Rain fade and B315 settings

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Rikkitic

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Topic # 243677 24-Dec-2018 22:34

My 4G RBI connection sometimes varies a lot. Right now it has absolutely plummeted. At the moment I mainly attribute this to the weather, as we have been under a constant rain dump for the last two days. Today has been the worst I have ever experienced, less than 1 Mbps down and pings as much as nearly 400 ms (usually around 50-60 ms).

It occurred to me that 3G might do better under these conditions so I decided to give it a try. It didn't really seem to make much difference but it did make me wonder about something. On the Huawei there are only three network settings, LTE Preferred, 4G, and 3G. I understand 3G but I wonder what the difference is between LTE Preferred and 4G. I have two antennas but they are not in LTE configuration. Both are vertically oriented, pointed the same way. When I set them up this gave me the best result. When I tilted the antennas at 45 degrees my speeds dropped regardless of how I positioned them.

So what difference does the Huawei see between LTE and 4G?

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Reply # 2150270 24-Dec-2018 22:53

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3G = lock to 3G
LTE preferred = try to camp on 4G, but if can't then try 3G.
4G = modem locked to 4G only, cannot step down to 3G. If no 4G, then no service.

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Aredwood

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Reply # 2150271 24-Dec-2018 23:01

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Since 4G is LTE. I'm assuming that 4G = use 4G only. While LTE preferred = use either 4G or 3G.

Unfortunately the rain probably means that people are staying home more and using more internet. There might also be more people than normal in your area, again more data usage.

Cellphone towers reduce their transmission power when they get overloaded. This is to force devices that are on the border between 2 different towers to connect to an alternative tower, which hopefully has spare capacity. Unfortunately that doesn't help you if you can only get signal from 1 tower.

Do speeds improve late at night or at other times when network load is lower?

Have you checked if Spark signal is available in your area? If so, have you tried a Spark SIM? As I don't think that the B315 is SIM locked.

Edit

Coffeebaron beat me to it.

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Reply # 2150330 25-Dec-2018 06:32

It's not rain fade it's everyone online so it's congestion as advised to you in the other thread

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=151&TopicId=243409

John

Edit: You don't want to lock the modem to 3G only as you are about 20km from the serving cell and 3G will be impacted by cell breathing

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2150396 25-Dec-2018 10:09

Linux:

It's not rain fade it's everyone online so it's congestion as advised to you in the other thread

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=151&TopicId=243409

John

Edit: You don't want to lock the modem to 3G only as you are about 20km from the serving cell and 3G will be impacted by cell breathing

Merry Christmas John. I was just experimenting to see if it would make a difference.

We have had an unbelievable wall of water over us for the past couple days. Our Internet connection has slowed dramatically, the worst ever. I suspect it was a combination of both rain fade and congestion. I don't know how to check that from my end, but it seems to make sense.

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Reply # 2150398 25-Dec-2018 10:13

It's not Sky TV so not rain fade

Merry Christmas to you and the family as well

John

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2150416 25-Dec-2018 11:01

It has been wet everywhere but where we are an absolute wall of water all day yesterday and before. I have never experienced anything like it, especially the duration and intensity. We don't have Sky and we weren't watching satellite Freeview except briefly at odd moments, but when we did it seemed okay.

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coffeebaron

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Reply # 2150427 25-Dec-2018 11:48

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Rain can have an effect, but certainly not the same as satellite rain fade. E.G. wet trees block more signal than dry trees. So depending on location and surroundings etc, a very marginal signal area can be slightly worse in heavy rain. But as above, main issue will be congestion.
The other factor of course could be water getting into the antenna connection if this is not properly sealed.

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Reply # 2150442 25-Dec-2018 12:13

This is 110% congestion issue

John

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2150443 25-Dec-2018 12:18

Thanks for the clarification. I misread John's Sky comment but I started looking into rain fade because I saw references to it with 4G and it seemed to make sense to me. We do have some trees that could contribute to reception issues though there are plenty of gaps through them. But maybe when it is really wet they could make a difference.

In spite of our distance from the mast, I don't think our signal is marginal. In the past it might have been but these days we almost always have four bars (three since the rain) and the values are within reasonable limits. (Right now they are terrible. I just checked and the worst I have seen in a long time and it isn't even raining, though heavy cloud and fog. Rsrq -12db, Rsrp -112dbm, Rssi -81dbm.)

I doubt there is water in the antenna. It was well-sealed at the time. But I will check it when the weather improves.

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Rikkitic

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Reply # 2150445 25-Dec-2018 12:20

Re above: If it is still just congestion, I sure wish they would fix it. The mast we depend on (the only one in range) is in a busy neighbourhood and this has been going on for years, though it has been better recently (until now).

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Reply # 2150451 25-Dec-2018 12:50

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Remember when looking at the signal path there is a fresnel zone around it - even if you have line of sight to the tower, the signal is affected by things either side and above/below that line, so dense wet trees nearby can have an impact.

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Reply # 2150452 25-Dec-2018 12:57

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Rikkitic:

Re above: If it is still just congestion, I sure wish they would fix it. The mast we depend on (the only one in range) is in a busy neighbourhood and this has been going on for years, though it has been better recently (until now).

As advised because now is the holidays

John

Rikkitic

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Reply # 2150454 25-Dec-2018 13:17

It is just that the difference has been so huge. Population growth, I guess.

Since the experts are feeling generous, one more quick question. In view of my distance from the mast (+-20km), do I actually need a higher frequency antenna? I currently have a wideband but would 700 mhz alone do just as well? Do the higher frequencies get used at this distance? I'm just curious.

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Reply # 2150457 25-Dec-2018 13:20

No you don't need a higher frequency antenna as the frequency has not changed

John

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Reply # 2150471 25-Dec-2018 15:30

coffeebaron: 3G = lock to 3G
LTE preferred = try to camp on 4G, but if can't then try 3G.
4G = modem locked to 4G only, cannot step down to 3G. If no 4G, then no service.

interesting. B618 can only do 4G???

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