Stronger signal or better quality

[Adm1jtg]

Wanted to post this here so others could benefit as well

I am on verizon and based on what lte band I use I get either better quality or better signal strength
Stats look kinda like this:
Usable bands are 2,4,5,13,66

2 has no advantages at all so wont be using it for sure
4 rssi approx -85, rscp approx -116, ecio approx -10 to -14, 20 mhz band used by default and caa to band 5
5 not as good in signal strength as 13 and not as good in quality as 4 but will caa to 66
13 rssi -63, rscp -94, ecio -14 to -16 no carrier caa combo with my modem
66 very similar to band 4 in all stats but can caa to itself usually hooks to 10 mhz with caa to another 20 mhz

There is where my other post about numbers comes into play. So based on all the above which would likely yield the best results overall.

BTW if left to its own with no restrictions the router usually locks to band 5 with caa to 66 (20 mhz total) OR locks to band 4 with caa to 5 (30mhz total)

It NEVER uses band 13 on its own and very very rarely uses band 2 in any combination.

Speedtests are all over the place with allthe different configs so no help there

So really only a few options:
Leave it unlocked and just let it route anyway it wants
Lock to 4,5
lock to 13
lock to 66

I will keep testing and likely come to my own conclusions but thought this would be an interesting topic to start up.

[gscheb]

Do a group of bands and exclude band 13 is a good starting point.
Where I live with Visible usually use Quectel EM12 and lock to bands 2, 4, 5.
Reason I do this is where I live for some reason band 66 on verizon not very good.

[Adm1jtg]

Actually decided to start with the opposite. Locked to 13 only. I dont really like this option much as there is no ca with this method but it has by far the strongest signal, rssi -65, rscp -94 and ecio (RSRQ) is -14 to -15. This is where my question about the 2 charts comes in. One chart says an ecio of -14 to -15 is horrible, worst catagory and unstable/poor, the other says its in the range of good, 2 catagories above the worst catagory.

I will keep testing but so far it would seem for my usage the -14 to -15 does not seem to be having a negative effect. I do believe however that the low signal rscp of -112 to -118 did have an effect of causing dropouts in my video streams, but like I said still testing and posting this mostly so others can benefit from my findings.

[gscheb]

Your strongest signal band will not always be your fastest band. On Verizon band 13 will more than likely be the the strongest and the slowest.

[BillA]

Your strongest signal band will not always be your fastest band. On Verizon band 13 will more than likely be the the strongest and the slowest.

That's right, while band 13 usually has the strongest signal, it's also designated as the default Verizon band with a fairly low bandwidth and it's very congested. Having said that, it might be perfectly fine in certain areas, so it's worth a try.

[Adm1jtg]

Ok just an update, apparently they have cut some trees between me and my tower or something as the quality of the signal is MUCH better now. On 66 the ecio is now single didgits alsmost all the time with it even occasionally getting down to -7.

But here are my results:
On my tower only bands 4/66 have a 20 mhz bandwidth so 5 and 13 are each only 10mhz
Unfortunately it seems in my situtation its really more about the bandwidth then the signal strength

What I found is that with the 10mhz bands are vastly inferior in my setup to the 20mhz even though the 20mhz band is roughly half the overall strength. Goldenorb estimates the 10mhz bands at almost 80% signal and the 20mhz bands at about 40% signal, yet the 20 mhz bands consistently get 20-30 meg down while the 10mhz bands at time struggle to get 12.

So the conclusion for my setup at least.... Signal strength is only one component that must be tested, bandwidth, frequency, quality, terrain even time of day can all affact results as much or more then a good strong signal.

[Didneywhorl]

Your results make sense if you look at the frequencies of those bands.

5 and 13 are low frequency bands (850Mhz and 700Mhz) that typically are provisioned with no more than 5-10Mhz Bandwidth.

4 and 66 are high frequency bands (1700/2100) that are typically provisioned with 10-20Mhz Bandwidth (possibly more with NR provisions).

The lower frequency bands penetrate better than the high, so that makes sense as to why you have higher signal strength from them.

The general rule of thumb is the max throughput of a single band is 5x the Bandwidth (Best case scenario, maximum output). So in the best of times you wont get more than 50Mbps out of 5 or 13, perfect world etc.

That said, it makes sense that your 5 and 13 are at MOST 1/2 the speed of what you are getting out of 4 and 66.

Even though you have better signal on the lower frequencies, you simply cant get better speeds from them, versus the higher frequency bands; from the same tower. Sometimes it can happen, but not often.


Then after all that, all of our towers can be so night and day different on speeds, even with the exact same bands available. Such a crazy thing cellular internet is. It's maddening sometimes.

[gscheb]

Ok just an update, apparently they have cut some trees between me and my tower or something as the quality of the signal is MUCH better now. On 66 the ecio is now single didgits alsmost all the time with it even occasionally getting down to -7.

Yes trees gone can help. Once had one tree be the root of my promblems.
For as the rest of your post sounds completely right to me. Have had that situation over and over.
Strongest not fastest. The game more is to get your fastest bands stonger signal with antenna mods. Have allot of success with the parabolic type antennas for higher frequency setups.

[Adm1jtg]

lol its funny I just posted in another thread but bottom line was I tried many antenna types and even though I am high frequency I had much better luck with the cheapo white plastic yago antennas that look kinda like flags.