Jump to content

cell tower question


Recommended Posts

I use NetMonitor app. It works really well for me. However I have heard that some people have problems with the accuracy with NetMonitor in some markets or with some devices. Results may vary.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Netmonitor works really well for me in the Chicago area. Keep in mind it only locates what the tower transmits for its location. I did have a couple towers around me that did not transmit a location and if my phone switched to one of those towers metmonitor would not change the location of the map from the previous tower.

 

It was one of the few apps I found that works on cdma.

 

As network vision has moved though my area the towers that were not reporting their location now do. I'm not sure if that will happen everywhere.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE using Tapatalk 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Netmonitor works really well for me in the Chicago area. Keep in mind it only locates what the tower transmits for its location. I did have a couple towers around me that did not transmit a location and if my phone switched to one of those towers metmonitor would not change the location of the map from the previous tower.

 

As network vision has moved though my area the towers that were not reporting their location now do. I'm not sure if that will happen everywhere.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

I used to have the issue on my E4GT where it did not like to update when I connected to a new site. However, on the GNex, it always updates as I pass on site to site. Nice little surprise with my upgrade.

 

For me, OpenSignal site locations have been so bad. But I haven't tried it for probably over a year because the results were so poor for me. I should probably give it a try again.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I used to have the issue on my E4GT where it did not like to update when I connected to a new site. However, on the GNex, it always updates as I pass on site to site. Nice little surprise with my upgrade.

 

For me, OpenSignal site locations have been so bad. But I haven't tried it for probably over a year because the results were so poor for me. I should probably give it a try again.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

 

Interesting. I experienced the location issue with my EVO 4g and EVO 4g LTE. It wasn't until their SID and NID changed with NV that netmonitor was able to locate them. I guess broadcasting the tower location is not part of the cdma standard? I imagine it would need to be done for 911 location identification.

 

 

Sent from my EVO LTE using Tapatalk 2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use NetMonitor app. It works really well for me. However I have heard that some people have problems with the accuracy with NetMonitor in some markets or with some devices. Results may vary.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Interesting. I experienced the location issue with my EVO 4g and EVO 4g LTE. It wasn't until their SID and NID changed with NV that netmonitor was able to locate them. I guess broadcasting the tower location is not part of the cdma standard? I imagine it would need to be done for 911 location identification.

 

 

Sent from my EVO LTE using Tapatalk 2

 

None of the VZW towers in my area broadcast their lat and long.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I use cellmapper to find locations of towers not broadcasting correct lat and lon. You can set the app to upload your signal data and the site uses this crowd sourced data to compute tower locations and map out the sectors. It takes a bit of driving around but the more data you upload the better the maps get. You can look at the maps of Austin I've been updating as an example.

 

Set Country to 310 and provider to 120.

 

http://www.cellmapper.net/map.php

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

None of the VZW towers in my area broadcast their lat and long.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

I had heard a rumor about that from another source. I guess for me that confirms it. I wonder if that changes 911 location accuracy.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I had heard a rumor about that from another source. I guess for me that confirms it. I wonder if that changes 911 location accuracy.

 

Sent from my EVO LTE

 

My work VZW phone will not show locations with any app. VZW blocks it. However, my Sprint devices will show VZW lat/long when roaming. Go figure.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if a custom rom running on a VZW phone would show lat lon? I think when I had my VZW GNEX running a rooted rom it showed lat and lon in netmonitor and cdma field test but i have horrible memory.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if a custom rom running on a VZW phone would show lat lon? I think when I had my VZW GNEX running a rooted rom it showed lat and lon in netmonitor and cdma field test but i have horrible memory.

 

I wouldn't know. The State of New Mexico frowns on us rooting and installing custom ROMs. It can even be grounds for termination.

 

Robert via Galaxy Nexus using Forum Runner

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I heard (but don't know) that in the iPhone field test screen you can look at the Serving PN offset which will give you the degrees off north of the current cell you are on (from the tower's point of view), and active set pilots will show the same for the towers you can see... So in my case I look on the map and see 255 and 96, which would indicate a tower almost to the immediate west of me and another to the north east and indeed I find Sprint sites at those exact locations and within reasonable distances (1 mi and 3.5mi respectively).

 

No clue if this is correct or not. I can see base ID under the 1X info but haven't found any way to correlate that with a Sprint site.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Talking with netmonitor support about app issues I was having, I found that their data comes from a Google database. He said that Google collects location data from Android devices via the location service and creates a DB of cell towers. The problem I've found is that the Google locations, in comparision to the great data that Robert has here, are down right terrible. Over a mile off in random directions, sometimes pointing you in the completely different directions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I heard (but don't know) that in the iPhone field test screen you can look at the Serving PN offset which will give you the degrees off north of the current cell you are on (from the tower's point of view), and active set pilots will show the same for the towers you can see...

 

No clue if this is correct or not. I can see base ID under the 1X info but haven't found any way to correlate that with a Sprint site.

 

Deployed PN offsets have no relation to their compass orientations.

 

AJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...