WiWavelength

Cue Veruca in 3...2...1... AJ

Remapped channels are a headache for us RF guys. At the family's vacation home over the weekend, we had one inexplicably broken LNB that prevented reception of the 103° W orbital satellite, which transmits the local affiliate feeds. I had to jury rig a solution with a UHF antenna so that we could try to pick up the Chiefs-Broncos game OTA. But I had to go online to double check that the Albuquerque NBC affiliate, KOB, which has long been known for its position on low VHF channel 4, had moved to UHF with the ATSC transition. Indeed, it had moved its physical channel to UHF channel 26, remapped to virtual channel 4. And my UHF antenna solution worked. But the antenna did not pick up the local CBS affiliate, which had moved back to its high VHF channel 13 position, hence my need to confirm the NBC affiliate physical channel had gone UHF. AJ

As long as the 600 MHz auction actually occurs, UHF channel 51 probably will not be completely cleared until after the auction. That makes the timeline for its free and clear use indeterminate. AJ

Good find. Brian is an authoritative source we can trust. I certainly read his review over a year ago, but the ramifications of the iPhone CDMA1X/LTE hybrid workaround did not strike me at the time. On the Android side, we had quickly become accustomed to dual radio handsets that supported SVLTE or even SVDO, and e/CSFB seemed only a 3GPP W-CDMA concern. Now, circumstances have changed. Single radio with e/CSFB is taking over the Android side. But I am pleased my supposition that CDMA2000 variants in the iPhone 5-5S series do not use e/CSFB and instead still follow the CDMA1X slot cycle proved correct. Per Occam's razor, that was the most simple, plausible explanation, since the Sprint LTE network did not fully support e/CSFB last year when iPhone 5 was released. AJ

OC, CA? If you are that worried about transit time, maybe you mean OCD. AJ

Uh oh, you just angered the geography beast. I hope that you never take a meteorologist position in south central Washington. AJ

No one wants to pay a restocking fee. But I always like to stress that you cannot put a set price on knowledge. A $35 fee may very well be worth it. AJ

This is very true. Everyone should keep in mind that -- while we believe S4GRU to be an accomplished site -- it is not influential enough to be sampled review handsets. We have to analyze publicly released FCC docs and purchase review handsets on the open market. If we had the financial wherewithal to acquire 10 or so current handsets and test them simultaneously on active lines, we would. But that is outside the current realm of possibilities. So, take our FCC OET handset info as sources of education, not means for definitive conclusions. AJ

So, you have Crackle, but you are missing Snap and Pop? Too bad for you... AJ

To offer a "teaser," I have not viewed the HTC One max authorization documents in a few weeks, but I can say that the uplink RF did not look impressive. In particular, the band 41 TD-LTE 2600 performance appeared weak. So, take that for what you will... AJ

Well, what do you want to know about the HTC One max? We often run teaser articles now because the writing staff does not have time to do full length articles, but we want to get the scoop out there ASAP. Then, when staff does have time to follow up with full length articles, the relevant info has already been shared in The Forums. And that obviates the need for full length articles. So, barring staff being able to work at S4GRU full time, I think that we will run fewer full length articles. The upshot, though, is that you guys have learned a lot and become good at sharing the info that staff previously had to disseminate. AJ

T-Mobile and Sprint are *using* their rural spectrum per the dictates of their geographic FCC licenses. Do I need to explain this to you again for the umpteenth time? Geez, put your money where your whiny mouth is. Start your own exclusively rural wireless operator, or give it a rest... AJ

The FCC OET authorization filings sometimes do include antenna gain, but they are not required to do so. The proof is in the pudding, which comes from ERP, EIRP, or conducted power. That said, if you want the best antennas in a smartphone -- forget HTC, Samsung, and even LG. You want the *mhammett* smartphone. It may not look pretty, but it has positive antenna gain out the wazoo. In all seriousness, though, that is just the way it is. Antenna gain is diminishing with aesthetics. Airlink robustness is diminishing with data efficiency. AJ

I am doubtful that the iPhone 5 through 5S series are e/CSFB devices on VZW or Sprint because e/CSFB must be implemented at the network side. That certainly was not the case for Sprint, yet no major iPhone connectivity problems have been reported. So, I presume that the LTE iPhone models continue to flip over to CDMA1X every 5.12 seconds per the slot cycle index. AJ

AT&T and T-Mobile generally block/remove engineering screens from their handsets. Shame on them. AJ

You are a straight G? AJ

What evidence is there that the HTC One max uses anything other than the MDM9615? I have not seen any. AJ

Nope. In terms of robustness, CDMA1X > EV-DO > LTE. You should have already noticed that EV-DO drops before CDMA1X. The same holds true for LTE and EV-DO. Each generation of wireless airlink grows more efficient but also more fragile. You have been a member for quite a while. Do you read our articles posted on The Wall? I wrote this one over a year ago. It has received over 40,000 views. Plus, it is probably the most cited and copied article on LTE signal strength. I am sorry if you missed it previously. http://s4gru.com/index.php?/blog/1/entry-308-rssi-vs-rsrp-a-brief-lte-signal-strength-primer/ AJ

Yes, the article is interesting because it is slanted against Sprint. It is not objective journalism. Not to mention, it reproduces S4GRU member created content without citing the source. That last problem, at least, has been corrected in this article rife with problems. AJ

I love it when the necro post glitch rears its head. Nice quote there, Tim. AJ

Any battery life advantage basically went away with the shift away from GSM. AJ

Woo wee, does that give you a tingle? AJ

I pointed out the 1.9 GHz CPU frequency weeks ago in a comment on my article: With that clock rate, it is not going to be a Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974). And it is not going to have an MDM9625 baseband. Nothing has an MDM9625 -- it is not available as a standalone part yet. AJ

Meh. Too many people need a reminder that SMS stands for Short Message Service. Need I emphasize the short part? Stop sending split then concatenated SMS that do not always arrive in order. If you need greater than 160 characters, then split the messages yourself while you are composing them. Or find a more appropriate medium, such as e-mail. AJ

Fun times in Cleveland today. Cleveland! Cleveland! Hmm, now where have I heard that before? AJ