I’m typically connected with the tower with the worst LoS (ID 3419). I’m only assuming it’s the tower we’re typically connected to since the Physical Cell ID listed in Cradlepoint matches one of the tower’s PCI labels on cellmapper.net. We live out in the country on top of a large hill surrounded by tall pines. I have no idea how, or if it’s even possible, to control what tower the device connects to.

The device itself sits on the windowsill, which faces North, slightly North-West. Sometimes nudging it around by a centimeter-ish at a time can result in slightly varying speeds/ping, but if it’s mid-day it usually doesn’t make a difference. When I find a ‘sweet spot’ it won’t stay that way. Eventually, after 10 min or even after days, it’ll go back to being bad and forced to find a ‘sweet spot’ again. If I’m lucky, the sweet spot will be almost as good as night time speeds/ping.

I don’t know if it’ll help to mention this but we used to get good ping and speeds even through the day, which has been since around April 2019. It’s become a steady decline since then. I got and started using the cradlepoint at the end of fall. While there was an improvement, the decline still continued. Is it possible that there might be some kind of interference?

All the info I could think of to give is below. If there’s any other info I can give please let me know what and how to find it.

Thank you for your patience!

Night time speeds/ping ~ 10-20MBPS/30-200ping
Day time speeds/ping ~ 1~5MBPS/500+ping

Cradlepoint Modem model: MC400LP6
Cradlepoint Device model: CBA850
Came with two antennas which I think are the default ones but not sure what kind they are.
The Device and Modem were bought refurbished from Wireless Joint with an older firmware update. It was to maintain control of the device’s settings without having to pay for the cloud Cradlepoint has been using now.

Plan/Carrier: Verizon prepaid unlimited data only (No longer available in the store)

Map below of the three towers (red) and our house’s location (pink)


LoS of 3419


LoS of 3949


LoS of 3020


Signal example

[Didneywhorl]

Hey there, sorry no one has responded until now. There's so much on this forum.


First, if your cell phone plan is also prepaid, then that is why your tower priority has been the same between the cell phone and the LP6 modem. Prepaid plans in entirety get lower priority than post paid. The last 6 months especially have pushed MANY people onto these cell towers all day, which is why the speeds get better at night during off peak hours. Another tell tale is higher upload than download, though not always.

If your cell phone is a post paid and your LP6 has a prepaid and then likely the cell tower doesnt deprioritize differently between, its just simply tower load.


As far as antennas, I would always default my advice to as high of a gain you can afford, and then if you have direct line of sight, go with the more affordable Yagi/LDPA antennas. If you do not have direct line of sight to the tower then Flat Panel Directional antennas seem to be best. I prefer the Flat Panel Directionals overall. Parabolic Grid antennas are in this group as well, though tend to be pricier, but very powerful.

Next, I always like to go with 2 in 1 antennas (2x2 MIMO) or the 4 in 1 (4x4 MIMO) as they are more antennas in one form and are less antennas to aim. I ALWAYS recommend going with matched pairs of antennas, and ALWAYS fill all available antenna ports on your modem; as long as you can afford them of course.