Newbie Setup Advice on cable

[shunryu999]

Hi all-- thanks for all the info available here, has been helpful!!

Here's my setup:

ATT Unlimited, rural Indiana
MOFI4500-4GXeLTE-SIM7-COMBO
2 x Proxicast 9/11 dBi Ultra Broadband LPDA High Gain Fixed Mount Directional Antenna
2 x Wlaniot Low Loss N Male to SMA Male with Weatherproof Connectors RG58 Cable （25feet,7.5M)

We were getting 2-3Mbps with a NETGEAR 1120 and a little indoor antenna meant for the laptop. MOFI4500 alone didn't make a difference. Setup Proxicast antennas on a 15ft pole, tested around the house, outside, on the roof of the house where the old TV antenna went. Nothing much. Best I could get was about 10Mbps, and usually 5Mbps. Whatever, I'll take it.

So I fix the mount, it's about 8 feet off the ground, right by the house, on our deck. Couple days go by, big thunderstorm, spins my rig around, I spin it back -- voila! Getting about 40 Mbps consistently. All I can think is that the angle makes all the difference? Is it possible that height of the mount doesn't matter? I thought surely putting it on the roof would help, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

BIG QUESTION: For the permanent location of the rig, should I try to keep the angle and move the antennas up to the roof? (more cable loss, but possibility of more signal?) Or should I just be happy on the ground and plan to make a permanent setup on the deck where the signal is currently good? (less cable loss, but limited signal?)

A Few More Questions:
1) How sensitive are directional antennas? When testing angles, are you varying by 5 degrees? 1 degree?
2) Other than the opensignal app (which was not helpful for us) are there other "compass"-style antenna finder apps?
3) Would a couple WeBoost Yagi https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006H4FVM/ref=dp_cerb_2 do better than the Proxicast? At 3ft they seem much bigger, but maybe I'm naive in thinking size matters?
4) Should I really upgrade to LMR-400 cable?
5) Are lightning arrestors a must? Or just good sense? Just read about them at Unlimitedville, says I should put them on the cables before entering the house.

Thanks in advance for your help!

c

[Viper67857]

I would keep the antennas you have.. They cover more bands than the yagis you listed.

Lightning arrestors are cheap... Your hardware is not. I'd get em installed and grounded to the house ground.

Lmr400 is great, also thick, unwieldy, and expensive. Lmr240 should do for the length you're working with.

None of the crowdsourced cell location apps/sites can be fully trusted... They can give you some idea of where to look but the only way to know for sure is to physically find the tower yourself (unless you can see it on satellite view).

As for pointing/mounting, yes, directionality makes a big difference. You want them facing the tower as closely as possible. They should also be skewed +-45deg. Ie one tilted to the left, one to the right. Something like this if you were looking at them from the front:

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Generally higher is better... Maybe when you were on the roof you were just in the wrong direction..?

[gscheb]

Hello,
If you are far from the tower in a fresnel zone yes lower can be better. It does happen at times.
Here is a post about it.
https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=588#p3516

Picture of log periodic antenna Mimo setup

IMG_20190928_154720429_HDR.jpg

[shunryu999]

Awesome thanks so much guys -- I went from 2MB/s down to 40MB/s down after arranging things this way.

[grjous]

i have a very similar setup, except i have one antenna on the roof and another antenna on the side of the house spaced roughly 25' apart, both running to the sierra wireless modem, works pretty well but want to make sure i am setup right. currently both antennas are straight vertical - do the antennas ideally need to be rotated the 45 degrees as shown above if they are far apart? should i run them both from the roof? i just didnt have a long enough cable so i ran to the side of the house for the second antenna (running to my DIV port on modem)