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

[jthawks]

Sometimes the location is way off. Sometimes it says I'm connecting to a city that is like a 45 minute drive away. So I'm curious on why this happens. Thanks. The app is awesome

[mrrogers1]

Sometimes the location is way off. Sometimes it says I'm connecting to a city that is like a 45 minute drive away. So I'm curious on why this happens. Thanks. The app is awesome

 

Location is driven by the device, not the app, it's just translating what the device is reporting.  There seems to be a GPS bug with the G2, hopefully it'll be fixed with update but who knows.  It's not a huge deal for me and doesn't happen all the time but I know others are reporting it and I have experienced first hand. 

[mikejeep]

I have to comment on that last stat, as it boggles my mind.  The vast majority of SignalCheck Lite users actually uninstall it?  Why is the Lite retention rate only 30 percent?  Or is that low retention rate simply characteristic of free apps in general?

 

That is characteristic of free apps in general, and actually is above average. According to this study, 22% of apps are only used once -- and that doesn't necessarily mean it was uninstalled. That study also blends free and paid apps, and I would expect paid apps to have a much higher retention rate (as SignalCheck does). Also, apps like SignalCheck that have a separate paid version take a hit here; a lot of Pro users likely started by trying Lite, and uninstalled Lite after buying Pro. Even if only half of Pro users ever tried Lite, that's still at least a few percentage points.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

Sometimes the location is way off. Sometimes it says I'm connecting to a city that is like a 45 minute drive away. So I'm curious on why this happens. Thanks. The app is awesome

Location is driven by the device, not the app, it's just translating what the device is reporting.  There seems to be a GPS bug with the G2, hopefully it'll be fixed with update but who knows.  It's not a huge deal for me and doesn't happen all the time but I know others are reporting it and I have experienced first hand. 

 

SignalCheck doesn't actually use any location features or GPS right now; the only "location" is the BSL identifying the base station you are connecting to. This is set by the wireless provider, and this question comes up all the time.. basically, Sprint uses an offset in many markets. See here: http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/help/#bslwrong

 

The other possibility is that you are on 1X 800, and are actually connecting to a far away site because the signal travels much farther than you are used to.

 

-Mike

[jthawks]

Thank you very much. I will have more questions later

[jthawks]

So I can take screen shots if you like on the location it says and where I am? For instance I was in north Westminster on like 120th and federal and it said I was connected to castle rock. I don't think I was on 800. So anyways I shouldn't really rely on the location it says right now due to the LG g2 issues? It does for the most part get the location right. Thank you for the quick responses.

[digiblur]

So I can take screen shots if you like on the location it says and where I am? For instance I was in north Westminster on like 120th and federal and it said I was connected to castle rock. I don't think I was on 800. So anyways I shouldn't really rely on the location it says right now due to the LG g2 issues? It does for the most part get the location right. Thank you for the quick responses.

 

Read this:

 

http://www.bluelinepc.com/signalcheck/help/#bslwrong

[jthawks]

Thank you sorry to bug. Busy at work

[kg4icg]

BBM and Signal Check in multi-view together on note 2.

[mikejeep]

BBM and Signal Check in multi-view together on note 2.

 

Cool stuff.. every time I see a shot of multi-view, I'm slightly jealous it's only a Samsung thing.

 

Your screen shot reminded me about something I meant to share earlier. I received some information about the "Site Hint" field.. markets that don't seem to show it properly (i.e. "Sector A" instead of 1/2/3) use a different scheme, where the sector isn't the last hex digit, but instead is represented by the third digit from the right (so Sector 3 in your screenshot). Verizon uses this same format as well. I am working on adding this in a future update. Big improvements in the Reset feature coming too (sorry, you still need root on 4.2+ ).

 

-Mike

[digiblur]

Cool stuff.. every time I see a shot of multi-view, I'm slightly jealous it's only a Samsung thing.

 

Your screen shot reminded me about something I meant to share earlier. I received some information about the "Site Hint" field.. markets that don't seem to show it properly (i.e. "Sector A" instead of 1/2/3) use a different scheme, where the sector isn't the last hex digit, but instead is represented by the third digit from the right (so Sector 3 in your screenshot). Verizon uses this same format as well. I am working on adding this in a future update. Big improvements in the Reset feature coming too (sorry, you still need root on 4.2+ ).

 

-Mike

Ericsson has switched to using 9 A B on our site sector hints. 9 is alpha and so forth.

[mrrogers1]

Cool stuff.. every time I see a shot of multi-view, I'm slightly jealous it's only a Samsung thing.

 

Your screen shot reminded me about something I meant to share earlier. I received some information about the "Site Hint" field.. markets that don't seem to show it properly (i.e. "Sector A" instead of 1/2/3) use a different scheme, where the sector isn't the last hex digit, but instead is represented by the third digit from the right (so Sector 3 in your screenshot). Verizon uses this same format as well. I am working on adding this in a future update. Big improvements in the Reset feature coming too (sorry, you still need root on 4.2+ ).

 

-Mike

and a custom LG Rom thing....

 

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

[digiblur]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 15 January 2011

 

I figured I would see LTE before WiMax too. She may have just seen the 4G icon as it was trying to connect and thought it was connected...

Hmm.. Wonder if I could port that to the N5..hmm..too many Damn projects already. But what's another right?

[mikejeep]

Ericsson has switched to using 9 A B on our site sector hints. 9 is alpha and so forth.

 

Should they really be 9 A B? Or is SignalCheck just showing the wrong value? The information I have about this alternate method of identifying the sector was specific to the Boston market (but thought to be used elsewhere on Sprint's network), and proved to be correct here.

 

-Mike

[mikejeep]

 

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 15 January 2011

 

I figured I would see LTE before WiMax too. She may have just seen the 4G icon as it was trying to connect and thought it was connected...

Hmm.. Wonder if I could port that to the N5..hmm..too many Damn projects already. But what's another right?

 

Tapatalk strikes again?

 

-Mike

[digiblur]

Should they really be 9 A B? Or is SignalCheck just showing the wrong value? The information I have about this alternate method of identifying the sector was specific to the Boston market (but thought to be used elsewhere on Sprint's network), and proved to be correct here.

 

-Mike

Since the NID consolidation they renumbered all the BIDs luckily the PN's have stayed the same for years and years. The alpha sector is 27849, Beta and gamma are incremented by one. That converts to 9, A, and B. Just figured it was a new way kind of like how AT&T here with Ericsson equipment uses 0F, 10, and 11 for the GCI last two digits on the same site and the PCI's are not offset by 169 like Sprint Ericsson market equipment, they actually increment by one.

 

I did do a bit of spatial analysis and found Sprint numbered the the cell IDs in a geographic fashion instead of a cascade ID fashion.

[dkyeager]

[edited for clarity and to correct 0F to 00F]

 

Mike,

 

Band 41 details that might help you separate it out (identify it).

 

Initially I though these MCC & MNC were unique to band 41, but I no longer believe that to be true

 

- I recently put 311 490 in wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_codes_in_the_United_States#MCC_311  It totally dominates the traffic.

 

- I am also seeing 310 120 in band 41

 

***but then I also see both of these in Band 25 LTE

 

 

 

GCIs -- this really seems to be the main difference

 

- All Columbus market band 41 TD-LTE GCI starts with "00F"

- I don't know what other markets see in terms of Band 41 TD-LTE GCI

 

Hopefully this helps

[mikejeep]

Band 41 details that might help you separate it out (identify it).

 

Initially I though these MCC & MNC were unique to band 41, but I no longer believe that to be true

 

- I recently put 311 490 in wikipedia  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mobile_network_codes_in_the_United_States#MCC_311  It totally dominates the traffic.

 

- I am also seeing 310 120 in band 41

 

***but then I also see both of these in Band 25 LTE

 

GCIs -- this really seems to be the main difference

 

- All Columbus market band 41 TD-LTE GCI starts with "0F"

- I don't know what other markets see in terms of Band 41 TD-LTE GCI

 

Thanks. Yeah, I don't think the MCC-MNC is a great indicator, at least not right now. Earlier today, I posted something in a Premier Sponsor thread that would be worthy of mention over here..

 

I was able to confirm with Sprint today that Band 25 and 26 are only using PLMN (MCC-MNC) 310-120. Band 41 is on 311-490 or 311-870. All of this is subject to change in the future if they decide to consolidate IDs. However, I also know that Virgin Mobile users see Band 25 on 311-490.

 

So while this information is helpful and can point people in the right direction, it's not absolute. I guess if you see 311-970, you're on band 41.

 

As far as the GCI goes, that's a great observation and something I hope forms a pattern nationally. We'll see what happens once more people start connecting to it with devices that can show the GCI.

 

-Mike

[digiblur]

Honestly I won't believe it until someone posts a B26 engineering screenshot.

[MacinJosh]

Are either of you guys hitting the Reset Connection button (or menu option)? For some reason, the N5 is suddenly having issues with this lately.. but not every time, it's inconsistent. I've been seeing it myself and receiving reports from others. It will reset the connection, but the app freezes and must be force closed. Once you open it back up again, it works fine. The crash reports indicate it is not crashing at a specific point in the code, it's totally random -- which makes me think it's something external causing the issue.

 

I have made improvements to the Reset code that will be included in the next update, but I don't think it helped the crashing. Wondering if there was a recent Google Play Services update that is causing this. That is the only thing I am aware of that updates itself in the background without any user knowledge.

 

EDIT: Make sure you are on the latest version (4.22).. it fixes the issue where the background service was getting killed off. That caused the icons/widget to freeze no matter what your connection status was.

 

-Mike

 

I've noticed that SignalCheck is crashing more often on my Nexus 5 too. And I'm on stock Android, not even rooted.

[mikejeep]

I've noticed that SignalCheck is crashing more often on my Nexus 5 too. And I'm on stock Android, not even rooted.

 

It doesn't seem to be widespread, but it has definitely spiked up over the past week or two. Seems to happen when the data connection is dropped. I'm still looking into it; if anyone notices a pattern or has any ideas, feel free to post. Unfortunately nothing is happening in logcat, so it's tricky to figure out the exact situation that triggers it.

 

Oh, and to distract everyone from talking about crashes.. guess who stayed up until 5:30am getting site logging working in his app!? This guy.. 

 

Stay tuned!

 

-Mike

[JossMan]

SignalCheck crashes at least twice a week on my stock Galaxy S3, I've noticed that it crashes when switching from 3G to LTE or back from LTE or 3G, especially when your on the edge of an LTE signal when it keeps flip flopping back and forth.  99.9% of the time I know its going to crash because the signal data in the notification bar hangs up and the app is displaying totally different signal data.....oops I talked about crashes But hey, SignalCheck is still the best app for hunting LTE and keeping your eye on your signal, its a must have app!      

[MacinJosh]

It doesn't seem to be widespread, but it has definitely spiked up over the past week or two. Seems to happen when the data connection is dropped. I'm still looking into it; if anyone notices a pattern or has any ideas, feel free to post. Unfortunately nothing is happening in logcat, so it's tricky to figure out the exact situation that triggers it.

 

Oh, and to distract everyone from talking about crashes.. guess who stayed up until 5:30am getting site logging working in his app!? This guy.. 

 

Stay tuned!

 

-Mike

 

Most of my problems are when I use Airplane Mode to try to force my phone back onto LTE in known LTE areas when the standard scan doesn't re-acquire LTE.

 

And congrats on the site logging!

[tommym65]

- All Columbus market band 41 TD-LTE GCI starts with "0F"

- I don't know what other markets see in terms of Band 41 TD-LTE GCI

 

Hopefully this helps

 

The St. Louis 2600/Band 41 thread has a large number of Band 41 sites identified, and somewhere back about 2 or 3 months ago, I posted a formula for converting the Cell ID from a Zing hotspot to the Site ID.  The Cell ID is reported in decimal, the Site ID is hexadecimal, and there is an offset representing the "market".  The method worked for most St. Louis sites, but there seemed to be 2 or 3 random renegade sites.

 

I have done similar conversions for Robert's initial Denver sighting, for Minneapolis, and on a somewhat larger scale in Chicago (posting in the appropriate threads as I went), but I don't remember the links off the top of my head.

 

I realize that this is off-topic (sorry, Mike), but if anyone is interested, I could post the ID method I found -- Probably best in one of the 2600 threads.

 

When the tri-band phones finally start routinely recognizing B41 and reporting it through Signal Check, we should be able to figure out coverages very comprehensively.

[dkyeager]

...When the tri-band phones finally start routinely recognizing B41 and reporting it through Signal Check, we should be able to figure out coverages very comprehensively.

 

tommym65,

 

Thanks for your many posts, including various calculations.

 

We already have most of the Columbus Phase 1 Band 41 TD-LTE sites identified with GCI and PCI:

 

the blue icons are Band 41 TD-LTE:

http://cbus.digiblur.com/ClearNV.html

 

GCI and PCI are in the NV Clear Tab, columns J to M:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnlPP997Kb82dDBTaWJ5UGdQRDlHVTNRSmhlRk1DdFE&usp=sharing#gid=22

 

even the ones when have yet to find/finish:

http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/4825-columbus-market-mapspreadsheet-premier-edition/page-8&do=findComment&comment=264077

 

These were all found with SCP even through it was extremely difficult to work with (fixed fully in 4.22) or 4G Signal Detector (accurate, but your are mostly blind in the field, best for large batches). (I did see the maps from St. Louis, but did not see GCI and PCI details for Band 41)

 

How do the Columbus GCI and PCI compare with your calculated GCI PCI from the various cites?

 

Many thanks