Unusual signal quality issues... Help!

Post by **thejohnfist** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:23 pm

Quick background:

AT&T iPad plan on MC7455 with a W826-T. Dual yagis using 25ft LMR400 cabling.

A couple weeks ago:

Internet speeds dropped significantly (from 70-100mbps to 9-20mbps fluctuating wildly) and really poor ping quality overall. Goes from a normal 80ish, to anywhere north of 200-3000ms. This was right around the time we added on to my home, but the new space is not in direct path between antenna and tower. So seems odd.

I went up to inspect the cabling, and one of the antenna wires plastic cover/sheathing had a long crack down it. So, I've replaced the LMR 200 with LMR 400 cabling. This helped somewhat, but not significantly. Perhaps 10% overall.

Thinking that somehow the new room may have caused issues, I've raised my antenna pair up about 6 feet higher. I have not had time to fine tune it directionally, but it is fairly close to where it was and the problem seemingly remains.

The first image below is from my original EM7565 before it got toasted in a power surge. I replaced that modem with an MC7455 a while back and actually saw an *improvement* in both signal and speeds. Unfortunately I do not have an image from the 7455 after I initially installed it with good numbers.

Original 7565 results:

Current 7455 Results:

Is there any other possibility I should be looking at? It seems like I'm still getting MIMO, but it's just not the same. I'm not entirely sure where else to test other than moving the antennas around but I'm fairly confident they're close to where they were originally just higher.

Post by **gscheb** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 4:40 pm

Hello,
Can see your signal strength not as good as it was. Also see your primary band has changed.

Did you get this issue before or after you moved your antennas up higher?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:06 pm

Band will still sometimes grab on to B5 B2 B12. Nothing new there that I can tell.

Post by **gscheb** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 7:52 am

Did you get this issue before or after you moved your antennas up higher?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:03 am

Issue started before. I haven't moved or touched anything in many months prior to this issue starting.

Post by **gscheb** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:41 am

thejohnfist wrote: Sat Sep 26, 2020 9:03 am Issue started before. I haven't moved or touched anything in many months prior to this issue starting.

Ok have seen before signal gets worse when you raise them. This is odd. Is the addition you put on have metal roof?
Is there another tower you can try pointing at? When you say yagi antenna. They like the long metal looking things or the plastic wedge looking ones?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 1:37 pm

So the antennas were previously mounted on a 5ft mast. They were both pointing over my garage AND my house both of which are fully metal clad, roof included. Had no issues. The addition is actually lower than the main roof on my house but is all metal also. Both antennas are plastic yagi style from The Wireless Haven

Post by **gscheb** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 3:21 pm

So technically they are getting signal over more metal now?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Sep 26, 2020 11:06 pm

Correct, but by comparison, not much. My house and garage combined are approximately 60 feet of metal roof, while this new addition only adds about 24 ft.

Post by **terryjett** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 5:08 pm

The signal from tower has has changed for sure. Your RSRQ is really bad and so is your RSRP.

lte-singal.png

You are also on a different tower compared to first screenshot / old 7565 modem. This may actually be the major differences.

You said you replaced the coax. If you are confident that the connectors are properly attached to the coax, that can be ruled out. Long crack found in old coax? What would have caused a long crack? Lightning?

Are you certain that you got the connectors firmly attached to the modem inside the WE826? The small coax from modem to sma connectors can be easily damaged, make sure it is all good.

This leaves your home antennas or obstruction introduced between you and the tower.

Make sure your antenna (s) are not holding water or getting damp on the inside.

It has happened to many - AT&T realigns their sector antennas to cover more used area. You might try another band. Our service use to be great on band 2. Right around the middle of covid scare, band 2 went to down bad. Did some band locking on band 30 and now we are back to good solid speeds.

Just throwing some ideas out their that might help you pinpoint the issue

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:46 am

The signal from tower has has changed for sure. Your RSRQ is really bad and so is your RSRP.

- Yes, sometimes I can get them a little higher, but my SINR is also VERY bad compared to before.

You are also on a different tower compared to first screenshot / old 7565 modem. This may actually be the major differences.

- This shouldn't be possible. There's only one tower in that direction, and the one following that one in that direction would be an additional 10-15 miles, totalling 18+ miles from my house.

You said you replaced the coax. If you are confident that the connectors are properly attached to the coax, that can be ruled out. Long crack found in old coax? What would have caused a long crack? Lightning?

- I'm not sure here, I think it may have been either UV exposure (lmr200 isn't very thick sheathing) or when I separated the two cables from each other for a wider split, I may have torn the sheathing off of one wire. Hard to say.

Are you certain that you got the connectors firmly attached to the modem inside the WE826? The small coax from modem to sma connectors can be easily damaged, make sure it is all good.

- I haven't checked them again since, but they were working fine and the unit hadn't been touched or moved since I installed the new modem.

This leaves your home antennas or obstruction introduced between you and the tower.

- No new obstructions. The only change has been the small addition to my house which doesn't directly obstruct the path.

Make sure your antenna (s) are not holding water or getting damp on the inside.

- Both are The Wireless Haven Yagi units, they have holes on the bottom to allow moisture to drain should it accumulate. I keep the holes on the bottom. I shook them around to see if anything would come out but seems fine.

It has happened to many - AT&T realigns their sector antennas to cover more used area. You might try another band. Our service use to be great on band 2. Right around the middle of covid scare, band 2 went to down bad. Did some band locking on band 30 and now we are back to good solid speeds.

- Initially on my first modem, I had to band lock due to sporadic behaviour. I didn't have to do that with this one initially, but may have to look at it again. I live outside a town of approximately 800, probably not more than 1500 people in the area being served by the tower. The *only* time I have had issues with deprioritization or bandwidth is when there are sporting events or big events at the local HS.

Post by **terryjett** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:30 am

I might have made a mistake by assuming you are on a different tower with a quick scan of your image:

B4OlUqr[1].png

But, your signal is on verge of being unusable.

You can experiment with band locking. If/when you do, see how much the RSSI. RSRP and RSRQ changes. Try locking on band 5 and view your RSSI. RSRP and RSRQ - are they close to original 7565 results?

When I spoke about obstructions between home antennas and tower, meant it could be anywhere along the path to tower - not just at your home.

If your certain there are no new obstructions between your antennas and the tower...

You are not going to want to hears this, but... This is going to be one of those issues where you have to start over and act like brand new install. Inspect (double inspect) everything starting with the jumpers from modem to sma in router all way out to antennas.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:58 am

I'm fairly certain there's nothing else new in the signal path. I'm going to borrow a signal meter today and attempt to see if both antennas still work, and if I can get better signal than the modem is getting. We'll see where that leads today.

Also checking with AT&T to see if there's any reported outages.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:14 pm

Small update -- no luck though.

Borrowed a Surecall signal checker exactly like this from a friend. All bands that thing is capable of reading come through with -73dbm to -76dbm. I checked at the antennas, then I checked the cables, then I checked the Type N to sma adapters at my router/modem.

All read the same levels.

I took apart the router, checked the modem connections, seem to be on there just fine. Checked and tightened the nuts that hold the sma port to the case of the device, nice and snug. Reassembled. Still garbage.

Going to try to lock out Band 30, since it's always the most trash band. I can't sort this out, frustrating to say the least.

Post by **terryjett** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:46 pm

Yes, it can be very frustrating. Been there a few times.

The SureCall unit is cool, got to try one out last month. Keep in mind they test 728- 746 MHz / 746-757 MHz / 869-894 MHz / 1930-1990 MHz / 2110-2155 MHz, Covers Band 5, 4 and 2 for sure. Does not test band 30 which covers 2350 – 2360 (DL).

Band 2 went to heck for us overnight few months back and now we have to use Band 30 for any type of speed.

If you are getting -73dbm to -76dbm on all the bands/frequencies the SureCall tests, then got to be the pigtails, modem or router. Know that does not help you, but what else can it be? You have proven your antennas, cables and connectors are good.

Post by **gscheb** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:00 pm

So if there was any obstructions this signal checker would have caught it on the readings?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:56 pm

As far as I can tell the device only measures RSRP. I still have poor numbers for that on my modem read out, and low RSRQ and SINR

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:58 pm

terryjett wrote: Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:46 pm If you are getting -73dbm to -76dbm on all the bands/frequencies the SureCall tests, then got to be the pigtails, modem or router. Know that does not help you, but what else can it be? You have proven your antennas, cables and connectors are good.

I'm not sure how it could be the router, since the antennas go directly to the modem. Seems like modem or pigtails are last items, but the modem is only about a year old. This would be my third modem in 2 years. After the first one got fried I put in a battery backup / surge protector unit just to keep that from happening again. X(

Post by **terryjett** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:09 pm

"I'm not sure how it could be the router, since the antennas go directly to the modem"

Only throwing the router in there because it controls the modem and provides an interface to it.

Far shot but not unheard of is bad power supply. They can get "noisy" after power surges. Have never experienced in this world, but in HAM radio seen it happen.

Sounds like you got a handle on the troubleshooting. Let us know what you find.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:40 am

Yeah I work on multi-million dollar digital offset presses for a living, troubleshooting is half of my day.

I'm not an RF expert by any means, but it seems odd that I can get -75dbm with the meter, but the modem continues to see -90 to -110, and horrible RSRQ and SINR now.

Here's a crude drawing of my home and garage (green) where the antenna (orange) is mounted. Signal path is in red, and blue is maybe signal issue? The smaller part of the black (my house) is the new room. So the main wall that's taller was always there, but maybe the signal was bouncing to the ground instead? I'm just blind guessing at this point. Trying to avoid buying any new hardware just yet.

Post by **gscheb** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:49 am

Do you have a fried or family with similar set up? Test your router modem unit at their house see how it does there.

Post by **terryjett** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:07 am

thejohnfist wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:40 am Yeah I work on multi-million dollar digital offset presses for a living, troubleshooting is half of my day.

I'm not an RF expert by any means, but it seems odd that I can get -75dbm with the meter, but the modem continues to see -90 to -110, and horrible RSRQ and SINR now.

Here's a crude drawing of my home and garage (green) where the antenna (orange) is mounted. Signal path is in red, and blue is maybe signal issue? The smaller part of the black (my house) is the new room. So the main wall that's taller was always there, but maybe the signal was bouncing to the ground instead? I'm just blind guessing at this point. Trying to avoid buying any new hardware just yet.

I have been in around RF since my humble beginning as a radio station disc jockey at the ripe age of 16. Back then you actually had to obtain a FCC license (written test) to "operate the broadcast transmitter". Then moved on to HAM and then the military where I worked in satellite/radar. After military spent rest of time in wireline/cellular. Been around the RF field a long time and one thing I have learned: it is never what it seems it should be - lol.

If you built your home addon and moment the metal roof went on, this started happening, then that has to be it. It would not happen over time - immediately. So that is one important thing to keep in mind. If this happened at that moment, move your antennas.

Like I said before, it is not uncommon for AT&T (or any) to realign sectors they feel are underused. With their 5G push, perfect time for them to do realignments. We hummed along on band 2 for months and it was fast. Woke up one morning, could barely get 5 mbps down and signal had gone to hell. So first thing I try is to let router/modem pick the band. Hit on band 30 and blazing fast (for LTE around here) but does have it's slow moments. Band 2 is still crappy for us to this day.

I understand not wanting to start replacing equipment, that gets expensive. But I would at least replace the power supply. Get a good 5 amp one. They run around $25 on amazon. Least that way you have one less thing to be in the equation. Only reason I recommend this is you said "power spike / surge" and that makes my stomach upset

Today, I am moving one set of my antennas (got two routers/modems). I am going to try and hit another tower in different direction with new MIMO antenna that arrived yesterday. In pursuit of more speed and spending more money - lol

Post by **terryjett** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:07 am

gscheb wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 8:49 am Do you have a fried or family with similar set up? Test your router modem unit at their house see how it does there.

Very good idea and point.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:41 am

I do have a buddy with a near identical setup a few miles away using a different tower. I'll be testing that for sure.

Here's what I know about the tower, it has AT&T, Sprint (hasn't switched to T-mo yet), and Verizon.
AT&T has bands 2, 5, 12, 14, and 30 on it. Obviously I only have access to 2,5,12, and 30. 2, 5, and 12 are the most reasonable. I can't recall which bands I was getting 70+mbps on, but it was a combination of those in some way. 30, is always terrible and unreliable. Not really sure why that is.

Sprint is carrying bands 25,26, and 41 on that tower. Verizon I believe is only carrying band 5.

This area has historically been a deep AT&T region. Almost everyone I know out here uses AT&T. I don't think they would tank that tower down to those speeds so early on, even with 5G adaptation.

I'll keep everyone up to speed. The *only* reason I'm not sure that it's my building is because that same weekend we had a rather powerful storm roll through. Even if ATT says there's no issue, maybe there is.

Post by **gscheb** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:55 am

Could maybe even put their sim in your router and see if the signal strengths are alike or different compared to theirs. If that makes sense.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:37 pm

Probably won't do a SIM swap, he needs his service to work from home and I don't know how friendly his provider would be to that.

Post by **R1250GSA** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:02 pm

With the timing of your construction, could the new/added electrical work cause an issue?
Did this change how your are grounding your gear?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:37 pm

R1250GSA wrote: Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:02 pm With the timing of your construction, could the new/added electrical work cause an issue?
Did this change how your are grounding your gear?

Nah the garage is a detached unit with it's own main feed from the utility pole.

If it's not my hardware or the tower, then it's either my building change or possssssibly the signal booster I have in my house (that points towards my modem antenna) could be interfering now that the structure has changed. The booster didn't cause any issues prior either, have yet to test just by turning it off. Will do that today as well.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:56 am

Well, hardware checks out. His unit and my unit report nearly identical values on his antennas.

Guess that means I'm moving my antennas for the next test. Tiresome.

Post by **gscheb** » Wed Sep 30, 2020 8:58 am

Wow!
So another thought.
Don't know if you have neighbors or how far away they are.
Is there a chance one of them installed some kind of antenna that is causing interference for you?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Wed Sep 30, 2020 12:41 pm

Well, my immediate neighbors are family, and none of them use any sort of antenna other than television.

More distant up the road, but behind my antenna direction/face, there are some people who have antennas but the only one that looks like it's not just TV is possibly a microwave dish since the same tower I use for LTE has a PtP microwave internet provider.

Aside from that, there's no one around for miles, and no one in my signal path until right around the tower nearly 3 miles out.

Post by **Dr-BroadBand** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 10:19 am

I would bring your setup to a cell tower to get a baseline if your modem is still working.

Get a power inverter to power your equipment

Metal roof, crack cable.... maybe lighting.... jumping bands … water in connectors... WoW
Need to remove some of the unknown issues

https://www.amazon.com/BESTEK-300Watt-I ... s9dHJ1ZQ==

Post by **thejohnfist** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Did most of that already.

Post by **Dr-BroadBand** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:34 pm

Wow a lot to unwrap

New metal roof, maybe water in connections…. maybe lighting, crack cable, NEW cable
different bands / band jumping, the EM7565 got “toasted”, New modem.
A lot has changed or may have changed.

Would bring your setup on a road trip and bring it to different towers for testing.
To make sure your modem still works! And nothing has changed with your cell tower.

Could use a power inverter to convert your car 12VDC to 120AC. Get one that has a pure sine wave.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 6:30 pm

You have done some great trouble shooting. Replacing coax, checking antennas and connectors was great start. If you have not yet done so, may I recommend replacing your power supply? I say this simply because you had a power surge and never said you have done so.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:07 pm

Only thing about that is, it was working fine for north of 6 months after the last modem got fried. I could replace the PSU but seems unnecessary.

Today I took the antenna around and tried to see if I could do better, but on the roof of the garage mounted to the mast I'm getting about 25 vertical feet. Carrying it around I'm getting maybe 12 feet and there's plenty of 12-15ft cedars in my way.

Also, I took my unit and my power supply with me when I tested at my friends house, which gave me the same results he has....

Maybe I should see if it's the power strip. Will do that right now.

For quick reference to future visitors, so far have completed:

1. Replaced original LMR-200 due to seemingly damaged cables.
2. Tested both antennas, wires, and couplings with a Surecall RF Tester.
3. Took entire router/modem unit with original power supply to a friends location to test. Results of the test matched his hardware, indicating nothing wrong with my router/modem/powersupply.

I think I'm going to have to put a 25ft mast on top of my garage... I'm only about 12ft over my garage peak, which is only about 12ft itself. So taking it from approximately 20-24ft to nearly 50ft. If that doesn't work, I don't know what to do. I don't want to put the mast on my house... Frustrations continue.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 8:58 pm

Only thing about that is, it was working fine for north of 6 months after the last modem got fried. I could replace the PSU but seems unnecessary.

Electronic components inside PSU's can become damaged and produce excessive noise. They can still supply the voltage and amperage, but produce excessive noise at the same time. Surge protection power strips can also do something similar.

Just a thought...

I wish you success on your journey.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Fri Oct 02, 2020 8:47 am

Well moving the PSU to the battery backup provided zero change.

Going to order a new PSU and then look at some 40ft masts.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:09 am

Small update. Replacing PSU had little to no change. Going to move the install to a new location. If this doesn't work I'll consider using it for target practice lol

Post by **terryjett** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:14 am

thejohnfist wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:09 am Small update. Replacing PSU had little to no change. Going to move the install to a new location. If this doesn't work I'll consider using it for target practice lol

Well, you have pretty much ruled out the equipment. Sadly this is the process one has to take.

One other thing to try is raising / lowering the antennas on mast. Foot or two at a time, let the signal soak in for 15-20 minutes and check stats again. I have found many times a few feet can cause drastic changes.

I totally understand the target practice. Have felt the same before, lol

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 5:24 pm

Okay. So... I moved it to my house. Now the speed is better BUT not like it was. I noticed that somehow I'm connected to a tower like 15 miles away. Why won't it connect to the local tower?

How accurate are cellmappers eNB ID numbers? Anyone know of a highly accurate source?

Post by **Adm1jtg** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:16 pm

I havent found one but honestly depends on your area, I am in the sticks and so the databases they use for cell tower location are really non existent.

Its EXTREMELY unlikely, even with line of sight that your actually connecting to a tower 15 miles away unless you have a large external long range antenna on your roof. So if the databases in your area are crap like in mine how do you find towers? Depends on if you want the accurate and expensive way or the quick and dirty method.

Quick and dirty method:
With your phone walk around the outside of your house looking at the signal meter (numbers not bars), find where the signal is strongest and point your router antenna there. Making more and more minor adjustments until you get the strongest signal possible. If you use a roof antenna you would need to do this on the roof. This brings us to the better and more expensive method.

More expensive, more accurate method:
Find someone with an LTE signal meter to professionally point your antenna. This is usually only needed if you use an external antenna. If you do use an external antenna you should use a directional type. Yagi antennas with LMR cabling are a popular choice. You could rent your own LTE meter but I recommend you leave it to the professionals.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 7:31 pm

Thanks for the post. I've done and have most of that. It's a real stumper.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:00 pm

I think I'm going to have to get a prepaid ATT card and pop it in my old Galaxy S7 and drive around and see what the towers actual IDs are.

Post by **terryjett** » Sun Oct 04, 2020 4:48 pm

thejohnfist wrote: Sat Oct 03, 2020 11:00 pm I think I'm going to have to get a prepaid ATT card and pop it in my old Galaxy S7 and drive around and see what the towers actual IDs are.

That is going to be your best bet. Cellmapper is a GREAT service, but you cannot always count on it. Install Cellmapper app on your phone, setup or login to cellmapper account and drive around. Been there and done that - best intel you will get

I recall you said something about a booster? If you are using booster, try without and see it you hit closer tower.

Remember: sometimes you have to wait 20-30 minutes for modem to find what I thinks is best...

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sun Oct 04, 2020 9:05 pm

Modem has been connected in that direction for a day, still connecting to the more distant tower. I've got other projects that demand my time for now, but I'll try to come back and do an update whenever possible. Might get a single mimo panel antenna. Maybe the yagis are overshooting the tower somehow, not sure how that works. Still thinking about grabbing a prepaid.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:19 pm

Another update - called AT&T and sat for 30 minutes while the person played liaison with whoever CAN actually check towers... Supposedly there's nothing wrong with my tower.

This I really don't understand. How can I go from picking up this tower just fine for many months, and many months before that with a different modem and same antennas, to not getting it at all. I'm tempted to pick up some panel antennas instead, something shorter range.

Didn't get to grab a prepaid card yet. I am going to investigate the new $20 unlimited plan though. Anyone tried it yet?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Tue Oct 06, 2020 10:12 am

Small note - I've ordered two panel antennas, hoping that maybe if I reduce my range, I'll grab the closer antennas again. Also ordered a single mimo panel to test. Amazon orders - I know i know, but free returns for troubleshooting is priceless.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:41 pm

thejohnfist wrote: Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:19 pm Another update - called AT&T and sat for 30 minutes while the person played liaison with whoever CAN actually check towers... Supposedly there's nothing wrong with my tower.

This I really don't understand. How can I go from picking up this tower just fine for many months, and many months before that with a different modem and same antennas, to not getting it at all. I'm tempted to pick up some panel antennas instead, something shorter range.

As I stated earlier on, it is not unusual for carrier to realign sector antennas. If they are being under utilized in one area, they can realign the sectors to areas with more population. Also as I said, with all the 5G work going on and tower personal up there, perfect time to realign. Do I know for sure this happened? No. But would not surprise me.

The above happened to me. Band 2 was rocking and next day signal way down. Talked to the person that lives basically under the tower and sure enough people had been climbing the tower day before.

Might not be your case, but something to consider...

Post by **gscheb** » Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:17 pm

terryjett wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:41 pm As I stated earlier on, it is not unusual for carrier to realign sector antennas. If they are being under utilized in one area, they can realign the sectors to areas with more population. Also as I said, with all the 5G work going on and tower personal up there, perfect time to realign. Do I know for sure this happened? No. But would not surprise me.

The above happened to me. Band 2 was rocking and next day signal way down. Talked to the person that lives basically under the tower and sure enough people had been climbing the tower day before.

Might not be your case, but something to consider...

Hello,
Awhile back TMobile performed update maintenance to the tower we connect to. After done it does work better for sure. But for what ever reason can no longer use carrier aggregation at my home. Can from other places like my sister's pointing at same tower. She just lives a mile down the road. Know it is not my hardware have tried and retried different units. T-Mobile changed something on their end. So I believe in them messing with things!

Post by **thejohnfist** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 9:24 am

terryjett wrote: Wed Oct 07, 2020 4:41 pm As I stated earlier on, it is not unusual for carrier to realign sector antennas.

Only reason I don't believe this is happening is because the tower is on the north side of town, and all the people are south, including me. If they point it north it might cover 100 people tops, west there's another tower already about 2 miles out, and east there's a tower about 5 miles out. Both east and west are smaller population densities.

South points towards a town of 800 and a few hundred outliers, as well as two schools. I don't see them changing the direction much if any, certainly not enough to prevent me from connecting to the tower *at all*.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:09 am

thejohnfist wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 9:24 am Only reason I don't believe this is happening is because the tower is on the north side of town, and all the people are south

Got ya. Sure you will figure it out. Only sharing my experience.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 2:55 pm

terryjett wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 10:09 am Got ya. Sure you will figure it out. Only sharing my experience.

Of course, and I'm grateful for all insights. A pair of flat panel antenna is waiting for me to test today, if that doesn't change results, I have a single panel MIMO antenna coming. Going to test those, if nothing changes after that I'll be considering changing providers. Bleh.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 4:06 pm

thejohnfist wrote: Thu Oct 08, 2020 2:55 pm Of course, and I'm grateful for all insights.

What I meant was I can tell you are good at troubleshooting and will figure it out:)

Way back in another life when I was a lowly cellular technician, had to track down some real gremlins and spend many nights trying to rid the cell site of them. Just takes time and is a step by step process when dealing with equipment, connectors, cable and antennas.

Post by **thejohnfist** » Thu Oct 08, 2020 8:25 pm

Thanks, so I tested my first set of new antennas, panels instead of yagi (like I have now) and got expected results. Same problem, same towers, worse signal than yagis. So, at least I know they're doing their job correctly. Tomorrow I'm going to sign up for the new iPad plan on a new SIM and see if my new theory plays out.

I'm starting to think that the old ipad plans might be getting severely throttled. The speed ALWAYS tops out at 15mbps. Haven't been able to do better than that at all, and it doesn't really want to do any aggregation either. It'll aggregate for a few seconds, then turn it off even though signal strength is 80%

Post by **thejohnfist** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:22 pm

New update- picked up a $20 ipad plan. Seems fine so far, but still can't pick up the tower. I legitimately think AT*T might have pulled the hardware from the tower or something. Going to take a phone up there tomorrow to check for sure..

On the upside, my Test Drive from T-Mobile gets 15mbps when placed in front of my indoor booster. Considering how poor those things must be, I might give t-mo a try. Anyone know how to get the $20 unlim plan from them?

Post by **thejohnfist** » Mon Oct 12, 2020 10:45 am

Final update --

It seems the tower that used to have ATT no longer does, it's officially removed from the list of registered antennas on the tower itself.

I guess because there's a tower two miles up the road, they decided to remove one, and the tower up the road points along the road towards two towns, that I do not fall into the cone of broadcast it seems. Seeing as I can't pick it up at all.

Looking into switching to Tmo or Sprint now.

Post by **terryjett** » Mon Oct 12, 2020 11:17 am

Very interesting: "It seems the tower that used to have ATT no longer does, it's officially removed from the list of registered antennas on the tower itself."

Where did you get this official list of registered antennas on the tower?