RBI antenna recommendations requested

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coffeebaron

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#1434198 24-Nov-2015 23:00

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Rikkitic

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#1434224 24-Nov-2015 23:31

Rural Hastings

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coffeebaron

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#1434368 25-Nov-2015 09:37

Too far for me. Either ask your provider if they can upgrade you to dual antenna, else DIY with:
http://www.gowifi.co.nz/coax-ethernet-fibre-cables/premade-cables/n-male-to-sma-male-10-metre-pigtail.html?keyword=rbi
and
http://www.gowifi.co.nz/antennas-1710-2100mhz-directio/broadband-directional-antenna.html

Best if your provider can do this so the antenna's can get aligned correctly, but generally setup on apposing 45deg angles.

This may or may not give you much if any improvement if you are in high signal area, but we have found this works well in lower signal / fringe areas.

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Rikkitic

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#1434394 25-Nov-2015 10:30

OK, thanks for the info!

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dwl

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#1434698 25-Nov-2015 18:24

coffeebaron: Too far for me. Either ask your provider if they can upgrade you to dual antenna, else DIY with:
http://www.gowifi.co.nz/coax-ethernet-fibre-cables/premade-cables/n-male-to-sma-male-10-metre-pigtail.html?keyword=rbi
and
http://www.gowifi.co.nz/antennas-1710-2100mhz-directio/broadband-directional-antenna.html

Best if your provider can do this so the antenna's can get aligned correctly, but generally setup on apposing 45deg angles.

This may or may not give you much if any improvement if you are in high signal area, but we have found this works well in lower signal / fringe areas.

I like this - using dual polarisations makes more sense than trying for more gain in a single antenna plus high gain and wide bandwidth are a challenge.

It raises an interesting point about 4G capacity. If it became more common to make better use of MIMO (and from my experience it can double throughput compared to single antenna) then would the cell capacity be improved? The standard install is only using one of the ports on the B315 and a second yagi mounted at 90 deg to the other (each at 45 deg to horizontal) would probably give best results but getting too confusing and ugly for many.

My first search found this LPM8270 which isn't quite there for frequency, slightly lower gain, needs to be rotated 45 deg but is small. How long before we start to see wideband single panel antennas for dual polarisation ? Would there be useful gains ?

grant_k

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#1434758 25-Nov-2015 19:27

You've raised some interesting points there Donald. Last year a friend of mine trialled one of these for indoor use with the B315:

It is a MIMO antenna designed for LTE with 2 connectors and certainly gave a worthwhile increase in speed compared to the internal antenna of the B315.

As others have commented, I also found that dual antennas on opposing 45 degree slants work the best in terms of throughput and connection stability. Here is a picture of my setup:

Excuse the rotated image, but I cannot find any way to convince Geekzone to display this picture the right way up.

With these outdoor antennas connected into the B315, I am getting a consistent dowload speed of just over 100Mbps with an upload speed exceeding 30Mbps:

Truly amazing speeds considering I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Rikkitic

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#1450891 15-Dec-2015 15:33

OK, so I got a second antenna and installed it as per instructions, one above the other, each at an opposite 45 degree tilt (as in photo).

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to make much difference. There is always some variance in speed tests so it is hard to be certain, but the two antennas at angles actually seem slightly worse than one antenna vertically oriented. I tried reversing the angles and also mounting both antennas vertically, and that last seems to give the best result, though not greatly better than a single antenna.

With a single antenna, I generally get around 30 mb/s download, sometimes down to 20-25 on slow days. With the dual antennas vertically polarised the average today is a little over 30, with brief peaks as high as 40 mb/s. My Rsrq with the two antennas mounted at angles currently varies between -4 db and -10 db, Rsrp is -97 dbm, Rssi -69 dbm. These figures were slightly better with the single antenna.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What, if anything, am I doing wrong? Is there any way to improve on this? The antennas are less than 30 cm apart on the mast, but my understanding is that shouldn't make much difference.

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Apsattv

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#1450950 15-Dec-2015 16:52

The spacing usually is important, they look too close together. But your pole looks a little short. You don't want to be bringing it down near the roof iron.

Rikkitic

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#1450953 15-Dec-2015 16:59

Apart from the roof, there is a densely leafed tree in the way if the lowest antenna goes any lower. I don't think that would help.

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Rikkitic

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#1451611 16-Dec-2015 14:31

Well, I just spent the entire morning extending the mast and raising the second antenna. It was really difficult working from the rooftop and it cost me a lot of effort. At the end of it all, with the antenna now well over a metre higher, it still hasn't made a bloody bit of difference. Along the way, I also did tests in several other positions but no improvement at all. Whatever I try, it is still within the range of what I was getting with the single antenna. I did check at the beginning that both antennas are working by connecting each individually so that is not the issue.

I am very disappointed and discouraged by this and I don't know what else to try. Good science is built on failures and I guess this experiment is one of those, but you sure wouldn't know that from all the enthusiastic noise on the Internet, not to mention a considerable number of serious technical documents. I still wouldn't mind knowing why this produces miracles for everyone else, and nothing whatsoever for me.

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dwl

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#1451904 16-Dec-2015 21:18

I feel your frustration. With your results suggesting you might get best results from vertical only I am wondering whether you are on a site that isn't using dual polarisation with MIMO. Maybe someone else here can help clarify, assuming you are on 4G, whether all sites are configured the same.

Rikkitic

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#1451937 16-Dec-2015 21:55

It is definitely 4G LTE, Vodafone Flaxmere transmission mast. From everything I have read, I expected a better result than I have been able to achieve but my understanding of things is limited and I am feeling my way along. Thanks for responding.

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kaihoka

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#1453296 19-Dec-2015 00:30

when i was upgraded to 4G RBI i asked the tech guy if he had a 4G antenna and he said the yagi i had with 3G was a a stronger better antenna than the 4G antenna he had.
i was surprised it would work on 700 as well as 900 but it does.
i have a very strong signal and any limits on speed are to do with the towers capacity not my signal.
it has occurred to me that my current antenna would work for sparks 700 network as well.
am i right

NZFINEST

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#1453457 19-Dec-2015 12:49

@rikkitic i pm'd u

Anything I suggest or say is my own thoughts and not provided by anyone else unless stated

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