AirMaster 4000D No Connection in confirmed B41 area

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:09 pm

I've just received an AirMaster 4000D and am not getting a signal even though my Calyx MiFi 8000 is running on band41 currently (indoors with no antenna it picks up a slow but solid signal).

The AirMaster 4000D is powering up but the radio information is blank, much like this post (which sounded like some random fluke of a resolution).

I've also run through the [url=http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=448&sid=f49d1720e83a08c8494293e9e7f18e30]Troubleshooting Guide[/url] with no luck.

I feel like I'm down to two last possible failures - I'm hoping someone can correct me or help me find what I'm missing:

1) The ethernet cable:

I'm using a long cable (85'), but it is a cat8 (this one from Amazon, which I thought should be fine to transfer enough power even at that length. I don't have a shorter cable that is cat6a or better (I do have a 25' long cat6, which gives the same results, and the rest are cat5), so I don't have a way to test this and with covid19 stuff it'll be days before I can get a shorter cat6a or better delivered out here in the sticks.

Does the AirMaster 4000D have any kind of power report that would indicate how much power it is getting, or whether it is able to power the modem and not just the router?

If someone knows that 85' is too long to provide sufficient power over cat8 I'll spend the time ordering one, but I'd like to confirm (if possible) before going that route.

2) An issue with the unit:

Based on everything I've read, I really don't think this is the issue. But since these are apparently refurb units I feel like I can't completely rule this out if everything else looks right.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:20 pm

I'm not familiar with this device, but you should be able to run Cat6 and up cables somewhere like 300' I use 75' and 100' cat7 cables myself

It doesn't mean your cable isn't bad, it just means it should be able to run that distance.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:26 pm

Thanks for the quick reply.

The device information page specifically mentions needing cat6a or better:

NOTE: A Cat6A (or better) Ethernet cable (not included) must be used to connect the 4000D to the PoE Power Adapter Injector. While a Cat5e Ethernet cable will power the router portion of the 4000D, it provides insufficient voltage to power the 4000D’s internal modem–which will prevent it from connecting to the internet. Cat5e may be used to connect the PoE Power Adapter to a WiFi router or PC.

Based on the spec (if I haven't misunderstood it), cat8 should be good to easily serve PoE for this device up to 100 meters, and I'm less than 1/3 of that at 85 feet.

Edit: I should add that the cable is brand new -- I have tested it for data and it works great. I just don't have a way to test for voltage end-to-end on this, so that is the wildcard for me.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:23 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Tue Apr 14, 2020 9:09 pm I've just received an AirMaster 4000D and am not getting a signal even though my Calyx MiFi 8000 is running on band41 currently (indoors with no antenna it picks up a slow but solid signal).

The AirMaster 4000D is powering up but the radio information is blank, much like this post (which sounded like some random fluke of a resolution).

I've also run through the [url=http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=448&sid=f49d1720e83a08c8494293e9e7f18e30]Troubleshooting Guide[/url] with no luck.

I feel like I'm down to two last possible failures - I'm hoping someone can correct me or help me find what I'm missing:

1) The ethernet cable:

I'm using a long cable (85'), but it is a cat8 (this one from Amazon, which I thought should be fine to transfer enough power even at that length. I don't have a shorter cable that is cat6a or better (I do have a 25' long cat6, which gives the same results, and the rest are cat5), so I don't have a way to test this and with covid19 stuff it'll be days before I can get a shorter cat6a or better delivered out here in the sticks.

Does the AirMaster 4000D have any kind of power report that would indicate how much power it is getting, or whether it is able to power the modem and not just the router?

If someone knows that 85' is too long to provide sufficient power over cat8 I'll spend the time ordering one, but I'd like to confirm (if possible) before going that route.

2) An issue with the unit:

Based on everything I've read, I really don't think this is the issue. But since these are apparently refurb units I feel like I can't completely rule this out if everything else looks right.

My Cat6A run is about 60 ft.

You might give this thread a look before trying new poe:

http://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=768&sid=60cc35605d86477c0d7522f7311b298f#p4659

I had pretty much same issue you describe. Did not have your style modem (had franklin 850) and once following the tutorial exactly, my airmaster synced up and still working great. One note: after completing all steps and waiting for until to sync up, mine took about 5 minutes that first time. Now it reconnects in 30-60 seconds after reboot or power loss.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 5:57 am

Thanks for the link — the mifi8000 doesn’t provide all of the debugging info that is needed for that guide so I am working with only part of the data. This seems like something that needs to be 100% correct if you’re going to go that route.

I have another modem that does have more debugging info - i don’t know if it will work on sprints network but it does support band 41 so I suppose it is worth a shot!

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:12 am

Are you using a second Calyx account? Swapped the SIM from your 8000? SIM from another source?

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:16 am

What are you using to power it?

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:34 am

The airmaster came with a PowerDsine 3001 so it should be the right power.

I have one Calyx account (sprint from the mifi8000) that I’m trying to move into the airmaster and a second T-Mobile account thru simnet wireless (in the nighthawk).

According to the troubleshooting guide (linked in my original post) said that it should be able to pick up the signal before adding the sprint sim, and it isn’t even doing that.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:20 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:34 am The airmaster came with a PowerDsine 3001 so it should be the right power.

I have one Calyx account (sprint from the mifi8000) that I’m trying to move into the airmaster and a second T-Mobile account thru simnet wireless (in the nighthawk).

According to the troubleshooting guide (linked in my original post) said that it should be able to pick up the signal before adding the sprint sim, and it isn’t even doing that.

I did not try to test signal levels without a sim card installed, did not even know you could do that.

After I did a factory restore (as in troubleshooting guide) and followed the thread I showed above, my airmaster synced up and has been trucking along for months. Even got a second unit for business only use and setup with same results.

Used the tutorial and even did review on one of my sites https://jettdigitals.com/airmaster-4000 ... t-band-41/

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:26 am

That is really good to know. I was surprised, too, that the troubleshooting guide said that it should pick up a signal even without a sim.

Did you have to call to get the device activated with the sim or did you just pop in the sim and it started working?

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:43 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:26 am That is really good to know. I was surprised, too, that the troubleshooting guide said that it should pick up a signal even without a sim.

Did you have to call to get the device activated with the sim or did you just pop in the sim and it started working?

Did not have to call and get activated.

I setup as described using the Wireless Joint thread above and using info obtained from old hotspot. If you read it closely, they do factory reset, setup their airmaster, power down and then insert sim. Power up and allow to sync. I did exactly as described in my review at jettdigitals site for both of my units.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:49 am

Ok great -- I really appreciate the details! It doesn't look like this sim is going to work in my other modem so getting the details is going to be challenging, but at least this rules out several variables.

I think I have what I need to do some more testing with this.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:58 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:49 am Ok great -- I really appreciate the details! It doesn't look like this sim is going to work in my other modem so getting the details is going to be challenging, but at least this rules out several variables.

I think I have what I need to do some more testing with this.

Glad to help much as can. I honestly do not not have much troubleshooting experiencing with the airmaster since it synced right up after making changes described.

One other thing I have heard others speak of is APN's. Since you can set a list of "bearers", they used combination of x.ispsn, n.ispsn and r.ispsn (ip4 and ip4ipv6). Myself, I just used the APN that was in my hotspot.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 8:02 am

Fortunately, I do have the APN from my old modem, so I've got that going for me.

One other thing to add in case it is relevant (for you in case you've seen it, or others who come by this later) after adding the SIM card the light is solid but the status in the airmaster doesn't show "active" -- it is showing "NOT_BLOCKED".

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:00 am

I would just try it, though if it is an officially Sprint supported device/firmware it won't likely work with a SIM used in another device. You may need to call Sprint business and have them send you a new SIM to swap service to. Tell them your current unit is failing and need to get service on a new device you have already purchased. BUT try swapping it directly from the 8000, worst that will happen is it won't work. Sprint doesnt deactivate SIMs just because you put it in another device. It'll be fine.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:05 am

Calyx tends to use the APN r.ispsn but the others may apply. You may be able to look that up in your mifi8000 menus. It is provisioned to the SIM permanently.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:13 am

I missed your last post before I posted

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:22 am

Ok, so I've made some progress.

The mifi8000 didn't have the connection info, but between what I pulled from the mifi8000 and from cellmapper.net (since I knew which tower I was connecting to: the only Sprint tower in the area) I was able to load in the proper mcc / mnc, EARFCN, PCI, and frequency. I have all of the details I need now to load this manually.

With those details in place, I was able to successfully get a signal without a sim in the device. So, I've confirmed that the modem is working and POE is not an issue.

I powered off the Airmaster, inserted the SIM, and powered on.

The Airmaster connects to the tower but the internet doesn't load. All of the stats look [url=https://jettdigitals.com/airmaster-4000 ... t-band-41/]the same as terryjett's walkthrough[url], except for these:

RRC State: idle
EMM State: not registered

Also, my SIM status still shows:

SIM card state: NOT_BLOCKED

---

Next I'm going to walk through everything again to make sure I didn't miss anything, and then I guess it is on to looking at the SIM card as the potential issue. Since this is a Calyx account, I don't have any kind of account ownership with Sprint so I'd be shocked if they let me do a sim swap without having any kind of authorization.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:25 am

Interestingly, it actually shows "SIM Card State: Ready" in the overview page, and "SIM card state: NOT_BLOCKED" in the actual "SIM" tab of the config. So hopefully it is just a settings issue that I messed up.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:47 am

I use a Calyx SIM and have swapped devices.

You just need the SIM info and phone number of the account, IE the SIM phone number. Lots of people do. Sometimes the Sprint rep acts dumb and refuses, sometimes they dont. Dont tell them your account is through a 3rd party reseller, tell them only what they ask for.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:51 am

What APN do you have on the 8000?

And you entered it into the airmaster, no caps?

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:56 am

Good to know you're able to do it without issues. It seems like such a vulnerability to just be able to call in and ask them to swap devices on a SIM without any other kind of account information!

So, are you saying that you did have to call in to Sprint before you could use the Calyx SIM with another device?

If I do that, does it lock the sim to the new device such that I could not switch it back to the 8000 afterward? (If this AirMaster doesn't work out, I'll need to put the sim back into the MiFi8000 -- just want to know what I'm getting myself into.)

What APN do you have on the 8000?

the 8000 is using "r.ispsn" - I entered it exactly the same (lowercase) on the Airmaster.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:58 am

If all else fails, do factory reset/restore and re-enter your details. Never hurt... I recall my first setup took some time to sync and get connection. I know at least 5 minutes and pretty sure left the room and came back 30 minutes later to signal and sync.

If still not working, you can always try to call Sprint. Like @Didneywhorl said, people do it all the time.

I swap Sprint SIMs all the time. They always work when replacing back into original device.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:12 am

Well this is interesting -- since I had to guess at a few things while I was setting up I just was going through and changing some settings, and switched PLMN back to Mobile, and BINGO it connected right away.

So in this case, I just had to enter the ND&S info and that was it.

Speeds are still pretty slow so I'm still going to do some more adjusting to get everything dialed in, but at least I'm connected and know that I don't need to call Sprint or anything like that.

THANK YOU for all of your help with this!!

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:48 am

After moving the AirMaster outside and in the very general area of where it will be mounted, I can say that I'm very happy with the results:

I still have more to adjust, but this will for sure do the trick!

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:23 am

Good stuff! Antenna Tweaks are the next fun part.

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 11:34 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:48 am After moving the AirMaster outside and in the very general area of where it will be mounted, I can say that I'm very happy with the results:

I still have more to adjust, but this will for sure do the trick!

Glad to hear and see things are working out for you. I really like my two airmasters. Solid performers and very little trouble.

Think you will find that fine tuning (far as pointing) will not need much tweaking. The unit is somewhat directional but just pointing at the tower seems to be good enough, if within 2-3 miles of tower. Spent 3-4 hours fine tuning and never got anything more out of the sweetheart

Post by **JimHelms** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 12:19 pm

Didneywhorl wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 9:47 am I use a Calyx SIM and have swapped devices.

You just need the SIM info and phone number of the account, IE the SIM phone number. Lots of people do. Sometimes the Sprint rep acts dumb and refuses, sometimes they dont. Dont tell them your account is through a 3rd party reseller, tell them only what they ask for.

That is not the case with the AirMaster.

It only requires finding the correct settings.

Post by **stcabay1** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:15 pm

These things can be a little funky to get the settings just right, but once working they are really awesome. I was the poster in the other thread that had put all the settings from the debug tab into the applicable settings in the Airmaster, but I've recently found I was able to get the same result with only ND&S updated with data obtained from cellmapper.net. My setup is now:

1.PNG

2.PNG

3.PNG

4.PNG

The Airmaster picks up the signal super quick and reconnects on its own if there's a disconnect. Speeds are right in line 60-80mbps. Awesome little tool!

Edit: And mine will pick up no signal (LED or in the admin pages) with or without a sim unless the ND&S tab is updated. Seems like these units do not respond to all towers equally

Post by **terryjett** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 7:39 pm

These things can be a little funky to get the settings just right, but once working they are really awesome. I was the poster in the other thread that had put all the settings from the debug tab into the applicable settings in the Airmaster, but I've recently found I was able to get the same result with only ND&S updated with data obtained from cellmapper.net

Awesome info, like I said before => your info got me running.

I will have to try your new setting tonight. Can't resist trying a new tweak!

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:18 pm

That is fantastic! Your info (via @terryjett, plus their own additional assistance) got me online with this. My settings are the same as what you just posted above.

Edit: And mine will pick up no signal (LED or in the admin pages) with or without a sim unless the ND&S tab is updated. Seems like these units do not respond to all towers equally

Yes - and it does pick up a signal regardless of the SIM as long as the ND&S tab is populated.

---

I really love the simplicity of a single ethernet cable. My last setup required 2x LMR400 cables running up my mast to the antenna, and it was always so clunky to manage because of how rigid those lines were... and even still, I had to worry about loss that whole distance. Now I will put the mast where it is best for the signal and just run the 85' cat8 cable back to my house from there.

The only thing I'm still working on is the upload speed. I wish there were a way to know what maximum I should *expect* on band 41. After I bought this device I discovered that we do actually have band 25 here and I was getting upwards of 35Mbit upload speed but it was way more jittery (at any given moment would flitter between 20 and 30 upload, and then sit at 10 for a few moments and then spike up to 35) and then it had hours at a time when it wouldn't go faster than 2Mbps upload (and when uploads were that bad, download was abysmal - maybe 1Mbit). Band 41 feels way more solid/reliable, so maybe the max of 8Mbps upload is the price I pay for that stability. And that is fine if I that is the max I can get (I can't complain about 70 down 8 up!)... but it would just be nice to know what I should shoot for and what my options are for dialing it in or tweaking the settings.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 8:46 am

B41 is apportioned for all DL, little UL. I can regularly test DL speeds of 275Mbps, but UL of about 10Mbps. I only use B41. I think single channel UL on 41 is avg 3Mbps up, up to 5Mbps. Carrier Aggregation works on the UL side too, so I think that's where higher numbers can come in.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:36 am

Heh... I guess my ignorance about the bands is showing a bit! Thanks for the info -- that does make sense, and for the reliability I'm getting, 8 Mbps up is for sure very usable. The high end of the upload I saw on b25 is enticing, but not at the expense of reliability.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:47 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:36 am Heh... I guess my ignorance about the bands is showing a bit! Thanks for the info -- that does make sense, and for the reliability I'm getting, 8 Mbps up is for sure very usable. The high end of the upload I saw on b25 is enticing, but not at the expense of reliability.

You rocking on Band 41 with stable 8 up! I might get that on a good day but my average is 2-3.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:50 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 9:36 am . The high end of the upload I saw on b25 is enticing, but not at the expense of reliability.

You can always lock onto B25 for heavy uploads, then swap back when done.

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 11:23 am

Didneywhorl wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 10:50 am You can always lock onto B25 for heavy uploads, then swap back when done.

Airmaster is only designed for bands 38, 40 and 41.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 11:32 am

terryjett wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 11:23 am Airmaster is only designed for bands 38, 40 and 41.

ooops! Thank you for the correction!

Post by **terryjett** » Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:36 pm

Didneywhorl wrote: Thu Apr 16, 2020 11:32 am ooops! Thank you for the correction!

No problem! The airmaster is little different all way around.

Post by **sjura10** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 1:27 am

jonathan_winters wrote: Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:12 am Well this is interesting -- since I had to guess at a few things while I was setting up I just was going through and changing some settings, and switched PLMN back to Mobile, and BINGO it connected right away.

So in this case, I just had to enter the ND&S info and that was it.

Speeds are still pretty slow so I'm still going to do some more adjusting to get everything dialed in, but at least I'm connected and know that I don't need to call Sprint or anything like that.

THANK YOU for all of your help with this!!

Jonathan, just want to confirm that you are using the SIM you got from Calyx in your AirMaster and it is working properly now? I just got my AirMaster about a week ago and I am wanting to get a Calyx SIM but am really hesitant to spend $500 just to find out it doesn't swap devices.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:53 pm

I bought the quarterly membership payment to Calyx for that exact reason — I wanted to make sure it would work before I spent the yearly cost.

I can confirm that I was able to easily swap devices without any issues (no calls to sprint or anything like that).

If you read thru this thread you’ll see that it wasn’t as “plug and play” for me as what some people experienced, but once I had the tower/frequency info plugged into the airmaster it worked perfectly. It has been super solid for me as well. It is definitely a bit of an up front cost but we are saving a fair bit with calyx so my break even point is like 3 months.

Post by **sjura10** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:57 am

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know Calyx offered a quarterly plan. I’ll have to check that out.

I bought a cheap Coolpad Surf and activated that with Sprint and have tried swapping the SIM into the AirMaster but it doesn’t attempt to connect. The Media State remains at Disconnected. I do have a decent signal but it just won’t go any further. I know Sprint offers 4 types of SIM cards for different devices but I would think a SIM card from a hotspot device would be compatible. I don’t know what else to try.

I will say I have seen the Airmaster say Connecting when I put in just a generic Type A SIM card I got from the Sprint store but of course that wouldn’t connect because the SIM was not activated on the network. Just not sure why it won’t even attempt to connect with this activated SIM I have from the Coolpad Surf. Any ideas?

Post by **terryjett** » Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:48 am

sjura10 wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:57 am Thanks for the reply. I didn’t know Calyx offered a quarterly plan. I’ll have to check that out.

I bought a cheap Coolpad Surf and activated that with Sprint and have tried swapping the SIM into the AirMaster but it doesn’t attempt to connect. The Media State remains at Disconnected. I do have a decent signal but it just won’t go any further. I know Sprint offers 4 types of SIM cards for different devices but I would think a SIM card from a hotspot device would be compatible. I don’t know what else to try.

I will say I have seen the Airmaster say Connecting when I put in just a generic Type A SIM card I got from the Sprint store but of course that wouldn’t connect because the SIM was not activated on the network. Just not sure why it won’t even attempt to connect with this activated SIM I have from the Coolpad Surf. Any ideas?

The airmaster can be little difficult at times to setup. I highly encourage you to look back completely through this thread and try each way to setup before giving up. There are a couple of different ways in this entire thread and one of them just might get yours working.

I set one up other day and could not get it to work. Really got me frustrated. Then it was simple as entering every known APN into the "bearer area". Reboot and 5 minutes later it connected. Point is keep trying to tweak your settings:) Once you get it connected you will be happy with the results...

Post by **bcase7090** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:29 pm

jonathan_winters wrote: Sun Apr 19, 2020 10:53 pm I bought the quarterly membership payment to Calyx for that exact reason — I wanted to make sure it would work before I spent the yearly cost.

I can confirm that I was able to easily swap devices without any issues (no calls to sprint or anything like that).

If you read thru this thread you’ll see that it wasn’t as “plug and play” for me as what some people experienced, but once I had the tower/frequency info plugged into the airmaster it worked perfectly. It has been super solid for me as well. It is definitely a bit of an up front cost but we are saving a fair bit with calyx so my break even point is like 3 months.

So i am looking to make the move over to the Airmaster, but still a little bit confused. i did read all 5 pages and i did read the jettdigitals, when it came to the APN, MCC,MNC, and APN info?

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:19 pm

bcase7090 wrote: Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:29 pm So i am looking to make the move over to the Airmaster, but still a little bit confused. i did read all 5 pages and i did read the jettdigitals, when it came to the APN, MCC,MNC, and APN info?

I'm not clear on what you're asking for.

Post by **sjura10** » Sun Apr 26, 2020 11:27 pm

terryjett wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 10:48 am The airmaster can be little difficult at times to setup. I highly encourage you to look back completely through this thread and try each way to setup before giving up. There are a couple of different ways in this entire thread and one of them just might get yours working.

I set one up other day and could not get it to work. Really got me frustrated. Then it was simple as entering every known APN into the "bearer area". Reboot and 5 minutes later it connected. Point is keep trying to tweak your settings:) Once you get it connected you will be happy with the results...

Ok thanks I’ll run thru everything on this thread again and try it once more. Another thing I want to try is going to my parents house and testing there. They basically have a line of sight on the tower and can get 70-80 Mbps just on the phone so maybe that will help. It’s a different tower than my house but at least I’d know it works and just need to tweak for my tower. Wish me luck, I’m getting frustrated. I’ve been trying to get a reliable internet solution for nearly 2 months now and basically tried everything.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Mon Apr 27, 2020 8:35 am

I wrote up this step-by-step walkthrough for a few friends who also jumped on the airmaster bandwagon. Hope it helps!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2jglj9pplfaee ... o.txt?dl=0

Post by **sjura10** » Mon May 11, 2020 10:22 pm

Ok so I tried the AirMaster at my parents house and it connected to the internet without a problem. It was basically plug and play with an average of 45-50 Mbps down and 6-8 Mbps up. So I tried it at my uncles house who is on same tower as my parents and it works there too (not as well though). Now that I know it works, I've taken it back to my house (which is on a different tower) and tested it in multiple spots and still nothing. I put it outside the window where I keep my Magic Box that gets usable signal and still no connection. It does find signal pretty quickly but doesn't attach to the network. Here is a screenshot I took while pointing it out the window:

https://www.screencast.com/t/pzHKAtJngEDB

So then I explored elsewhere using a 23 ft extension pole while standing on my porch roof (not recommend, especially while it is raining). So with the AirMaster now 35 ft in the air, I got the signal as good as -109 db RSRP and the SINR like 11. I didn't get screenshots of this as I was having my wife call out the numbers as I was holding the rig up in the air (I got it stabilized against the side of the 2nd story roof line eventually and held the signal pretty steady). Still no connection. So I went to the side of the house which doesn't have a big tree in the way and still nothing. Does anyone know if these quality of signals can work with the AirMaster or does it need to pickup a better signal than that?

One thing I'm wondering that could be interfering with my signal is high voltage power lines. About 30-50 yards from my house are high voltage lines at just about the height I'm pointing the antenna thru to get to the tower. I do own a small bit of land on the other side of the power lines so I could try that but it'll be a hassle to run power and ethernet lines that distance just to test it and I'll still be within 10-20 yards of the power lines, just on the other side of them. Does anyone know if high voltage lines would interfere with a cell signal or is it just going to give me the same non-connection as this side of the power lines. I'm really just ready to give up and sell the AirMaster to my parents so they can at least get use out of it since I don't seem to get anything from it. I don't know what else to try other than build an 80 ft antenna tower to mount this antenna to but that's well out of the price range I want to spend for internet. Any ideas?

Thanks, Silas

Post by **JimHelms** » Tue May 12, 2020 6:56 am

Try unplugging the Magic Box and then power on the AirMaster.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Tue May 12, 2020 7:16 am

It's not impossible I'm sure, but I've never heard of anyone reporting power lines in the line of sight causing problems.

Do you have sight line to the tower? How far away is the tower?

Post by **sjura10** » Wed May 13, 2020 7:52 pm

Yes I unplug the Magic Box when testing the AirMaster. I do not have direct line of sight as there is a small patch of woods next to my house then lots of open field. I can test on the other side of trees about ½ mile closer to the tower and it gets 60 Mbps down on just the phone. I am about 4.8 miles from the tower.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Fri May 15, 2020 1:16 pm

have you tried mounting the airmaster up really high on the roof? I don't think power lines are an issue. I could be wrong.

Post by **terryjett** » Fri May 15, 2020 1:33 pm

Have to agree with @Didneywhorl, do not think power lines cause you much issue. There some carriers that even mount their sectored antennas on top of high voltage transmission towers:

sectors on transmission tower.jpg

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Fri May 15, 2020 2:12 pm

Brave antenna installers, pure ballz.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Fri May 15, 2020 2:13 pm

Trees (specifically, the foliage) have been the single biggest factor in my own testing -- I think (as others have said) trying to get your antenna as high as possible is going to be key.

I would recommend plugging in your location and that of the tower you're connecting to into the elevation mapper here:

https://link.ui.com/#

You can usually get the tower address from cellmapper.net.

Once you have the locations mapped, it will show the topography between you and the tower, as well as the exact direction/orientation you can use with a compass.

This can take much of the guesswork out of both the elevation and the orientation (both in terms of trees and orienting the AirMaster up or down on the horizon, and also the left/right directional orientation).

Post by **terryjett** » Fri May 15, 2020 3:20 pm

You can usually get the tower address from cellmapper.net.

Great service, love ole Cell Mapper!

But you are missing one important factor: tower height. You need to have your antenna height and the tower height. That gives you good idea if terrain is effecting your path. Trees are one thing, terrain is a whole other monster.

Post by **jonathan_winters** » Fri May 15, 2020 3:26 pm

Good point! I guess at my distance (~5 miles) the elevation of the tower was the easier guess than the elevation of the land in the span between me and the tower. I was able to drive by the tower to get a good idea of what I was working with, and then just watched the numbers as I adjusted up and down a few degrees at a time.

Post by **sjura10** » Fri May 15, 2020 10:50 pm

Yea I’ve mapped it and looked at the topography and drive all the back roads to my house to see the layout myself and there’s no land mass in my way, just seems to be the trees which are 60-80 ft so a bit high to overcome.

I’ve since mounted the AirMaster to my parents antenna tower and everything was working great, speeds were very nice and mostly stable then I left for the day and they are having major issues with the internet. It works fine on their TV to watch Netflix but doesn’t do much of anything on their Mac computer, iPhone or iPad. The download speed seems to be good when they test it but then the upload is always failing and it gives an error message that there was socket issue during the upload test and that it could be a firewall issue.

Does anyone know how to fix that? I don’t know a lot about firewalls and such, just that you can usually tweak some settings to allow certain connections but it seems to be an issue with all their Apple devices (Smart TV is LG and works fine). Maybe the Nighthawk router or Apple devices don’t like the connection, I don’t know. Any pointers would be helpful where to start. I don’t get it since it was working fine for hours while I was there setting everything up. Thanks, Silas.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Sat May 16, 2020 12:04 pm

Might want to look through the system log.

Ill bet its an ipv6 issue

Post by **sjura10** » Sat May 16, 2020 12:26 pm

Didneywhorl wrote: Sat May 16, 2020 12:04 pm Might want to look through the system log.

Ill bet its an ipv6 issue

Ok do I look on the system log of the airmaster, the router or the computer. And what am I looking for?

Is it possible to disable IPv6 and just use IPv4 on the AirMaster?

Thanks for any help, Silas.

Post by **Didneywhorl** » Sat May 16, 2020 3:04 pm

The airmaster, unfortunately Im generalizing and have zero experience with the airmasters firmware.

Sorry.

Hopefully our experienced peeps can chime in.

Post by **terryjett** » Sat May 16, 2020 3:15 pm

I’ve since mounted the AirMaster to my parents antenna tower and everything was working great, speeds were very nice and mostly stable then I left for the day and they are having major issues with the internet. It works fine on their TV to watch Netflix but doesn’t do much of anything on their Mac computer, iPhone or iPad. The download speed seems to be good when they test it but then the upload is always failing and it gives an error message that there was socket issue during the upload test and that it could be a firewall issue.

If working on a PC and TV but not MAC/Apple devices, would head to a forum (like https://discussions.apple.com/welcome) and ask around. I have my doubts that there is anything to change in Airmaster settings.

On a PC you can see what type of IP assignment by using

Code: Select all

ipconfig

or full using

Code: Select all

ipconfig /all

There must be similar commands for Apple but have never used an apple devices. You need to see first if they are connecting and getting IP assigned. Then you can proceed to troubleshoot why...

Post by **sjura10** » Sat May 16, 2020 3:37 pm

Didneywhorl wrote: Sat May 16, 2020 3:04 pm The airmaster, unfortunately Im generalizing and have zero experience with the airmasters firmware.

Sorry.

Hopefully our experienced peeps can chime in.

I seem to have figured it out. When I looked on the back end of the AirMaster it was actually just dropping the signal constantly about every minute so you could get a download test to go thru but by the time it would get to the upload it would cut out.

And I’m guessing it appeared to work fine with their smart TV because the Internet is so fast it would download the movie ahead then cut out and reconnect before it reached the point of needing to buffer again.

All that to say I tweaked with all the settings but still couldn’t get it to lock on so I did a factory reset and now it’s been connected for an hour and a half with no glitch. All I used was the ND&S tab to enter the EARFCN. Speaking of that, does anybody use multiple EARFCN or do you just put in the best one and let it lock onto that. I would like to have a back up but it seems if I use more than one then it’s constantly switching between them and dropping the signal each time.

Post by **terryjett** » Sat May 16, 2020 4:00 pm

sjura10 wrote: Sat May 16, 2020 3:37 pm I seem to have figured it out. When I looked on the back end of the AirMaster it was actually just dropping the signal constantly about every minute so you could get a download test to go thru but by the time it would get to the upload it would cut out.

And I’m guessing it appeared to work fine with their smart TV because the Internet is so fast it would download the movie ahead then cut out and reconnect before it reached the point of needing to buffer again.

All that to say I tweaked with all the settings but still couldn’t get it to lock on so I did a factory reset and now it’s been connected for an hour and a half with no glitch. All I used was the ND&S tab to enter the EARFCN. Speaking of that, does anybody use multiple EARFCN or do you just put in the best one and let it lock onto that. I would like to have a back up but it seems if I use more than one then it’s constantly switching between them and dropping the signal each time.

I have two setup and they are solid as rocks. Used the recommended settings from:

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?f=8& ... t=20#p7044

Someone wrote this up too (have not used it, but you may find handy):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2jglj9pplfaee ... o.txt?dl=0