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Antenna Placement on Tower?

uh60james
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uh60james Member Level: 1x Advanced

uh60james

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So I noticed that work is underway on a 4G tower in Birmngham, AL (finally) and decided to take a drive over to take a look.  I couldn't get close unfortunately since some road work was going on in the area.  The site appears to be a typical Crown Castle site common in this area and it is a monopole that appears to be exclusivly used by Sprint.  I had perhaps falsely assumed that when a tower was upgraded with Network Vision that the old antennas and equipment were removed and replaced by new antennas and equipment.  This site has active legacy antennas at the top of the mast and about a third of the way down has new antennas with wires hanging.  Is this normal?  Would this not reduce the coverage area?  I will try to remember to bring my camera to work and snap a pic if needed tomorrow.

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S4GRU Member Level: LTE Advanced

S4GRU

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So I noticed that work is underway on a 4G tower in Birmngham, AL (finally) and decided to take a drive over to take a look.  I couldn't get close unfortunately since some road work was going on in the area.  The site appears to be a typical Crown Castle site common in this area and it is a monopole that appears to be exclusivly used by Sprint.  I had perhaps falsely assumed that when a tower was upgraded with Network Vision that the old antennas and equipment were removed and replaced by new antennas and equipment.  This site has active legacy antennas at the top of the mast and about a third of the way down has new antennas with wires hanging.  Is this normal?  Would this not reduce the coverage area?  I will try to remember to bring my camera to work and snap a pic if needed tomorrow.

 

Are you sure there isn't a second carrier on that site?  Almost always, the Network Vision panels and legacy panels are side by side on the same rack.  NV panels and RRU's most often in the center, between the legacy panels on each side.  Legacy service stays active until they are able to decommission the legacy a few weeks/months after NV acceptance.

 

It is very uncommon that Network Vision panels are on a different rack than legacy panels.  Sprint doesn't need to lease two spots on the tower.  Waste of money.  The only exception is if they are taking over the Nextel rack and giving back their previous location back to Crown Castle.  This may happen in a few instances, but is not common.

 

Robert

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uh60james Member Level: 1x Advanced

uh60james

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I am not positive.  I will try to get a picture in the morning.  It did appear that the Network Vision panels were on there own rack though, perhaps the lower rack previously housed Nextel antennas.

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IcJc Member Level: 1x Advanced

IcJc

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Are you sure there isn't a second carrier on that site?  Almost always, the Network Vision panels and legacy panels are side by side on the same rack.  NV panels and RRU's most often in the center, between the legacy panels on each side.  Legacy service stays active until they are able to decommission the legacy a few weeks/months after NV acceptance.

 

It is very uncommon that Network Vision panels are on a different rack than legacy panels.  Sprint doesn't need to lease two spots on the tower.  Waste of money.  The only exception is if they are taking over the Nextel rack and giving back their previous location back to Crown Castle.  This may happen in a few instances, but is not common.

 

Robert

So if the legacy panels's are off from all three sides then the sight should be 3g accepted for NV right, because I have seen about 6 towers like that but they're not on the sponsor map as 3g accepted since no LTE is there but the one I'm closes to is marked as in progress and the legacy panels have been off for a month or more.

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S4GRU Member Level: LTE Advanced

S4GRU

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So if the legacy panels's are off from all three sides then the sight should be 3g accepted for NV right, because I have seen about 6 towers like that but they're not on the sponsor map as 3g accepted since no LTE is there but the one I'm closes to is marked as in progress and the legacy panels have been off for a month or more.

 

Yes, if the legacy panels are gone, it would need to be 3G accepted.  Or so you would think.  Tell me which sites via PM, and I can check them out for you.

 

Robert

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IcJc Member Level: 1x Advanced

IcJc

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Yes, if the legacy panels are gone, it would need to be 3G accepted.  Or so you would think.  Tell me which sites via PM, and I can check them out for you.

 

Robert

Message sent, the only question i have is that my tower is so slow now and has been since they started to work on it about 4 moths ago in May. For about three weeks we were in roaming last month and speed test are so horrible, I'm 100 percent positive it's not because to many people are connected to it since it's rural here and all the jobs here are agriculture and most work in the city about 10 miles up with more towers close together plus most people here still have flip phones and other non smart phones. Even sprint reps cant believe the is slow service here when they look at there maps to find my address. Is this normal when a tower is being upgraded??

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Rukin1 Member Level: eHRPD

Rukin1

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Are you sure there isn't a second carrier on that site?  Almost always, the Network Vision panels and legacy panels are side by side on the same rack.  NV panels and RRU's most often in the center, between the legacy panels on each side.  Legacy service stays active until they are able to decommission the legacy a few weeks/months after NV acceptance.

 

It is very uncommon that Network Vision panels are on a different rack than legacy panels.  Sprint doesn't need to lease to spots on the tower.  Waste of money.  The only exception is if they are taking over the Nextel rack and giving back their previous location to Crown Castle.  This may happen in a few instances, but is not common.

 

Robert

Wouldn't suprise me if they are on two different legacy panels

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RCM Member Level: eHRPD

RCM

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Uncommon but possible. There is a site in Highland Township, MI (northern Oakland County) that threw me off because it turns out NV was installed on a different rack than legacy.

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MrZorbatron Member Level: eHRPD

MrZorbatron

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Uncommon but possible. There is a site in Highland Township, MI (northern Oakland County) that threw me off because it turns out NV was installed on a different rack than legacy.

There are a couple in south Oakland County, IIRC in the Southfield area, that had legacy antenna gear on racks but NV gear directly mounted to the tower itself.  My pictures of one of those sites are in the "How to spot" thread for Samsung IBEZ hardware.

 

97y1865.jpg

And no, the panels directly above the NV hardware are not Sprint.  Sprint has 6 coaxial cables running from their boxes up the tower and there was a rack above with the same pair of narrow rectangular antenna panels that Sprint uses almost everywhere around me.

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lilotimz Member Level: LTE Advanced

lilotimz

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There are a couple in south Oakland County, IIRC in the Southfield area, that had legacy antenna gear on racks but NV gear directly mounted to the tower itself.  My pictures of one of those sites are in the "How to spot" thread for Samsung IBEZ hardware.

 

 

And no, the panels directly above the NV hardware are not Sprint.  Sprint has 6 coaxial cables running from their boxes up the tower and there was a rack above with the same pair of narrow rectangular antenna panels that Sprint uses almost everywhere around me.

 

The ones directly above the network vision antenna are Sprint legacy. Can't ever mistake the old Nortel antennas. 

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MrZorbatron Member Level: eHRPD

MrZorbatron

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The ones directly above the network vision antenna are Sprint legacy. Can't ever mistake the old Nortel antennas. 

They look like Sprint and Sprint does use those panels, but they arent.  I will grab a complete picture later.

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uh60james Member Level: 1x Advanced

uh60james

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Here's a picture, I don't remember the lighter color antenna(s) being on the bottom rack yesterday but they may have been.  If that's the case then I suppose the top rack may not even be Sprint so this would make more sense.

 

9510969007_701339d8ab_c.jpg
P8140177 by uh60james, on Flickr

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Rukin1 Member Level: eHRPD

Rukin1

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Here's a picture, I don't remember the lighter color antenna(s) being on the bottom rack yesterday but they may have been.  If that's the case then I suppose the top rack may not even be Sprint so this would make more sense.

 

9510969007_701339d8ab_c.jpg

P8140177 by uh60james, on Flickr

What market is that? So many wires!!

 

yvwkX5E.jpg

A sprint only site.

The bottom/top rack have antennas removed/added since this picture. I took new ones, but it was too dark.

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uh60james Member Level: 1x Advanced

uh60james

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Alabama, so Ericsson equipment.  Those wires are insane, yesterday they were all just hanging freely when I took a look.  I don't have the antenna ID skills some of you have so I still have no idea if this is Sprint only.

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tybo31316 Member Level: 4G LTE

tybo31316

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Here's a picture, I don't remember the lighter color antenna(s) being on the bottom rack yesterday but they may have been. If that's the case then I suppose the top rack may not even be Sprint so this would make more sense.

 

Posted Image

P8140177 by uh60james, on Flickr

The top rack is definitely Sprint. The bottom is either T-Mobile or AT&T.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

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Rukin1 Member Level: eHRPD

Rukin1

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Alabama, so Ericsson equipment.  Those wires are insane, yesterday they were all just hanging freely when I took a look.  I don't have the antenna ID skills some of you have so I still have no idea if this is Sprint only.

With samsung you hardly see any wires :)

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