Wireless Joint

1. Can I do Carrier Aggregation on both two towers at the same time? Or is it possible only for different bands on the same tower?
2. Do I need 2x2 or 4x4 MIMO? For what I've understood with 2x2 MIMO I can hook both the two towers at the same time, but contemporary transmission/reception wouldn't be optimal unless I'll use 4X4 MIMO. Bullshit?
3. Which setup should I go with? (I know you'll probably laugh at "high gain 20 dBi")
   1. 2 high gain highly directional antennas (~20 dBi/25°)
   2. 2 medium gain medium directional antennas (~10 dBi/60°)
   3. a mix high/medium gain highly/medium directional antennas (~20 dBi/25° + ~10 dBi/60°)
4. How can I investigate without special equipment how I should point my antenna/antennas?
   So far I've investigated using my smartphone with Network Cell Info Lite: https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... lite&hl=en
   Is there some special trick to investigate signal direction, like putting my smartphone in a metal tube/pipe and turn it around on a tripod to find the best signal directions?
5. Is MIMO only possible with LTE Cat 6? Can I MIMO on LTE Cat 4?
6. Is it possible to build manually LTE antennas to save money?

Viper67857 wrote: Sun Aug 02, 2020 8:23 pm The best bang for your buck would probably be a WG3526 router with a cat12 Sierra card inside (the pci-e one, so you don't need the M.2 adapter), the The Wireless Haven flat panel mimo antenna (15dbi), and enough lmr240 with proper connectors to hook it all up. That should come up to somewhere around $500 total.

4x4 mimo is generally AT LEAST 1.6x faster than 2x2 on the same spectrum, but then you're looking at double the antennas, double the coax, a more expensive modem to support it, and a more expensive wg1608 to handle all the antenna connections (or drilling more holes in a 3526 to install more bulkhead connectors). You'd be looking at closer to $800 for this setup.

Another option, if you can get decent signal on your phones while inside your home (not on the roof), is a netgear Nighthawk m1 hotspot... Those have cat16 modems and internal 4x4 mimo antennas for $250 right from best buy. The downside is the crappy ts9 connectors aren't great for connecting external antennas (and there are only 2, so forget about 4x4 if externals are a must).

1) one tower at a time is all you can connect to, period
2) mimo gives you more speed on the same spectrum, still only one tower, though
3) I wouldn't mix antennas.. Either use 1 2x2 flat panel or parabolic grid or use 2 2x2s if you go with a 4x4 modem
4) you can drive around and physically locate the towers, then plot an azimuth using Google maps... Or just get your antennas and spin em around slowly until you find the best signal.
5) I think even cat4 modems offer 2x2 mimo and 2x Carrier Aggregation.. I like cat12s for 3xCA with more bands, and with the cost of all the other hardware, the price difference between a cat6 and a cat12 isn't all that much.
6) I've seen a few different designs posted... Idk what kind of signal to noise ratio you'd get with a homemade antenna, but it's doable..

R1250GSA wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2020 6:21 pm You should explore cellmapper.net
If have an android or windows phone, use the app and map some data points.

A 4g lte signal has physical limits per your unique situation, setting the bar of Mbps.
Who knows if your 30/30 is via a simple 4G path.
With that, the only way to increase bandwidth is multiply by 2 or 4.
It is no guarantee, but a CAT-16 4x4 MIMO 5-CA or better modem will basically give you your best shot.
The cell tower chops up its bandwidth into CC’s, component carriers.
A 5xCA rated modem can combine up to 5 CC assigned by the tower.
The 4 separate antenna maximize the spatial diversity of the signal paths.

You are in the UK, yes?
The available bands available by your carriers and their frequency ranges will be unique.
If you are looking at used kit, make sure they supports your bands you require.

Good luck.

R1250GSA wrote: Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:32 am There is a lot of variability in the quality of antennas out there.
Next to no quality reviews and comparisons.
If you purchased a name brand antenna, you would hopefully be able to resell it if you do go fiber in the future.
Also, if you want to sell your kit in a few years, it should be 5G compliant.
I would suggest looking at Poynting
You will pay more but it should retain some value.
The XPOL-2 5G is their hot product.
They have many videos on Youtube.