Can't connect to closest tower.

[fmj435]

Hello,
I have a em7565, wg3526, 2x Mimo 700-2700MHz 15dBi 4G LTE Directional Antenna, and a Tmobile sim mounted on a 40 foot channel master tower. I'm pretty positive I have the antennas correct and the top one plugged in to the main port. I'm using some 12ft cables. I have tall trees, probably 60 ft all around my property.

The closest tower to me is IS 4.3 miles on the other side of a lake up on a hill. I figured it was a slam dunk to connect and get good speeds. I even tested it next to the tower and got 100mbps+ speeds. It has B66 and B12.

27969.jpg

BUT, I got the antennas up and ended up on a tower 3ish miles behind it with an admittedly decent signal. But it just doesn't make sense when you look at the terrain. This tower has b66, b12, and b71. It is in a more congested area and beyond that the ping is obviously worse. Speeds range from 15-50 down and 15 up and they are all over.

27454.jpg

Code: Select all

!GSTATUS: 
Current Time:  9153		Temperature: 51
Reset Counter: 1		Mode:        ONLINE         
System mode:   LTE        	PS state:    Attached     
LTE band:      B66    		LTE bw:      10 MHz  
LTE Rx chan:   0		LTE Tx chan: 132222
LTE SSC1 state:INACTIVE    	LTE SSC1 band: B12    
LTE SSC1 bw  : 5 MHz   		LTE SSC1 chan: 5035
LTE SSC2 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC3 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC4 state:NOT ASSIGNED
EMM state:     Registered     	Normal Service 
RRC state:     RRC Connected  
IMS reg state: No Srv  		
PCC RxM RSSI:  -67		PCC RxM RSRP:  -93
PCC RxD RSSI:  -72		PCC RxD RSRP:  -97
SCC1 RxM RSSI: -74		SCC1 RxM RSRP: -94
SCC1 RxD RSSI: -73		SCC1 RxD RSRP: -93
Tx Power:      10		TAC:         aa08 (43528)
RSRQ (dB):     -11.4		Cell ID:     006b3e04 (7028228)
SINR (dB):     19.8

I can sometimes get it to connect to the close tower but when I try to aim it directly at it it pops on to the farther tower. I know I can't force it to connect to a different tower but it just seems so strange. Is it worth trying a different set of antennas? Any other thoughts? Thanks for an input.

[BillA]

Often times those online mapping apps/sites are inaccurate due to their crowd sourced data, making you believe that there's only one cell site in a particular direction. As a test, you could rotate the antenna 360 degrees at 10 degree increments, and checking the signal status by restarting the router each time you rotate it. You'd be surprised, sometimes there's a cell site in a completely different direction, possibly a new one not yet updated online, which could have much better signal. In any case, it wouldn't hurt to try.

[LoveMeSomeCALTE]

To proceed, log the Cell ID of both.

I don't know what the Cell ID of the tower up on a hill is. I assuming you have confirmed its location via a site visit.

I am assuming 7028228 is the Cell ID of the suboptimal tower and you are yet to confirm its location via a site visit.

[Didneywhorl]

B71 is a far reaching band. Lock your modem out of B71. It may see that radio and like it better. Maybe just lock it to B2, B4, B66 and B12.

[fmj435]

So I did these commands, which I can only assume are wrong since I'm locked out of B66. Not really sure where to go from there either. I assume that AT!BAND=0F,"TMO 66,12,2,4",0,000000000000080A is wrong but have no clue what it should be.

AT!ENTERCND="A710"
AT!BAND=0A,"B66",0,0,0000000000000002
AT!BAND=0B,"B12",0,0000000000000800
AT!BAND=0C,"B2",0,0000000000000002
AT!BAND=0D,"B4",0,0000000000000008
AT!BAND=0F,"TMO 66,12,2,4",0,000000000000080A
AT!BAND=0F
AT!RESET

And this is the result, it's still on the same tower (7028228) and speeds are similar. speetest.net has it from 10-40 and the bing speed test has ranged from 30-120 which is the highest i've seen. I do wonder if Band 4 is more congested though?

Code: Select all

AT!GSTATUS?
!GSTATUS: 
Current Time:  2619		Temperature: 60
Reset Counter: 3		Mode:        ONLINE         
System mode:   LTE        	PS state:    Attached     
LTE band:      B4     		LTE bw:      10 MHz  
LTE Rx chan:   2200		LTE Tx chan: 20200
LTE SSC1 state:INACTIVE    	LTE SSC1 band: B12    
LTE SSC1 bw  : 5 MHz   		LTE SSC1 chan: 5035
LTE SSC2 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC3 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC4 state:NOT ASSIGNED
EMM state:     Registered     	Normal Service 
RRC state:     RRC Connected  
IMS reg state: No Srv  		

PCC RxM RSSI:  -66		PCC RxM RSRP:  -93
PCC RxD RSSI:  -68		PCC RxD RSRP:  -94
SCC1 RxM RSSI: -77		SCC1 RxM RSRP: -95
SCC1 RxD RSSI: -76		SCC1 RxD RSRP: -93
Tx Power:      14		TAC:         aa08 (43528)
RSRQ (dB):     -9.0		Cell ID:     006b3e04 (7028228)
SINR (dB):     16.8

I tried for a long time to get it to go to the other tower and stay long enough to run an AT!GSTATUS? but it just jumps to the far tower the next time it updates. I have confirmed the location of both towers and they are where cellmapper.com shows them.

[Didneywhorl]

You aren't getting 66 because you didn't include it in your 0F creation command.

Also not sure why you are including the leading zeroes. Did I miss the need for this? I believe it isn't necessary.

AT!BAND=0F,"B66 plus others",0,80A, 2
AT!BAND=0F

[fmj435]

Zeroes are not necessary I guess because that worked. The tutorial had them in there so I just went with it. Anyways, no luck on the bandlock helping to get on the closer tower. I guess i'm stuck with the far tower. I'm thankful at least that it is working well enough.

From here I guess my main question is if it is within my control to get the speed more consistent or if it's the tower. Right now if something downloads via steam the speed ranges from 500 KB/s to 5 MB/s. This is also reflected in all speed tests, they run up high and then freeze and drop down. I have tested this with B4 and B66, both are aggregated with B12 and they are very similar. Band 66 I think barely beats out Band 4 overall.

steamdl.jpg

And here is a status when I took the screenshot.

Code: Select all

AT!GSTATUS?
!GSTATUS: 
Current Time:  637		Temperature: 50
Reset Counter: 8		Mode:        ONLINE         
System mode:   LTE        	PS state:    Attached     
LTE band:      B66    		LTE bw:      10 MHz  
LTE Rx chan:   0		LTE Tx chan: 132222
LTE SSC1 state:ACTIVE      	LTE SSC1 band: B12    
LTE SSC1 bw  : 5 MHz   		LTE SSC1 chan: 5035
LTE SSC2 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC3 state:NOT ASSIGNED
LTE SSC4 state:NOT ASSIGNED
EMM state:     Registered     	Normal Service 
RRC state:     RRC Connected  
IMS reg state: No Srv  		

PCC RxM RSSI:  -69		PCC RxM RSRP:  -95
PCC RxD RSSI:  -69		PCC RxD RSRP:  -94
SCC1 RxM RSSI: -69		SCC1 RxM RSRP: -93
SCC1 RxD RSSI: -69		SCC1 RxD RSRP: -92
Tx Power:      12		TAC:         aa08 (43528)
RSRQ (dB):     -11.1		Cell ID:     006b3e04 (7028228)
SINR (dB):      9.6

If I had to guess i'd say it's the signal quality (RSRQ) jumping all over. It seems to range from -9 to as high as -17.

I do have an EM20 in the drawer and I still need to test the AT&T Post paid unlimited plan. I don't have 4 suitable antennas for the EM20 and it looks like the 2x2Mimo flat panels are out of stock already so that may have to wait.

Thanks for any thoughts/help.

[Didneywhorl]

The Quectel modem has the ability to lock to specific radios on each cell tower, the Sierra Wireless modems do not. This may be your way to lock to the cell towwe of choice. I have not played with this command but you may want to try the Quectel ad look up the command AT+QNWLOCK