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

[Trip]

AT&T opened a bunch of permits around here that, I believe, are for Band 66 and/or 14.  I know in Montgomery County, MD, I can see some of the actual application documents and they show those bands being installed.

I just need to get a phone that supports Band 14 now.  Waiting for one that's a bit lower in price than what I've seen thus far.

- Trip

[bigsnake49]

8 hours ago, greenbastard said:

WCDMA-5 fallback will be huge for At&t if they keep it. VoLTE reliability just isn't cutting it for both T-Mobile and Verizon's lowband LTE. Calls can get too choppy on the upload side at times.

In terms of coverage;

1xRTT BC1 (1900 Mhz) > VoLTE Band 12/13 (700 Mhz)

Probably because 700MHz is not on every site.

[bigsnake49]

8 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Completely agreed. I think good times are ahead for AT&T. 

Civilians do have to share the band with Public safety and utilities with lower priority to both. It will definitely help but could get congested at times.

[greenbastard]

10 hours ago, bigsnake49 said:

Probably because 700MHz is not on every site.

Outside of small cells, Band 12 is on every tower in my neck of the woods. I stand by my previous statement;

1xRTT BC1 (1900) > VoLTE Band 12 (700).

The launch of VoLTE will be very interesting for Sprint. While they do a good job of blanketing entire cities/towns with B26, some UEs will struggle with the upload portion of a voice call.

[RAvirani]

25 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

Outside of small cells, Band 12 is on every tower in my neck of the woods. I stand by my previous statement;

It’s the same deal in Seattle minus 2 sites which probably aren’t ever getting upgraded. 

25 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

1xRTT BC1 (1900) > VoLTE Band 12 (700).

I’d go ahead and claim:

1x800 > WCDMA/HSPA800 ≈ 1x1900 > L700/800 as far as voice propagation goes.

In open air, I’d give an edge to 1x1900 over WCDMA/HSPA800 athough when there are obstructions (in a forest, for example), I’d give the edge to WCDMA/HSPA800. 

25 minutes ago, greenbastard said:

The launch of VoLTE will be very interesting for Sprint. While they do a good job of blanketing entire cities/towns with B26, some UEs will struggle with the upload portion of a voice call.

VoLTE only requires a few mere kilobits per second to maintain a call, and today, Calling Plus calls will reliably go through at -118 to -120 3x3 L800 (in my market).  With QoS on the network side, a call could probably be maintained to a much lower signal level, especially in markets where a 5x5 carrier is deployed.  

[mikejeep]

I enjoy the geek chatter but can we find another thread to continue it? A ton of people follow this one for app-related stuff, and it's long enough as it is. Thanks

-Mike

[Trip]

Mike,

I bought a Moto E4 to replace my Moto G4 Play that I use to track Verizon since the GPS is dying in it, and it has the bad EARFCN on Band 66.  For Verizon (and I suppose AT&T), where we know that the sector number properly indicates the band in use, could a fast work-around be to check the sector ID and, if appropriate, add 65535 to the EARFCN provided by the API if it's an AWS sector but providing a non-AWS EARFCN?

- Trip

[Trip]

Follow-up note:  Do not buy the Moto E4 if you're attempting to use it for network tracking as I am.  Leaving aside the bad Band 66 EARFCN (which means I never see a valid EARFCN for AWS-1), it's also having issues with Network Signal Guru.  The band lock doesn't seem to stick properly some of the time; if it can't find LTE in a particular band, it looks like it will sometimes override the lock and try the other bands anyway.

I was also having trouble with the GPS power save being really aggressive and not providing coordinates at all; I had to change it to high accuracy.

I may still keep it if Mike puts the override in for the bad EARFCN, but it's rather disappointing.

- Trip

[TimS]

2 hours ago, Trip said:

Follow-up note:  Do not buy the Moto E4 if you're attempting to use it for network tracking as I am.  Leaving aside the bad Band 66 EARFCN (which means I never see a valid EARFCN for AWS-1), it's also having issues with Network Signal Guru.  The band lock doesn't seem to stick properly some of the time; if it can't find LTE in a particular band, it looks like it will sometimes override the lock and try the other bands anyway.

 

While tracking Sprint, I just edit the LTE bands on the phone - I don't use Network Signal Guru.  I am not sure if that would help you since I don't know how NSG locks bands.

[mikejeep]

On 6/10/2018 at 7:59 AM, Trip said:

I bought a Moto E4 to replace my Moto G4 Play that I use to track Verizon since the GPS is dying in it, and it has the bad EARFCN on Band 66.  For Verizon (and I suppose AT&T), where we know that the sector number properly indicates the band in use, could a fast work-around be to check the sector ID and, if appropriate, add 65535 to the EARFCN provided by the API if it's an AWS sector but providing a non-AWS EARFCN?

I am still finishing up the EARFCN workaround, among other things.. it's going well, just lots of code to pick through to make sure I'm not missing anything. I'll send you a PM.

-Mike

[Trip]

2 hours ago, TimS said:

While tracking Sprint, I just edit the LTE bands on the phone - I don't use Network Signal Guru.  I am not sure if that would help you since I don't know how NSG locks bands.

Not sure how to do this.

- Trip

[mdob07]

So is this the android Earfcn bug? First time I've noticed it.

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[Trip]

2 hours ago, mdob07 said:

So is this the android Earfcn bug? First time I've noticed it.
 

Yes.

- Trip

[Bob Newhart]

I would like the default install of this app to have NO alerts enabled, no status bar icons and to disable the reset data connection button.

An option to disable screen edits, so when I press the screen, I don't accidently initiate an edit, then having to press cancel.

Or use the Google save/restore app settings feature they make available.

[mikejeep]

1 hour ago, Bob Newhart said:

I would like the default install of this app to have NO alerts enabled, no status bar icons and to disable the reset data connection button.

An option to disable screen edits, so when I press the screen, I don't accidently initiate an edit, then having to press cancel.

Or use the Google save/restore app settings feature they make available.

I appreciate the feedback, but I'm not inclined to change the defaults at the moment. I will consider an option to "lock" the screen to prevent inadvertent edits though.

I believe app preferences should be automatically restored when you're installing from the same Google account?

-Mike

[Trip]

Mike,

I'm inclined to agree with Bob in one area, and that's the alerts.  In most of the country, being on 1X 800 or LTE is no longer noteworthy and I'm not sure it makes sense to have those alerts enabled by default.  When someone I know installs it, the first thing I do is have them turn off the alerts.

Actually, the alerts that would most make sense to me are alerts for new sectors not currently in the database, but a lot of them would be false positives since there are usually a number of rows with garbage in them in my log from between sites.  Also, Band 71 alerts for T-Mobile (and I intend to send some diagnostics next week when I'm in a Band 71 area, whether it handles them correctly or not, so you can see what they look like if you haven't already).

- Trip

[dkyeager]

2 hours ago, mikejeep said:

I will consider an option to "lock" the screen to prevent inadvertent edits though.

Yes please.  I and most other users in Ohio have turned off logging and/location at one time or another just by handling our phones.  Quite frustrating/humiliating for those with only one phone.  Embarrassing for those with more.

[ingenium]

Or use the Google save/restore app settings feature they make available.

This works for me, and has for a while. It even restores your database of logged sites. The data is only backed up at night (or while idle at least), while charging (and maybe at 100%?), and on wifi, so if those conditions weren't met since you installed the app and configured your settings, then they likely haven't had a chance to backup yet.

That being said, I have heard others say it didn't restore onto a new device. But this sounds like a Google issue rather than a Signal Check issue.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[Flompholph]

With all these comments I thought they were going to be about the GCI sector changes in Samsung markets. But I guess we are all afraid to bring it to Mikes attention then it will make the changes we are seeing real.

[Bob Newhart]

3 hours ago, ingenium said:

That being said, I have heard others say it didn't restore onto a new device. But this sounds like a Google issue rather than a Signal Check issue.


 

 

 

I have never seen any preferences be restored from my google account, these are on Samsung S7/S8, LG V30, Nexus 5X, etc.

I do prefer that all apps are installed with their defaults as having no noises, no notifications, no anything. It makes a happy first impression. Just my preference.

[ingenium]

 
I have never seen any preferences be restored from my google account, these are on Samsung S7/S8, LG V30, Nexus 5X, etc.

I do prefer that all apps are installed with their defaults as having no noises, no notifications, no anything. It makes a happy first impression. Just my preference.

That's odd. For any apps? Do you have backups disabled in your preferences?

If you open Google Drive on your phone, open the left side menu, go to Backups, select a device, and it should show you all of the applications that are backed up, the last date/time of backup, and the size of the backup (doesn't count towards storage quota).


Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[mikejeep]

On 8/15/2018 at 12:49 AM, Flompholph said:

With all these comments I thought they were going to be about the GCI sector changes in Samsung markets. But I guess we are all afraid to bring it to Mikes attention then it will make the changes we are seeing real.

I hope nobody is afraid to bring anything to my attention..? I know there are Samsung changes that I need to get in there. Just the same old song from me, haven't been able to get enough time to update the app. It does weigh on me, I take a lot of pride in the app and hate when updates lag! Unfortunately real life (and real job) have to take priority.. stop if you've heard this before.. ?

-Mike

[Flompholph]

6 hours ago, mikejeep said:

I hope nobody is afraid to bring anything to my attention..? I know there are Samsung changes that I need to get in there. Just the same old song from me, haven't been able to get enough time to update the app. It does weigh on me, I take a lot of pride in the app and hate when updates lag! Unfortunately real life (and real job) have to take priority.. stop if you've heard this before.. ?

-Mike

I am afraid because it will then make sprints choice to change B25 and B26 sectors real. The changes are only confirmed on less than 10% of Pittsburgh sites. It just screws those of us that use scripts to sort our logs. It almost eliminates phones that don't show EARFCN from contributing data because of the mixed (old/new) sectors. I also lose the ability to have a continuous log that I can just dump data into then keep the best data when it gets to big because because of the changes. 

[ingenium]

7 hours ago, mikejeep said:

I hope nobody is afraid to bring anything to my attention..? I know there are Samsung changes that I need to get in there. Just the same old song from me, haven't been able to get enough time to update the app. It does weigh on me, I take a lot of pride in the app and hate when updates lag! Unfortunately real life (and real job) have to take priority.. stop if you've heard this before.. ?

-Mike

Here's a spreadsheet that I put together that shows the new GCI layout, along with some example setups (with earfcns). https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Zhb37AO4gh2kWOz598FBrWKK478RvujRzN1G4TDLcF4/edit?usp=sharing 

[mdob07]

After an OS update on my GS9+ yesterday, B66 appears to be showing correctly now. Notice it in the neighbor cell list. Usually shows up at B2 or B3.

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