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Advice needed on external 3G/4G antenna

marcel353

Hi,
I am about to set up an external antenna to improve my 3G signal.
However with 4G at the corner, I may as well set up something reasonably future proof.
Would anybody be able to confirm which type of 3G/4G antenna is suitable for Ireland or even suggest a model?
I have seen different models on-line but there seems to be huge variations in prices and specs.
It will need to be sturdy and hard wearing as very exposed.

Thanks in advance,

M

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lukin

M5 wrote: »

Parcel motel?

Are restocking fees like tgst legal?

It's OK I found a place near to home I can buy it at:https://trade.novatel.ie/9dbi-cross-polarised-high-gain-outdoor-lte-panel-antenna-xpol-2

adm

fyi amazon has 10 pounds off today if you spend 50. code is BIGTHANKS

spuddy01

lukin wrote: »

It's OK I found a place near to home I can buy it at:https://trade.novatel.ie/9dbi-cross-polarised-high-gain-outdoor-lte-panel-antenna-xpol-2

The guys in the shop there are sound called in myself about that antenna but ultimately the price was more than I was willing to spend. So ended up ordering this one from Amazon yesterday.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Communication-Broadband-Antenna-Directional-Booster/dp/B076VLJFC2/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1516918403&sr=8-13&keywords=mimo+antenna

Kenny Powers

spuddy01 wrote: »

The guys in the shop there are sound called in myself about that antenna but ultimately the price was more than I was willing to spend. So ended up ordering this one from Amazon yesterday.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Communication-Broadband-Antenna-Directional-Booster/dp/B076VLJFC2/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1516918403&sr=8-13&keywords=mimo+antenna

Did you try this out yet? I would be interested in your results as I am looking for something myself.

Thanks

spuddy01

Hi Kenny,
I have not received the item yet but hopefully within the next few days & I'll definitely let you know how it goes.

Jakey Rolling

For anyone setting up antenna, this line-of-sight plotter on Scadacor may be useful.

Remember to put in realistic antenna heights for both your end and the mast.
Surprised Google don't do something like this directly on Google maps.

I'm having limited success with a combined (2-elements in 1) wideband Yagi, nominal gain 9dBi.
Download speed is topping out at just over 20Mbps on 4G, up to 18Mbps on 3G. Speed is hugely variable though throughout the day.

Unfortunately I can't control which freq band my B593 connects to, the mast uses both 800 and 1800Mhz. I suspect that I'm being throttled due to my distance from the mast - something that EditorSean has alluded to on his blog. To be fair, it's not in anyone's interests to have users connecting on flaky links that cause multiple retransmits.

Jakey Rolling

Oh, and I was real surprised to find that my triple-glazed low-e windows blocked the mobile signals so effectively.

When I got my YAGI I first tried it in the upstairs bedroom (not the weather to be fooling around outside)
The signal was as bad, if not worse, than with the modem's own antennae.
I was scratching my head, really thought I had a duff antenna.

When I bothered to mount the YAGI outside I was pleasantly surprised to bump up the signal quality by about 6dB.
Enough to go from 8Mbps tops to 20Mbps.

Still think my 8km distance is the limiting factor.
Curently testing to see if 3G is more stable.

ED E

Jakey Rolling wrote: »

Oh, and I was real surprised to find that my triple-glazed low-e windows blocked the mobile signals so effectively.

+1 there, was recently gobsmacked to see how much newer treated glass attenuates the link. You'd almost have a better time through cinder blocks.

Kenny Powers

Has anyone tried these are they worth a punt?

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32817193042.html?pid=808_0000_0209&spm=a2g0n.search-amp.list.32817193042

Kenny Powers wrote: »

Has anyone tried these are they worth a punt?

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32817193042.html?pid=808_0000_0209&spm=a2g0n.search-amp.list.32817193042

As much use as a glass hammer. You can have mine for nowt

spuddy01

Have received my antenna only had a little bit of time to play around with it today up in attic so waiting for better weather to try & mount it outside on aerial pole. Not really seeing great improvements but again hopefully outside will prove better.

Kenny Powers

Hi All,

Selling my proscan directional mimo Yagi over on adverts if anyone is interested.
I’ll also throw in a third single tube Yagi (1 single antenna) for anyone here in the forum just let me know.

http://www.adverts.ie/14955160

orm0nd

Kenny Powers wrote: »

Has anyone tried these are they worth a punt?

https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32817193042.html?pid=808_0000_0209&spm=a2g0n.search-amp.list.32817193042

only mono band,

been using those for the last couple of weeks for both 3 and eir, (trying to decide which is best)
https://www.wimo.com/lte-4g-antennas_e.html#60072

and really impressed with their performance

Mahony0509

I'm getting 3 unlimited installed tomorrow. My area only has 4g outdoor coverage as far as I'm aware. I'm about 1/2km from the mast, which should be about 100m above where I'm at. I'm completely clueless about antennae, could anyone recommend something cheap and how I'd go about installing it on a Huawei b525 router?

givecredit

Mahony0509 wrote: »

I'm getting 3 unlimited installed tomorrow. My area only has 4g outdoor coverage as far as I'm aware. I'm about 1/2km from the mast, which should be about 100m above where I'm at. I'm completely clueless about antennae, could anyone recommend something cheap and how I'd go about installing it on a Huawei b525 router?

You probably will not need one. See how things go tomorrow.

gooner99

Hi.

I have a B593s-22 LTE/4G Wireless Router and I'm currently using meteor/eir payg mobile broadband sim and also have a three ayce mobile sim that I can swap to. I currently get speeds of about 5 down and 9 up. I would like to boost the speed. I am in clear view of the mast which is on a hill beside some windmills in West Donegal. Crow flies distance is about 8km. According to comregs siteviewer the mast has meteor, three and Vodafone.

Local electrical shop has an antenna for €50 with 2 x 10m cables. Didn't actually see it, just spoke on the phone. Does this sound like a good setup or is 10m too long?

Can you recommend antennas that would suit my setup best?

Thanks.

ED E

Test with the window open so there is only air between unit and high site Gooner. If speeds are similar you're dealing with contention and an antenna will make no difference.

gooner99

ED E wrote: »

Test with the window open so there is only air between unit and high site Gooner. If speeds are similar you're dealing with contention and an antenna will make no difference.

Thanks for the reply. I tried that and the ping and speeds were similar. My wife was in town, so she picked up a directional antenna. It's like a tv aerial with horizontal and vertical prongs 2 x 10m cables. This is the one (although the box says 5 dBi and not 9)...

http://www.dipol.ie/cellular-systems/gsm-3g-lte-antennas/lte/lte-mimo-antenna-atk-log-lte-800-2170mhz-10m-cable-sma-plug.html

Anyway it doesn't seem to have made much if any difference. Luckily I can return and get a refund. Any point is going any further with this (try another type of attenna) or am I as you said likely to be looking at a contention issue?

Ultimanemo

With Three you pay small money and you get slow service, take it or leave it
This speed is with external antenna
High contention

gooner99

Ultimanemo wrote: »

With Three you pay small money and you get slow service, take it or leave it

Sorry should have said it's proper meteor/eir payg mobile broadband I have.

Ultimanemo

gooner99 wrote: »

Sorry should have said it's proper meteor/eir payg mobile broadband I have.

May I ask, how much data you get with this broadband

gooner99

Ultimanemo wrote: »

May I ask, how much data you get with this broadband

Used to be 50gb to use over 180 days for €30. But they have now changed it to 50gb over 30 days for €30. Didn't bother me as I would have used the 50gb in around a month anyway.

red sean

Just wondering if this would be any use for receiving mobile broadband and distributing via wifi router?
https://www.senetic.ie/product/RBSXTLTE3-7?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4ZDp197m2gIVStbACh2WBQRREAAYASAAEgKrzvD_BwE

ED E

gooner99 wrote: »

Anyway it doesn't seem to have made much if any difference. Luckily I can return and get a refund. Any point is going any further with this (try another type of attenna) or am I as you said likely to be looking at a contention issue?

Not unless you can get line of sight to a different high site.

gearoid!

@red sean

Checkout the TP-Link MR6400 4G Modem + Router. It can take any SIM; 3, Meteor, etc.

This device is capable of receiving mobile broadband and distributing via wifi router (built-in).

Here's the link:
https://retail.novatel.ie/tp-link-tl-mr6400-4g-lte-router

Jurgen Klopp

These external aerials are for dongles and routers with Sims correct?

My closest 4G mast is 4km away with a clear line of site, just poor indoors unfortunately

But if I'm on 3 with unlimited data via my phone I'd need a signal booster if that's even legal yet?

Would the external 4G aerial plus cable be the same tho?

ED E

No, unless you want to wire your phone into the wall of your house.

Repeaters are still illegal as yet.

Beenlost123

Ed, I had 4/5 bar signal on my external antenna but I have just come home and now its 1/2 bar and the speed has decreased dramatically. Any ideas is it my end? Summer folage? or 3 doing something ?
My ping has gone from 80ms to 500ms and download speed from 12 - 20 mbits / sec to 0.5 mbits sec up and down

Edit: maybe a bit of an exaggeration on the ping decline actually, getting reasonable pings when I just ping google.ie on my cli

ED E

Beenlost123 wrote: »

Ed, I had 4/5 bar signal on my external antenna but I have just come home and now its 1/2 bar and the speed has decreased dramatically. Any ideas is it my end? Summer folage? or 3 doing something ?
My ping has gone from 80ms to 500ms and download speed from 12 - 20 mbits / sec to 0.5 mbits sec up and down

Edit: maybe a bit of an exaggeration on the ping decline actually, getting reasonable pings when I just ping google.ie on my cli

Sounds like your normal site is currently unavailable. This could mean its dropped offline (fault), being worked on or it may be overly full today and punting you off to a quieter one.

If the diagnostics page gives you a cell ID, eNB ID etc you can take note of which ones you see and how they perform. Better yet go mapping with CellMapper (rooted android phones only).

ED E wrote: »

Repeaters are still illegal as yet.

Certified repeaters are now legal.

Hococop

Question, have my antenna set up and majority of the time it's great, usually 3 bars just wondering if anyone else has this issue

Almost every time around 10pm till 11pm the signal completely drops im usually playing fortnite or another online game and before 10 my ping is 30 to 40, but as soon as 10 pm hits the ping spikes up to 500 to 1000 and usually only 1 bar

Just wondering if that is my internet provider throttling (hope it's the right word) my speeds?

Also where I got the best signal for my antenna a few tree branches might be in the way, would it make a difference to cut some of the branches away?

Thanks