Cellmapper

[RAvirani]

Hi all,

I’ve recently started to use Cellmapper more and more and I’ve found that it’s a really great tool for locating towers.

In my area, there are several sites which are close but not correctly mapped on Cellmapper, so I decided to create an account to fix the site locations. The thing is, it turns out you need to have 2,000 data points uploaded to reposition towers. Since I have an iPhone, I can’t really upload anything to Cellmapper...

Does anyone know a workaround to this?

Thanks. 

[ingenium]

Can you get access to an Android phone for an hour to drive around? If you change the logging interval to every second from the default of every 5 seconds, you'll get 2000 data points really quickly.

 

It might be worth getting a phone on FreedomPop if you want to continue using CellMapper. You can get a cheap Android phone for $20 and there's no monthly cost of service if you disable all the auto top ups and downgrade to the free plan. 1GB/month free with friends maxed out, throttled to 1 Mbps. So it's perfect for a logging device. One of their Motorola devices and the Kyocera Hydro Icon both support band locking too, which helps with hunting.

 

Getting the phone through them puts you on Sprint service. If you order just the SIM (they often have deals for $1 or $0.01 for the SIM) then you're on AT&T. AT&T's free tier maxes out at 700 MB/month

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

[S4GRU]

I use Cellmapper a lot. You will see most Western Washington mapping on Sprint and tower relocations are from me.  My screen name is S4GRUT4GRU.  If the green is pin, someone relocated it into its position.  I have done almost all the B26 mapping on there. If you sort to just B26 entries, you'll see what I've found since last year.

I do not know a work around though. One thing to remember in our Samsung market.  B41 enB HEX is exactly 1450 greater than the B25/B26 enB HEX.  This helps in locating where some phantom "low accuracy sites" are coming from in Cellmapper.

You may want to consider picking up a cheap Android Triband phone on the side to help with mapping and plotting sites.  It's what a proper cellphone nerd would do.

Besides, I cannot do the whole market myself. But I try! 

Robert

[Joski1624]

2 hours ago, ingenium said:

Can you get access to an Android phone for an hour to drive around? If you change the logging interval to every second from the default of every 5 seconds, you'll get 2000 data points really quickly.

 

It might be worth getting a phone on FreedomPop if you want to continue using CellMapper. You can get a cheap Android phone for $20 and there's no monthly cost of service if you disable all the auto top ups and downgrade to the free plan. 1GB/month free with friends maxed out, throttled to 1 Mbps. So it's perfect for a logging device. One of their Motorola devices and the Kyocera Hydro Icon both support band locking too, which helps with hunting.

 

Getting the phone through them puts you on Sprint service. If you order just the SIM (they often have deals for $1 or $0.01 for the SIM) then you're on AT&T. AT&T's free tier maxes out at 700 MB/month

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

I use a Moto E2 via FreedomPop and cellmapper on it..  It does band locking (B25/26/41) without the need for root.  You just need the MSL which FreedomPop provides when you order the phone.    I think for the hydro, while I believe B26 and 41 can be toggled, the only recourse for B25 is disabling the band scan for B25.  That'll initially work until the network decides to plop you on B25.  I also use a Kyocera hydro for the same purpose ?

[ingenium]

I use a Moto E2 via FreedomPop and cellmapper on it..  It does band locking (B25/26/41) without the need for root.  You just need the MSL which FreedomPop provides when you order the phone.    I think for the hydro, while I believe B26 and 41 can be toggled, the only recourse for B25 is disabling the band scan for B25.  That'll initially work until the network decides to plop you on B25.  I also use a Kyocera hydro for the same purpose [emoji3]

Yeah I don't think you can disable b25 without root. The free version of NSG will let you disable it, but it forces a phone reboot every time you enable or disable a band.

Rooting the Hydro Icon is also a PITA. The only way is Kingroot, which injects ads and blocks replacement with something like SuperSU. I still managed to do it, but it's non trivial...you need to keep a root adb shell open and delete all the root files and kill the root daemon (but your session keeps root until it exits). This allows you to manually install SuperSU. It took me a few tries to find all the Kingroot files. If you miss one it removes SuperSU and reinstalls Kingroot. Very much malware behavior. So if the Moto E2 has an easier root, go that route instead.

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[uecker87]

3 hours ago, ingenium said:

Can you get access to an Android phone for an hour to drive around? If you change the logging interval to every second from the default of every 5 seconds, you'll get 2000 data points really quickly.

 

It might be worth getting a phone on FreedomPop if you want to continue using CellMapper. You can get a cheap Android phone for $20 and there's no monthly cost of service if you disable all the auto top ups and downgrade to the free plan. 1GB/month free with friends maxed out, throttled to 1 Mbps. So it's perfect for a logging device. One of their Motorola devices and the Kyocera Hydro Icon both support band locking too, which helps with hunting.

 

Getting the phone through them puts you on Sprint service. If you order just the SIM (they often have deals for $1 or $0.01 for the SIM) then you're on AT&T. AT&T's free tier maxes out at 700 MB/month

 

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

Did not know about this...  Just signed up for a $0.01 SIM card to continue testing AT&T around here (they are actively expanding in my area).  I just can't forget to switch from the free month promo to the free plan before it expires.  Thanks for sharing!

[Trip]

13 minutes ago, uecker87 said:

Did not know about this...  Just signed up for a $0.01 SIM card to continue testing AT&T around here (they are actively expanding in my area).  I just can't forget to switch from the free month promo to the free plan before it expires.  Thanks for sharing!

That SIM is how I track AT&T in my area.  It's worked great, and it's helpful to have the 200MB of data through it now and then.

- Trip

[ingenium]

That SIM is how I track AT&T in my area.  It's worked great, and it's helpful to have the 200MB of data through it now and then.

- Trip

Yup, I have one as a spare SIM in case I'm in an area without Sprint service (or stuck on 1x roaming) for an extended period of time. I also use one in my car instead of paying AT&T for service (integrated Google maps, built in hotspot, etc). I have friends maxed out, so an extra 500MB/month on it (700MB total). There's a group of us on here with FreedomPop that can help you max out your friends if you want.

It's just annoying they make you re-activate it on their website once a month if you don't have any phone calls on it. No cost at least.

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[RAvirani]

Thank you guys for your responses.

I was able to get one of my friends to lend me one of his old Androids for the day, so I'm trying to see if I can get to 2000 points in the next few hours.  I've noticed one bug though: my username appears to be null, even after logging out and logging back in as well as force quitting the app.  Is this a bug anyone else has experienced?  I would hate to get 2000 points but for them to never be uploaded to my account...

[ingenium]

Thank you guys for your responses.
I was able to get one of my friends to lend me one of his old Androids for the day, so I'm trying to see if I can get to 2000 points in the next few hours.  I've noticed one bug though: my username appears to be null, even after logging out and logging back in as well as force quitting the app.  Is this a bug anyone else has experienced?  I would hate to get 2000 points but for them to never be uploaded to my account...

I remember this happening to me before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it unfortunately... Maybe try clearing data for the app?

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[RAvirani]

4 hours ago, ingenium said:

 

 

I remember this happening to me before, but I don't remember what I did to fix it unfortunately... Maybe try clearing data for the app?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 

 

A restart of the phone fixed the problem.

I was able to get enough points to start moving towers. Robert, you may notice I’ve located all of the Verizon and T-Mobile towers along 101 on the Olympic Peninsula .

[danlodish345]

14 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

A restart of the phone fixed the problem.

I was able to get enough points to start moving towers. Robert, you may notice I’ve located all of the Verizon and T-Mobile towers along 101 on the Olympic Peninsula .

How does T-Mobile and Sprint function in the area.

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, danlodish345 said:

How does T-Mobile and Sprint function in the area.

Sprint has virtually no service on the peninsula but there may or may not be plans to change that soon...

T-Mobile has pretty great coverage on the peninsula—they cover 101 the best of all of the major providers. They are disadvantaged by the fact that their network is 5x5 L700 while Verizon’s is 10x10 L700 but their density definitely helps. Verizon beats T-Mobile hands down in Moclips, La Push and at the Olympic Corrections Center, but they’re considerably neck and neck everywhere else. 

AT&T is way behind. Most of their towers on the peninsula are not LTE-capable (HSPA/WCDMA only) and it seems that their 1900 MHz WCDMA beats out their 700 MHz LTE for range, causing swiss-cheese like coverage in their LTE areas. They definitely have a lot of catching up to do. 

[danlodish345]

I used to have T-Mobile. I don't know if I'll go back to them anytime soon. I have Boost Mobile as my prepaid Sprint provider. I have Verizon as my postpaid. And T-Mobile definitely has come a very long way I can admit that. And what app are you using again 2 map coverage because I may want to try it.

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[danlodish345]

Sprint has virtually no service on the peninsula but there may or may not be plans to change that soon...
T-Mobile has pretty great coverage on the peninsula—they cover 101 the best of all of the major providers. They are disadvantaged by the fact that their network is 5x5 L700 while Verizon’s is 10x10 L700 but their density definitely helps. Verizon beats T-Mobile hands down in Moclips, La Push and at the Olympic Corrections Center, but they’re considerably neck and neck everywhere else. 
AT&T is way behind. Most of their towers on the peninsula are not LTE-capable (HSPA/WCDMA only) and it seems that their 1900 MHz WCDMA beats out their 700 MHz LTE for range, causing swiss-cheese like coverage in their LTE areas. They definitely have a lot of catching up to do. 

T-Mobile has definitely expanded coverage and I know that they hold 600 megahertz out that way. I just wish Sprint would fix their coverage issues. They have come a long way in my town. But they still need to address a coverage issues off the main Highway. so I'm curious to see what happens. I'm going to give that application to try the one you're using.

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[Joski1624]

7 hours ago, danlodish345 said:

 And what app are you using again 2 map coverage because I may want to try it.
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It's the title of the thread ?

[S4GRU]

Just a note, when it comes to band locking on B26, a rooted N6 with NSG is the champ!  I can park on it, changing locked bands on the fly without hiccups or rebooting.  It's the premier network monitoring and mapping device. 

It's not a good everyday driver, lacking all the CA's and so forth. But it's great for monitoring new band deployment and channels.  At least until Sprint adds a new band beyond what's in the N6.  Which is not likely anytime soon.

[danlodish345]

Just a note, when it comes to band locking on B26, a rooted N6 with NSG is the champ!  I can park on it, changing locked bands on the fly without hiccups or rebooting.  It's the premier network monitoring and mapping device. 
It's not a good everyday driver, lacking all the CA's and so forth. But it's great for monitoring new band deployment and channels.  At least until Sprint adds a new band beyond what's in the N6.  Which is not likely anytime soon.

Are you talking about the Nexus 6?

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[S4GRU]

2 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

Are you talking about the Nexus 6?

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Y

[danlodish345]

Cuz I might use that for Sprint tracking over here.

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[danlodish345]

16 hours ago, RAvirani said:

Sprint has virtually no service on the peninsula but there may or may not be plans to change that soon...

T-Mobile has pretty great coverage on the peninsula—they cover 101 the best of all of the major providers. They are disadvantaged by the fact that their network is 5x5 L700 while Verizon’s is 10x10 L700 but their density definitely helps. Verizon beats T-Mobile hands down in Moclips, La Push and at the Olympic Corrections Center, but they’re considerably neck and neck everywhere else. 

AT&T is way behind. Most of their towers on the peninsula are not LTE-capable (HSPA/WCDMA only) and it seems that their 1900 MHz WCDMA beats out their 700 MHz LTE for range, causing swiss-cheese like coverage in their LTE areas. They definitely have a lot of catching up to do. 

AT&T has a lot of catching up to do in general....and they still have plenty of 3g only areas....

[RAvirani]

50 minutes ago, danlodish345 said:

AT&T has a lot of catching up to do in general....and they still have plenty of 3g only areas....

Yeah, but they usually are able to get away with that because most of their deployment is HSPA or HSPA+ which peaks at 21 or 42 mbps (depending on the configuration). That’s about the same as, if not better than, a 5x5 LTE carrier. 

[danlodish345]

AT&T has a lot of catching up to do in general....and they still have plenty of 3g only areas....

Yeah, but they usually are able to get away with that because most of their deployment is HSPA or HSPA+ which peaks at 21 or 42 mbps (depending on the configuration). That’s about the same as, if not better than, a 5x5 LTE carrier. 

Isn't the majority of their HSPA network on banned 5?

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[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, danlodish345 said:

Isn't the majority of their HSPA network on banned 5?

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Bands 5 and 2. 

[danlodish345]

Bands 5 and 2. 

AT&T over here shut down band 2 HSPA

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