Greetings LTE nutters

[Azimuth]

'Sup LTE friends. My name is Pete and I hail from the land of lions and zebra and live in a place called Johannesburg. Unlike a lot of my fellow countrymen, I'm not much into wildlife but rather into wild mobile broadband.

My current obsession is all things LTE from the technology itself, to link distances, to base stations, to operator equipment, to end user speed tests and experiences. I also have a special interest in LTE outdoor antennas.

What is LTE like on this side of the world? Well, I'm currently subscribed to a FDD LTE Band 3 operator and my daily speeds are 20-30Mbps down, 20Mbps up, with 30-40ms pings. For pure speed achievement, I've had up to 73Mbps with a TDD Band 40 operator while using dual LPDA antennas. The link distance in both cases is 1622m with clear LOS. LTE is quite prevalent here with the end of our operator trials about 18 months ago. We now have 3 of our "Big 4"operators offering LTE services. (2 FDD, 1 TDD).

What makes me tick? I have a passion for wireless which has led me to following the cellular industry in recent times. I'm a self-confessed Apple fan boy BUT I have owned many an Android device. On the photography side of things, I'm a Canon DSLR user. I'm also a parent to a 1yr old boy who consumes 80% of my free time. Lately I'm also into base station photography and have a newly acquired 300mm lens.

My home network consists of a LTE CPE, which feeds into a Ubiquiti ToughSwitch Pro, which in turn feeds into 3 UniFi LR access points and 1 NanoStation M 100m wireless bridge. I have 1 UniFi Outoor+ AP that isn't commissioned yet.

I came across your forum while doing research on sector antennas and found some pretty hardcore information, with lots of related topics. That was the beginning of the end as they say...and here I am.

Edit: a recent LTE installation I did...

[Fraydog]

Welcome aboard. We're glad to have anyone with knowledge of the industry overseas.

[lilotimz]

[Destroyallcubes]

What makes me tick? I have a passion for wireless which has led me to following the cellular industry in recent times. I'm a self-confessed Apple fan boy BUT I have owned many an Android device. On the photography side of things, I'm a Canon DSLR user. I'm also a parent to a 1yr old boy who consumes 80% of my free time. Lately I'm also into base station photography and have a newly acquired 300mm lens.

 

Welcome Here! I have to ask, could you post some pictures of your local carrier equipment? I'm curious how similar the equipment looks, how clear are the installs, and the works.

[Azimuth]

Oh boy, you need not have asked. I'm busy unloading my DSLR and then be prepared.

 

I actually would love help identifying all the equipment e.g. LTE vs GSM vs WiMAX sectors since there's low interest back home. Our cell operators are very secretive with everything they do. Even though they frequent forums back home, they don't share anything.

 

I know we use Powerwave and Huawei sectors; I'm sure there's the other usual suspects as well. I did 3 photo shoots on Sunday so have plenty to show 'n tell.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[Destroyallcubes]

Oh boy, you need not have asked. I'm busy unloading my DSLR and then be prepared.

I actually would love help identifying all the equipment e.g. LTE vs GSM vs WiMAX sectors since there's low interest back home. Our cell operators are very secretive with everything they do. Even though they frequent forums back home, they don't share anything.

I know we use Powerwave and Huawei sectors; I'm sure there's the other usual suspects as well. I did 3 photo shoots on Sunday so have plenty to show 'n tell.

Well maybe we could help share the love of Equipment identification. Powerwave is used here as well, as well as others. What frequencies is Wimax run on over there?

 

Just a heads up I know I've seen DSLR pictures, unedited, be very large, so if possible resize them to smaller size if large. Keeps mobile users from too much scrolling

[Azimuth]

For sure. I'm not a WiMAX user and don't have much inside info. I'm guessing our operators use the 2500MHz-5800MHz range - pretty sure it's 5500-5800.

[Azimuth]

Well maybe we could help share the love of Equipment identification. Powerwave is used here as well, as well as others. What frequencies is Wimax run on over there?

 

Just a heads up I know I've seen DSLR pictures, unedited, be very large, so if possible resize them to smaller size if large. Keeps mobile users from too much scrolling

I'll probably go with 640*480 forum wide? Is that okay to use here?

 

While waiting for those photos, a quick post of my own LTE link:

 

 

 

 

Pictured:

 

- 1622m link distance (zoomed in with a 300mm lens)

- 100Mbps tower with TDD and FDD operator

- Cross-polarised dual element 9dBi MIMO LTE antenna

 

Not pictured:

 

- -77dBm RSRP after antenna installation

 

Of late I'm seeing bad download performance that is a fraction of my usual speeds while uploads remain unaffected. I've reported the base station so hope that things come right soon.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[Destroyallcubes]

I'll probably go with 640*480 forum wide? Is that okay to use here?

While waiting for those photos, a quick post of my own LTE link

Pictured:

- 1622m link distance (zoomed in with a 300mm lens)

- 100Mbps tower with TDD and FDD operator

- Cross-polarised dual element 9dBi MIMO LTE antenna

Not pictured:

- -77dBm RSRP after antenna installation

Of late I'm seeing bad download performance that is a fraction of my usual speeds while uploads remain unaffected. I've reported the base station so hope that things come right soon.

Good size, AJ(wiwavelength) should be proud Well maybe if you are closer to it, try snapping closer pics, maybe of the base station. But that tower has 3 carrier, 1 on too, 2 lower attached directly to the monopole?

[Azimuth]

It's one of the base stations I included on my Sunday shoot.

 

At the base station there's one large BTS shelter with the main operator identifier but they host a second, smaller operator.

 

This is why I need to learn more about the sector equipment, was pretty sure only two operators were on the tower. Come to think of it, I saw a strange meter named after another operator and wondered what that was all about...

 

I'll post the close-ups ASAP. Which section should I use?

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[COZisBack]

I'll post the close-ups ASAP. Which section should I use?

 

As everyone else has said

 

Moving topic to the network forums for you.

[Azimuth]

I'll be happy to start a new topic there if you want to leave my intro here?

[COZisBack]

I'll be happy to start a new topic there if you want to leave my intro here?

 

Already moved it for you.

[JThorson]

 

Glad you could join us. You have found an amazing place. Feel free to kick back and relax and stay for awhile.

[burnout8488]

You will fit in quite well here.

[Azimuth]

Thank you COZ, JT and burn.

[kojitsari]

Welcome to our gathering of nerds, just a warning we're a bit odd. Well alright I'm odd and most everyone else seems to be, but take it with a grain of salt. So you live in the land of zebra's, would you happen to know how much shipping runs on a live specimen? My neighbor owns some odd animals and I'd like to one up him. Plus I like zebra's who doesn't, they're a camouflaged animal that makes zero sense:P.

[S4GRU]

Welcome to our gathering of nerds, just a warning we're a bit odd. Well alright I'm odd and most everyone else seems to be, but take it with a grain of salt. So you live in the land of zebra's, would you happen to know how much shipping runs on a live specimen? My neighbor owns some odd animals and I'd like to one up him. Plus I like zebra's who doesn't, they're a camouflaged animal that makes zero sense:P.

Uhhh...S4GRU doesn't want to be linked in your exploits to traffic exotic animals.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[Azimuth]

LOL well said Admin. I forgot to add to my opening, #1 pet hate is animal cruelty. Pretty sure koji is just being odd though. (Thanks for the welcome koji)

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[Azimuth]

I'll probably go with 640*480 forum wide? Is that okay to use here?

Quick question since I see a good few DSLR users here...I've been using Tapatalk for years; there's no need for image management since Tapatalk has their own image servers.

 

Who to use for DSLR images? I hate temporary image servers or ones that mess up your links (dead links across a forum are an eye sore). Is Photobucket still good?

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[COZisBack]

Quick question since I see a good few DSLR users here...I've been using Tapatalk for years; there's no need for image management since Tapatalk has their own image servers.

 

Who to use for DSLR images? I hate temporary image servers or ones that mess up your links (dead links across a forum are an eye sore). Is Photobucket still good?

 

Photobucket, imgur and Dropbox to name a few. Just gotta make sure you resize.

[Azimuth]

Imgur, as far as I know, is one of the nasties that sheds photos.

 

Why must I resize? I'll have another reason for my 20Mbps upload.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth

[COZisBack]

Imgur, as far as I know, is one of the nasties that sheds photos.

 

Why must I resize? I'll have another reason for my 20Mbps upload.

 

Create your own profile on imgur and your images aren't going anywhere.

[lilotimz]

Imgur, as far as I know, is one of the nasties that sheds photos.

 

Why must I resize? I'll have another reason for my 20Mbps upload.

I would have full size links available and resized images as embedded. Many of us surf the forums on mobile devices and extremely high quality and high resolution pictures are very slow to load and take up a lot of space.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Azimuth]

For sure, was only joking.

 

Right so Imgur, or Photobucket?

 

Edit: I like the look of Imgur so giving it a shot. Thanks COZ!

Edited August 5, 2014 by Azimuth