How can one pinpoint towers?

[markjcc]

How can one pinpoint towers with SignalCheck pro and sponsor maps? is it possible with data from Signalcheck pro to guide you what tower you're connected to?

[Flompholph]

Alu is pretty difficult each site is tied to a GCI or BID. There is no prediction you need more than one sector and in cities sometimes three. For GCI the sector is the last two(000000xx) and ALU here(DC and nTelos) the BID is third from the right (0x00).

[Joski1624]

As Flompholph pointed out, results do vary based on the vendor.  Samsung markets seem to have it the easiest from what I have heard.  GCI and BID patterns can eventually be established once enough known sites are documented.  Unfortunately, it appears that most sites in most markets are now using offsets for BSLs which basically requires that one triangulate the site based on coordinates from all 3 sectors.  The sponsor maps do help in these instances.  If you live in a market that tracks and documents sites, a lot of the information for sites in your market may already be available.

 

    SignalCheck Pro also logs strongest RSRP (or RSSI if CDMA) for a device which also is really helpful in tracking down site locations.  We had an instance last week in my market where I saw some really unusual site information that didn't come close to matching anything else we had already.  BSL offsets as well as device coordinates for strongest signal was the only way I was able to locate them.  Fortunately the person who submitted the logs had all 3 sectors for each site.  The downside to all of this is that it is impractical to try to obtain this information on the fly.  The best way is to download the .csv file to a laptop or desktop computer and open it using a spreadsheet program of some kind, or Google Sheets also can import .csv files, though large .csv file sizes on Google Sheets makes browsers unstable in my experience.

[Joski1624]

Oh, I forgot to mention that for Samsung markets (Cleveland's anyway), the last two digits in the GCI denote the sector: 00, 01, 02 normally or 03, 04, 05 if connected to a 2nd carrier, if available.  Most of the HEX BIDs are 3 digits with the last digit denoting the sector: 1, 2, 3.

[ajm8127]

Oh, I forgot to mention that for Samsung markets (Cleveland's anyway), the last two digits in the GCI denote the sector: 00, 01, 02 normally or 03, 04, 05 if connected to a 2nd carrier, if available.  Most of the HEX BIDs are 3 digits with the last digit denoting the sector: 1, 2, 3.

 

This is true of GCIs reported by SignalCheck in general. The last two digits of the 8 digit hex number are the relative cell identity. The first six digits are the eNB ID.

 

For instance 0x0FF50C3A is eND 1045772 and cell 58. 0x0FE03C19 is eNB 1040444 and cell 25.

 

The GCI that signal check reports can be combined with the PLMN ID to create the eCGI which uniquely identifies an LTE cell in the network.

[brayden14]

use cellmapper.