S4GRU

My geography could cloud my judgment. Robert

This! If the rural coverage buildout requirement was broad enough. As in covering all markets with 50K people and all interstate highways, then, I may actually flip to being in support of a Tmo buyout. Robert

And it could not just be any member. It would have to be a very well known and trusted member. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

You probably just failed with that one word. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Please, oh please, do not call it a merger. It had better be a buyout. I don't see SoftBank working out a deal with Tmo still retaining any rights post closing. He will want ultimate and total control and will buy out that privellege. This is not about joining forces. Or I could be completely wrong. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I wish I had bought Sprint stock with the proceeds of my Clearwire stock. About double the money in six months. Not shabby. But instead, I purchased two cars with the proceeds. Had I let it roll, I could have financed the same two cars for a few months, sold the stock now. Paid off the car loans. And pocketed about $10k. Oh well. I could have also lost money too. I just don't have the stomach for investing. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Detroit would have been announced in the last round, but was held because of a whole bunch of non CSFB compliant sites. Especially in the city and inner suburbs. The outer suburbs have their CSFB complete. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

South Bay 3G deployment is straggling. But I'm told most of the sites are complete/nearing completion. Some cluster launches should not be very far off. But it could be a month still. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Exactly why my daughters will go there. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

impaired vision Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

We do require email validation of accounts. The only other thing I can think to do is have posts go into moderation queue. But that would discourage people from becoming active members and would become an even larger burden to staff than removing spam a couple times per week. Is it really so bad that once or twice per week someone sees spam, hits the report button, and then a staff member blocks them and I ban them and report to IP Board? I'd love for the spammers to go away permanently. But IP Board is really good at figuring out how to stop the new guys when I report to them. Did you know that IP Board shuts down about half of all our new accounts every day automatically because they are known spammers? Every time I report a spammer to them, they analyze the new info and come up with a way to battle them on thousands of boards in the future. We only experience the tip of the iceberg with spammers. The few that make it through. We had a really bad spam problem about two weeks ago. We were getting spammed several times per day. It took IP Board a few days to figure out how to deal with them, but then they suddenly stopped. We spent maybe an hour or two of our resources to deal with a severe spam attack over 3 days. Not a big deal. And IP Board dealt with it. I don't think it's worth giving up liberties of our new members to try to block spammers. Not at this point. Just keep reporting it. I will ban them and report to IP Board. And IP Board will figure out how to shut them down network wide. That is, until the next new way the spammers figure out how to get through. The problem is people actually buy things from spammers. Otherwise, they would not even exist. They actually work. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I was not able to fix it. I will need to use IP Board's Premium services to get them to change it. We have access to the code, but when I look at it, I get scared to touch it. It's not HTML. It's CSS, and it's like 50 files that are all stacked and embedded into each other. It is way above my skill set. This has been on my to do list for a long time. But it does not take priority over content. Also on that to do list is to move The Wall to the first tab, as it used to be in the beginning of S4GRU. Also to expand The Wall to be the first 10 articles, not the first two. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

OK, I have upgraded to the latest Tapatalk plug in. And I even update my Tapatalk app to the latest version, but I am still unable to edit from my Nexus 5. Darn. Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I am installing the new Tapatalk plugin right now. Tapatalk might not work correctly, or at all, for the next 10 minutes or so. Robert

That's a good start. To be scientific, you can add these other points: 1. Make sure they are exactly in the same position on a table. Exactly. You should try them not touched at all. And the try them held also. Just be sure to hold them exactly in the same position. 2. Verify site connected to, sector and channel. They all have to be connected to exactly the same site/sector/channel to be accurate. For instance, the Note 3 may have a better radio, but may have been connected to another sector on the same site because it had a lower Ec/Io ratio. And since the sector was pointing a different direction, the signal could have been 10dB worse. As you get closer to any of the three transition zones between sectors, the stronger radio performers have an increased chance of changing sectors and having a weaker signal. This is true of stronger radio performers and other sites. A strong radio performer is much more likely to switch to a weaker signal site that will perform better than a weak RF performing site. 3. Location matters. The final factor in RF performance testing is that it needs to be done in strong, moderate and weak signal areas to be conclusive. If you only test in strong signal areas, it's not a very good test. You will only know which device is best when the signal is good. And who cares if someone has a great signal or fantastic signal when near a site. Won't make much difference. You would think that a device that is 10dB better than the other when the signal is strong would be better in all signal conditions. But that is not always true. Most people actually just want to know which device is the best RF performer in marginal signal areas. Not in good to great signal areas. And to do weak signal area tests, you have to find a good spot near the edge of service for the provider. You can't do that in the middle of a city. I had some great areas in NM to do this. Don't see this as a correction in many sense. Just trying to help folks understand that RF performance testing is much more complex than looking at dBm on a display on several devices. And you can use this as a guide to conduct your own device RF testing. If any of you embark on such a journey, one last word of advice. Cycle and repeat. When I was doing device RF testing, I would cycle my devices being tested. I would do observations all on one device, and then the next. I would do one set of observations on a device, then another and another. And then go back to the first. I would take no less than 3 observations per test and average them. I would try to do 5. Then I would repeat them again in the future at that location, at least once. To try to rule out any network anomalies. In my testing, I had a specific location for strong, moderate and weak signal places for testing. Then I would test each device 5 times (signal, data speed and Ec/Io) both on a flat surface and held, rotating through all the devices in each location. And then I would repeat this at the same location another day and time to get a broader measurement. This is as close to scientific as we can get. You would be surprised to see how performance changes from one device to another while holding it, or in weak signal areas. It's really hard to declare any one a flat out winner based on a limited test. Some will just be better for some types of uses. One that appears to be best in a store, may be the worst when holding in your hand and at the edge of service. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Lady Godiva Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

People that are that shortsighted should go to another carrier. You sure are using a very limited scope to explain AT&T has 15Mbps WCDMA speeds. I use AT&T, so I know what to expect. Since they use single carrier HSPA+, you would only hit speeds like that if you were the only person on that site and it had mega unburdened backhaul. The fastest AT&T WCDMA I've ever encountered was 12Mbps. Heck, AT&T LTE at normal burdened sites runs around 15Mbps. So even if your whole family moved to AT&T, they are not going to see 15Mbps with AT&T WCDMA. They would likely see 2-6Mbps as normal. I even sometimes find 100kbps sites. And don't get me started how AT&T couldn't even deploy enough capacity for a busy mall in South Dakota on Christmas Eve. So what is the normal speed of the Shentel network? You show one speed test. Where was it taken? How strong was the signal? Was it in an area with good tower density? What time of day? I am not hearing consistent issues that Shentel speeds are slow. Quite the opposite. I hear that in normal and high density areas that Shentel LTE runs the same speeds or better than Verizon. I no longer have Sprint as I no longer live in a coverage area. I have both AT&T and Verizon. Let me tell you, the grass is not always greener. Not only do AT&T and VZW have some very slow places on their network (even on LTE), but they also limit how much you can use. I wouldn't advise anyone with an unlimited plan that has great coverage receiving at worst average 3Mbps to leave for AT&T or VZW tiered plans that may be faster in some places, but will still find places that run at 3Mbps. Or worse. In Shentel areas, Shentel provides the best coverage. Even better than VZW and AT&T, all things considered. They even have very dense networks in some small cities, like Harrisonburg, York, Winchester, etc. Shentel also is deploying LTE 800 right now. Which will increase capacity and speeds for those with Band 26 devices. For the long term, Shentel does not yet have a Band 41 agreement with Sprint. But they likely will. However, if someone has got to have something greater than 3Mbps (with no guarantee), then they should probably jump ship right this very second. I'm sure AT&T is ready to accept their money. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro EDIT: oh, and I also forgot to mention ping. The Shentel ping is 58ms. I bet the AT&T WCDMA ping is between 150-300ms. The Shentel LTE will feel faster than the 15Mbps WCDMA in 90% of uses. Only in large downloading type situations would the WCDMA feel faster. This is more about seeing one number is bigger than actual performance.

I just have no desire in increased specs except for battery life. We've kind of hit a wall performance wise. I mean, smartphones have better specs than most of our laptops. And my vision is not good enough to see anything finer than 1080p HD. Until someone innovates something useful, I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines waiting for the next big thing. Wouldn't likely upgrade until I break something. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Roast Beast Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

To all our S4GRU members, Merry Christmas, Happy Festivus, Happy Kwanzaa! And even if you celebrate nothing at all, I hope that you have an enjoyable season with friends and family. Blessings and good wishes to you all! Thanks to you for supporting S4GRU. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I just keep my phones off network time and let my device keep time. Because all kinds of anomalies occur, especially when roaming. And since I use my phone as an alarm clock, I can't afford for it to be off. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Sprint has publicly threatened having Shentel overbuild nTelos territory. Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Site acceptance reports from Saturday (12/21), Sunday (12/22) and Monday (12/23): Alabama - 2 updates (1 LTE) Albuquerque - 3 updates (3G) Arkansas - 1 update (LTE) Atlanta/Athens - 2 updates (1 LTE) Austin - 21 updates (2 LTE, 17 CDMA 800) Baltimore - 9 updates (7 CDMA 800) Boston - 36 updates (33 CDMA 800) Central Illinois - 5 updates (LTE) Central Jersey - 2 updates (1 LTE) Central Pennsylvania - 20 updates (3G) Charlotte - 2 updates (1 LTE) Cincinnati - 20 updates (1 LTE, 11 CDMA 800) Colorado - 39 updates (16 CDMA 800) Columbus - 3 updates (3G) Delaware - 1 update (LTE) East Kentucky - 1 update (LTE) East Michigan - 1 update (3G) GA/SC Coast - 3 updates (3G) Georgia - 2 updates (LTE) Gulf Coast - 5 updates (4 LTE) Houston - 5 updates (4 LTE) Idaho - 6 updates (LTE) Jacksonville - 3 updates (2 LTE) Kansas - 5 updates (CDMA 800) LA Metro - 8 updates (1 LTE) Las Vegas - 9 updates (6 LTE) Long Island - 2 updates (3G) Lower Central Valley - 5 updates (3G) Memphis - 2 updates (LTE) Miami/West Palm - 2 updates (1 LTE) Milwaukee - 7 updates (5 LTE, 2 CDMA 800) Minnesota - 11 updates (2 CDMA 800) Mississippi - 2 updates (1 LTE) Missouri - 4 updates (LTE) Myrtle Beach - 4 updates (1 LTE) Nashville - 6 updates (LTE) New York City - 4 updates (LTE) Norfolk - 1 update (LTE) Northern Jersey - 4 updates (3G) North LA - 4 updates (3G) Orange County - 4 updates (1 LTE) Oregon/SW Washington - 13 updates (10 CDMA 800) Orlando - 6 updates (5 LTE) Philadelphia Metro - 23 updates (1 LTE, 19 CDMA 800) Phoenix - 7 updates (3G) Pittsburgh - 15 updates (3 CDMA 800) Providence - 1 update (3G) Raleigh/Durham - 3 updates (1 LTE) Richmond - 6 updates (3G) Riverside/San Bernardino - 1 update (3G) San Antonio - 1 update (3G) San Diego - 5 updates (1 LTE, 1 new 3G site) SF Bay - 24 updates (2 LTE, 22 CDMA 800) South Carolina - 2 updates (3G) Southern Connecticut - 3 updates (3G) Southern Jersey - 1 update (3G) Southern Virginia - 5 updates (3G) South Texas - 5 updates (LTE) Southwest Florida - 5 updates (3 LTE) Tampa - 4 updates (3 LTE) The Panhandle - 5 updates (3 LTE) Tucson/Yuma - 1 update (3G) Upper Central Valley - 25 updates (3 LTE, 13 CDMA 800) Utah - 20 updates (2 LTE, 18 CDMA 800) VT/NH/ME - 2 updates (3G) Washington DC - 6 updates (CDMA 800) West Iowa/Nebraska - 1 update (1 iDEN Conversion) West Kentucky - 6 updates (4 LTE) West Michigan* - 10 updates (3G) West Texas - 1 update (3G) West Washington - 16 updates (3G) Maps are updated. There will not likely be an update tomorrow on Christmas Day. Next update will probably be on Thursday. Robert Links: Comments regarding this thread, NV Sites Complete Map

It is shown in the Sponsor section. Maps showing all Sprint sites, which ones have been upgraded with what, etc. And lots of wonderful other things shown in the Sponsor area of the site. For more info about how to become a S4GRU Sponsor, please visit this link: http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/1195-information-about-s4gru-sponsorship-levels-and-how-to-become-a-sponsor/ Robert

Thanks for the recent upgrade or two we received the in the past few days. And thanks to those of you who have given a Christmas gift to S4GRU. That's very thoughtful. We will put it to good use! Robert