CA worth it?

[lawnmowerman]

I have a mofi4500 sim7, which has Quectel EC25 cat 4 modem that does not support CA. Since I've started just using it as a modem-only (connected to external dual band router), I am trying to determine if it is worth biting the money bullet and trading up for a higher cat modem with CA. I understand that CA and higher cat is usually the way to go. But then I'll have wasted money on the mofi and will have to invest more in a new modem, enclosure, connectors, etc. - so was hoping for some advice here before I went that route!

When I bought the mofi, I could only see B13 on Verizon and so locked onto it. However, my download speed would drop considerably during the day, from around 15 Mbps to barely 3 Mbps (I'm using a prepaid Verizon unlimited plan, so deprioritization/congestion was to blame, I assume).

After upgrading to a grid antenna, I could see B4 also. So for the last few months, I've locked onto B4, and am averaging 15-25 down, 3-5 up, all day long (no deprioritization/congestion).

On B4, my signal strength is usually around RSPR -110 to -114 dBm, RSRQ -8 to -12 dB. On B13, my signal strength is around RSPR -99 to -102 dBm, RSRQ -8 to -10 dB. So stronger signal on B13, but slower speeds.

Is CA always better, even with the the slower/congested/deprioritized B13? Given my signal strengths, will higher cat modem add much?

Or is the only way to really know to just try it out and see? In which case, what exactly do I need to connect a new modem to my external antennas on one side and my dual band router on the other?

Thanks as always!

[gscheb]

Hello,
One good thing about a Mofi is they have resell value on ebay since allot of newbies start off with them. Allot of youtube videos claiming they are so awesome. So if you decide to upgrade could sell it and get whole new and not update modem. I always keeps an extra just encase something goes wrong as well. But you could get a secondary set up cheaper for sure.

OK speed.
It is this simple.
Good signal combined with Bandwidth.

Get extra bandwidth by combining bands together with CA. So it is dependent on tower and what modem you have to combine what bands together.

Way to investigate your possible potential is like this. Start scanning for bands with the mofi and check the signal strength of the them. Should so something like the picture below.

Mofi BandWidth.PNG

Look at the highlighted line where it shows band 2 with 15MHZ. That 15MHz is your band width. See how much potential band with you could add. Some towers have allot of bands width with extra bands and some don't.

Hope this makes sense to you.

My uncle has that same verizon plan. They kept blocking routers over and over after using them for well over a year. Finally got him hooked up on a JetPack 8800L. That increased his speeds too they are a power house. just have to deal with ts9 ports, battery and no Ethernet connection.

[lawnmowerman]

Hello,
One good thing about a Mofi is they have resell value on ebay since allot of newbies start off with them. Allot of youtube videos claiming they are so awesome. So if you decide to upgrade could sell it and get whole new and not update modem. I always keeps an extra just encase something goes wrong as well. But you could get a secondary set up cheaper for sure.

OK speed.
It is this simple.
Good signal combined with Bandwidth.

Get extra bandwidth by combining bands together with CA. So it is dependent on tower and what modem you have to combine what bands together.

Way to investigate your possible potential is like this. Start scanning for bands with the mofi and check the signal strength of the them. Should so something like the picture below.
Mofi BandWidth.PNG
Look at the highlighted line where it shows band 2 with 15MHZ. That 15MHz is your band width. See how much potential band with you could add. Some towers have allot of bands width with extra bands and some don't.

Hope this makes sense to you.

My uncle has that same verizon plan. They kept blocking routers over and over after using them for well over a year. Finally got him hooked up on a JetPack 8800L. That increased his speeds too they are a power house. just have to deal with ts9 ports, battery and no Ethernet connection.

Yeah, I would either sell the mofi or keep it as backup. I haven't had any problems with Verizon blocking the Mofi, they picked up its IMEI and it's listed there on the account page, despite it being a phone plan... fingers crossed.

So yes, have done band scanning and pick up two bands -

B4:
bandwidth = 10 MHz
RSPR = -110 to -114 dBm
RSRQ = -8 to -12 dB

B13:
bandwidth = 10 MHz
RSPR = -99 to -102 dBm
RSRQ -8 to -10 dB

When I lock onto B13, my speed can be 10-20 Mbps early morning and night, but always drops to >3-5 Mbps during daytime congestion/deprioritzation. B4, though weaker signal, is always much higher speed. I guess my concern with CA is that the modem will default to B13 and actually slow things down during the day? Maybe I just don't really know how CA works... Am I actually better off locking onto B4 in this case?

[gscheb]

Ok
When I said my uncle had that plan and got blocked and put him on a Mofi 8800 L was talking about unlimited Verizon jetpack plan. No a phone plan. Definitely need TTL setup with phone plan.
If you want to know what carrier aggregation will do just let it connect how it wants with out band locking. What ever that is will more than likely be your primary band.
Now a couple of questions.
1. What antenna you got? You mean parabolic grid?
2. What is the total set up for antenna like height and wires used?
3. Do you have another Verizon tower in the area you can try?
Reason asking all these questions is typically what you use a parabolic grid antenna the gain is really high like over 20 dbi gain. And that high gain is on the higher frequency bands. So typically would think the band 4 would be stronger signal than 13 or just equal.
Does everyone agree with that?

[lawnmowerman]

Ok
When I said my uncle had that plan and got blocked and put him on a Mofi 8800 L was talking about unlimited Verizon jetpack plan. No a phone plan. Definitely need TTL setup with phone plan.

No worries! Yep, TTL set to 117.

If you want to know what carrier aggregation will do just let it connect how it wants with out band locking. What ever that is will more than likely be your primary band.

Usually B13, which is why I suspect I may be better off locking onto B4, like I'm doing.

Now a couple of questions.
1. What antenna you got? You mean parabolic grid?
2. What is the total set up for antenna like height and wires used?
3. Do you have another Verizon tower in the area you can try?
Reason asking all these questions is typically what you use a parabolic grid antenna the gain is really high like over 20 dbi gain. And that high gain is on the higher frequency bands. So typically would think the band 4 would be stronger signal than 13 or just equal.
Does everyone agree with that?

1. Parabolic grid antenna, yes.
2. About 25' off ground. 25' LMR 240 cables (had 400 but switched out for greater flexibility, didn't find much difference). In another post, I described my setup and geography pretty detailed https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1793
3. Nope, I can only pick up the one tower. And even that's via signal reflection (I think) - again, see my other post. I think B13 is stronger for me because the low freq. signal is able to travel farther and not degrade after all the reflection, bouncing around in the hills, etc., before it finally gets to me.

[gscheb]

Went and read it about your setup. CA doesn't look promising for you. Have you ever looked at how high you would have to go to get past that hill? Like on a terrain map thing like the one you showed.
Have you ever tried a Omni direction antenna? Have no experience with one. But looks like you got signals bouncing every where.
For fun have you ever climbed up that hill that it bounced off of to see what you could get up there?

[lawnmowerman]

I’d have to go like 900 ft high to get up over the hill behind me to get LOS with the tower. It’s pretty steep straight up and the house jutted up right against it. The hill in front of me that the signal is bouncing off of is on the other side of the road and also high, steep... haha haven’t climbed up either yet. Hmm haven’t tried an Omni, no.

[gscheb]

Maybe ask around and see if anyone knows about omni antennas. Might be the only way to get better signal.

[lawnmowerman]

I can check around about it, thanks. Might be that I just order one and try it out. We'll see...