SignalCheck - Android app to monitor your Wi-Fi/2G/3G/4G LTE/5G-NR signal strengths

[Flompholph]

I have seen 2 post with band 41 using sectors of 32. Not sure if each antenna will get its own sector so could be 8 per panel?

[tommym65]

Ah! That is very interesting, I wonder if Sprint is going to eventually transition everything onto 310120. It's not all bad news.. yes, it's more work for me, but identifying the PLMN has proven to be very unreliable. That's why SignalCheck isn't great at B41 identification yet. Is there a confirmed GCI pattern? I thought I follow all the relevant threads, I will go do some digging. The app would actually work much better if it only had to rely on GCI patterns (see Band 26 and AT&T band identification).

 

There's always time for football!!

 

-Mike

 

In Chicagoland, the pattern is for B25/B26 GCIs to be 07Exxxnn, while B41 8T8R is 07Fxxxnn (i.e., the market identifier is incremented by 1).  Columbus reports the same (I don't remember their market IDs).  Of course, the dratted site ID is different for the B41 stuff (for example, 07E19300 for a B25 north-facing sector vs. 07F5E300 for B41 facing north on the same site). No one has yet reported if the site ID offset (F5E3-E193 = hex 1450) is a constant or varies wildly like the B25/B26 site IDs themselves vary.  This will likely have to come from someplace like Columbus where they have identified and charted the sites, as in Chicagoland we are too preoccupied watching what passes for baseball & football to do the spreadsheets (or maybe we are just too lazy ). (And the market has over 1,000 sites, which is rather intimidating.) Further, as the immediately preceding post suggests, there may be more numbers flying around as Sprint turns on the full 8T8R capability.

 

It's so simple . . .

[modplan]

Question: If I have a B25 site that I have added a note to in SCP, and then I see that same note when I am connected to B26, is that definitely coming from the same site?

[Vince]

Question: If I have a B25 site that I have added a note to in SCP, and then I see that same note when I am connected to B26, is that definitely coming from the same site?

Yes. Only the sector id in brackets will change, but if the site id stays the same, you'll get the same note.

[dkyeager]

In Chicagoland, the pattern is for B25/B26 GCIs to be 07Exxxnn, while B41 8T8R is 07Fxxxnn (i.e., the market identifier is incremented by 1).  Columbus reports the same (I don't remember their market IDs). 

 

Columbus Market GCI Market IDs are 086 for B25/B26, 087 for Sprint B41 (00F for Clear B41).

 

 

...Of course, the dratted site ID is different for the B41 stuff (for example, 07E19300 for a B25 north-facing sector vs. 07F5E300 for B41 facing north on the same site). No one has yet reported if the site ID offset (F5E3-E193 = hex 1450) is a constant or varies wildly like the B25/B26 site IDs themselves vary.  This will likely have to come from someplace like Columbus where they have identified and charted the sites,

 

You need to know your GCI pattern, including high capacity LTE sites (more than one GCI assigned).   Chicago should just take the leap and do a spreadsheet.  Look at Cincinnati as an example, they just started a few months ago.  Plenty of guys like me also go through Chicago on occasion and can provide more data (I have some stored but unreleased).  Given the different less predicable signal characteristics of B41, where you can sometimes get -85db at the edge because of wider channels and MIMO, it would be very useful to have a spreadsheet to speed the site identification process.

 

For Columbus COZisBack figured out as +1450hex (including market GCI) or pattern shift, but that is just based on three sites identified by triangulation with sectors.  We need more Sprint b41 to go live to be 100% positive.  8T8R installation continues at a fast pace, so hopefully soon.

[modplan]

Yes. Only the sector id in brackets will change, but if the site id stays the same, you'll get the same note.

 

Then that is amazing, I'm getting a b26 signal for probably close to 10 miles, spanning a number of b25 sites, I'll have to plot it on a map to measure the distances.

 

Before I added a site note I thought multiple b26 sites in the area were live, but now it looks like it is just one that covers a huge area.

[mikejeep]

In Chicagoland, the pattern is for B25/B26 GCIs to be 07Exxxnn, while B41 8T8R is 07Fxxxnn (i.e., the market identifier is incremented by 1).  Columbus reports the same (I don't remember their market IDs).

 

Columbus Market GCI Market IDs are 086 for B25/B26, 087 for Sprint B41 (00F for Clear B41)...For Columbus COZisBack figured out as +1450hex (including market GCI) or pattern shift, but that is just based on three sites identified by triangulation with sectors.

 

We need more Sprint b41 to go live to be 100% positive.  8T8R installation continues at a fast pace, so hopefully soon.

 

It does look like the market ID +1 pattern might be consistent, but it is still early. If that's the case, it will pose a challenge to me because I would have to figure out all the possible B41 IDs and check against that list.. and hope Sprint didn't change anything down the road. I was really hoping that they would just follow the B26 pattern of changing the sector IDs.. that would make things very very easy on my end!

 

If the middle (site ID) portion of the GCI turns out to have an offset that is consistent everywhere, I can work with that. If it varies by market/vendor, that's going to be tricky.

 

No matter what, I agree that we need to see more evidence before calling anything a definite.

 

-Mike

[Vince]

Mike, you're the programmer, and I'm just a user with zero programming experience, but wouldn't it be possible/easier to just show the connected band by gci? What I mean is, instead of worrying about the plmn sticking on certain phones, and not showing band 41 all the time. What about just a rule of "whenever the gci ends in xx, it will equal band 26, 07F/00A/00B/087 = band 41 (Chicago), etc.." Just a thought.

[Flompholph]

Mike, you're the programmer, and I'm just a user with zero programming experience, but wouldn't it be possible/easier to just show the connected band by gci? What I mean is, instead of worrying about the plmn sticking on certain phones, and not showing band 41 all the time. What about just a rule of "whenever the gci ends in xx, it will equal band 26, 07F/00A/00B/087 = band 41 (Chicago), etc.." Just a thought.

He does that with band 26 but who has a list of the area codes available someone will have to go around and map each area. Do the area codes overlap with different venders?

[mikejeep]

Mike, you're the programmer, and I'm just a user with zero programming experience, but wouldn't it be possible/easier to just show the connected band by gci? What I mean is, instead of worrying about the plmn sticking on certain phones, and not showing band 41 all the time...

Haha well I'm not a programmer either, that's the problem!!

 

You are absolutely right though, and I've been leaning toward that solution because it would work much better. And the new 8T8R sites are apparently using 310120 so I need to do something like this anyway. The sticking PLMN is becoming more of an issue as B41 rolls out to more areas (everywhere but here it seems like).

 

The problem is that doing this is not as easy as it is for B26.. at least not yet. For B26, the sector bits will always match a very short list. The B41 sectors vary quite a bit, and follow the same pattern as B25 in some areas, so that's out. Matching the beginning of the GCI (the market portion) will work, but I would have to collect all of the possibilities -- there are dozens, if not hundreds. But once I had that list, it would work better than the current setup.

 

I'm looking into either building something within the app to submit logs to me to be parsed automatically, or creating a basic Google Doc for people to submit B41 GCI's.

 

Ultimately I'd like to fix the PLMN problem anyway, because even if the band is displaying properly, the ID could still be wrong. And someday there will be LTE roaming to consider too.

 

-Mike

[Flompholph]

I was going through my old gci log I noticed the third number is even on my single band device xx0,xx2,xx4,xx6,xx8,xxA,xxC,xxE. Does anyone else notice that?

 

Mike do you want me to send you a link to my old log? It has gci from connecticut to Miami on the east coast.

[mikejeep]

I was going through my old gci log I noticed the third number is even on my single band device xx0,xx2,xx4,xx6,xx8,xxA,xxC,xxE. Does anyone else notice that?

 

Mike do you want me to send you a link to my old log? It has gci from connecticut to Miami on the east coast.

 

Wow.. I think I know who my favorite person of the week is! I just went through my log as well, and out of over 1,000 entries I have saved (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, ATL, BWI, MKE, and ORD), every single B25/B26 site does have an even third character. And the handful of B41 sites (all Clearwire / pre-8T8R AFAIK) all have an odd character.

 

I trust what you're saying, I don't need your log at the moment -- but can others check and confirm this? Particularly in other markets and where NV 2.0 deployments are live. I don't need specifics other than if this pattern holds true and where you are.

 

-Mike

[tommym65]

Wow.. I think I know who my favorite person of the week is! I just went through my log as well, and out of over 1,000 entries I have saved (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, ATL, BWI, MKE, and ORD), every single B25/B26 site does have an even third character. And the handful of B41 sites (all Clearwire / pre-8T8R AFAIK) all have an odd character.

 

I trust what you're saying, I don't need your log at the moment -- but can others check and confirm this? Particularly in other markets and where NV 2.0 deployments are live. I don't need specifics other than if this pattern holds true and where you are.

 

-Mike

 

At least in the Chicago Market, Clear sites may be 00A or 00B (but always leading with 00). 

[KD8JBF]

I have noticed in the Tampa Market, the GCI for B41 follow 04BXXXxx/04CXXXxx and the B25/B26 follow 06AXXXxx. FYI

[Flompholph]

I have noticed in the Tampa Market, the GCI for B41 follow 04BXXXxx/04CXXXxx and the B25/B26 follow 06AXXXxx. FYI

Band 41 04Cxxxxx would shoot down the third number theory. Do you know if the plmc was 310120?

[KD8JBF]

Band 41 04Cxxxxx would shoot down the third number theory. Do you know if the plmc was 310120?

I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think there are any 8t8r setups in Tampa yet. So I'm chalking those up to being clear.

[advancedtechfl]

I don't even know where to post this but you guys would know what's up. I'm in Upstate SC with a LG Volt flashed to Sprint and SignalCheck Pro says LTE B41 and i don't think we even have band 41 around here and the engineering screen says band 25 with no activity and band 26 when the data connection is doing something.

[Flompholph]

I don't even know where to post this but you guys would know what's up. I'm in Upstate SC with a LG Volt flashed to Sprint and SignalCheck Pro says LTE B41 and i don't think we even have band 41 around here and the engineering screen says band 25 with no activity and band 26 when the data connection is doing something.

SCP is not 100% it is a great tool but you should check the engineering screens to make sure. He has been having issues with identifying band 41 do you have screenshots. Hopefully he can figure it out before to many band 41 sites come online.

[advancedtechfl]

Figured out how to post screenshots.

[Flompholph]

Figured out how to post screenshots.

Yeah that is band 25. I think the problem is he grabbed the plmn number values before it changed back to 310120. 311490 is clear band 41 I think you may have connected then disconnected from the clear site. Is it a one time thing or do you notice it all the time? A second way it could happen if the tower was broadcasting something wrong.

[advancedtechfl]

It doesn't seem to matter what the engineering screen says. The app says band 41.

[advancedtechfl]

I'll test it somewhere else today. Maybe it's just this tower

[Flompholph]

I'll test it somewhere else today. Maybe it's just this tower

You will need to restart your device than the method he uses to get that information must be broken. As soon as I see a issue with the displayed information it usually fixes any small bugs.

[BlueAngel]

It doesn't seem to matter what the engineering screen says. The app says band 41.

Force close the app and start it back up, or simply restart your phone.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[stlman314]

I'll test it somewhere else today. Maybe it's just this tower

 

If you hit the menu button while in SCP you will see a exit button. Then just open it back up.